APPENDIX 741 



working the coast both to the west (from Cape Parry) and to the east 

 (into Coronation Gulf), as well as its nearness to Victoria Island (about 

 35 miles north across the strait). It was about as far east as driftwood 

 could be found in reasonable amounts for fuel. 



After discharging the cargoes of the Alaska and Star, and replac- 

 ing a broken propeller on the Alaska, I finally started west with the 

 Alaska again on September 6, with the intention of getting some drift- 

 wood timber from farther west, as well as some more coal from our 

 cache at Baillie Island. The members of the scientific staff, with Chip- 

 man in charge, were left at Bernard Harbor, to put up winter quar- 

 ters, with some Eskimo assistants. Captain D. Sweeney, Mr. D. W. 

 Blue, engineer; Mr. A. Castel, J. Sullivan, cook; Mike, the Eskimo 

 assistant engineer, and Ikey Bolt, a Point Hope Eskimo sailor, went 

 west with me on the Alaska. Finding weather conditions very favor- 

 able at Baillie Island, and no ice reported to the westward, it seemed 

 well to go on to Herschel Island, to bring on additional coal and oil, 

 and additional supplies which had been expected to arrive from the 

 westward during the summer. The Alaska reached Herschel Island 

 again September 11. The Ruby which was expected with supplies from 

 the west, had not arrived, and after loading on the Alaska some stores 

 from our reserve stock at Herschel Island, we started east again on 

 the morning of September 13. 



The Alaska got back to Baillie Island on the night of September 15, 

 in the midst of a northwest gale, with frequent snow-squalls, and spray 

 freezing on the decks and rigging. The storm kept rising for the next 

 two days, the worst storm of the season, and did not abate until noon 

 of September 19. There was a very high storm tide, rising about 4 or 

 5 feet at Baillie Island, the waters of Liverpool Bay seeming to have 

 been piled up by the northwest gale and forced out between the Baillie 

 Islands and the mainland. 



Quantities of large ice had come in from the northwest during 

 the big storm, but we tried to go out on the morning of September 20. 

 In trying to turn around in our narrow anchorage, the bow of the 

 Alaska ran slightly in the mud. We tried to kedge her off, but with 

 the falling of the westerly wind, the storm tide fell rapidly,* and we 

 were soon settled hard aground. The whole cargo had to be discharged 

 and the schooner finally floated free again on the evening of September 

 24. As the nights were getting very dark at this season of the year 

 with the moon gone, and considerable heavy ice was coming in from 

 the northward, with young ice forming thick and slushy at times, it 

 was a precarious matter to sail at night with a small vessel. In the 

 summer time, with daylight all night, a vessel can tie up to the ice, 

 but it is a different matter in the autumn when the ice is moving in 

 the dark. It seemed doubtful that we could get east of Cape Parry, 



* Cf. the grounding under similar conditions of the Polar Bear in 1917, 

 ante p. 672. [Notes by V. Stefansson.] 



