APPENDIX 729 



Nome was not changed until we struck ice so densely packed that the 

 little schooner was forced to twist and turn, back up and go ahead, 

 and even clamber up on a floe, like a polar bear struggling out of the 

 water, and break it down with her sheer weight. Only by trying all 

 the ice-breaking tactics known to the veteran Captain Jochimsen was 

 the King and Winge able to proceed. 



"The ice at this time was moving under the influence of a south- 

 west wind, which made the situation rather dangerous, as we were 

 in the center of the field, but by keeping the engines going every hour 

 of the twenty-four, the staunch little schooner was forced through the 

 eighty-mile field of ice and the island reached on the morning of Sep- 

 tember 7th. It was quite a feather in Olaf Swenson's cap, yet he gave 

 most of the credit to Captain Jochimsen and the chief engineer. We had 

 passed pressure ridges almost as high as the masts of the schooner; we 

 had bumped and crashed and ground our way through densely packed 

 fields, and now we could see the sandy beach of Rodgers Harbor, where 

 Captain Bartlett had told us the survivors were to be found. 



"As we came nearer, only one small tent, a flagpole and a cross were 

 to be seen ; there were no sleds or dogs. When no one appeared in 

 response to repeated blasts of the whistle, we began to fear that the 

 whole party had perished. Then one man emerged from the tent, 

 brushing his hands across his eyes as if he could not believe his senses. 

 Then he seemed to realize that here were real men in a real ship, 

 and that his six-months' nightmare was over. Without even so much 

 as waving his hand in welcome, he returned to the tent, brought out a 

 British flag and raised it to half-mast. He was then joined by two 

 others, neither of whom seemed to be half as excited as we were. 



"A few of us, headed by Swenson, now went ashore in the umiak, 

 where we learned that these unkempt and emaciated individuals were 

 Munro, who had been left in charge by Captain Bartlett, Templeman 

 and Maurer. Their shaggy, matted hair streamed down over their eyes 

 in wild disorder; their grimy faces were streaked and furrowed with 

 lines and wrinkles. Munro, it seemed, had lost at least thirty pounds 

 in weight; their clothes, in which they had lived and slept for seven 

 months or more, were begrimed and tattered. Their sunken eyes and 

 emaciated cheeks told of suffering and want. I must add that, although 

 I had known all of them well on the Karluk before we set out on the 

 hunting trip, I was unable to recognize any one of the three. 



"Malloch and Mamen, they told us, had died during the spring of ne- 

 phritis. They pointed to the two graves and the cross. Nine other 

 members of the expedition, they said, were to be found forty miles 

 to the northeast, at Cape Waring. Of the entire ship's company of 

 twenty-five, then. Captain Bartlett and Kataktovik had reached shore; 

 Breddy, a sailor had died of a gunshot wound; Malloch and Mamen 

 had died of nephritis; and Anderson, Barker, Beuchat, Brady, Murray, 

 Mackay, Morris and King had become lost from the main party, never 

 to be heard of again. 



