660 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



tion by showing my orders according to which he was senior officer 

 and according to which he was to take the Bear to the Pacific the 

 fall of 1917. 



He appears to have relied especially on the paragraph which 

 read: "It is impossible to give specific instructions to cover every 

 eventuality, so I leave it to you to do what is best in your judg- 

 ment in any event not covered by these instructions." He would 

 report to the Government that he had followed instructions in so 

 far as they were definite, and that he had been authorized by the 

 quoted paragraph to do whatever other things he had done. If 

 he could not justify the destruction of a seaworthy ship, he could 

 claim the Sachs had not been seaworthy, and then try to justify 

 her destruction. If he could secure his pay and get away he 

 might hope to lose himself so as not to be prosecuted, especially 

 in the excitement and comparative disorganization resulting from 

 the war. It is improbable that he would have succeeded in this, 

 for several of the men and especially Hadley, Storkerson and Cas- 

 tel, would have reported the facts. 



After the mast had been chopped out of the Sachs or possibly 

 before, Gonzales made an arrangement with Binder and Masik 

 that they were to be in charge of the wreck. He told them to 

 break her up as soon as possible and build a house. He gave them 

 a stock of groceries, ammunition, traps and the like, and author- 

 ized them to use these trapping foxes. This outfit would pay them 

 for remaining in charge of a small depot that was being left for 

 me, and the furs secured would be their property. This was a very 

 advantageous arrangement for men wanting to trap as these did, 

 and while they did not differ from the majority of the men in 

 thinking the destruction of the ship extraordinary and unjustified, 

 still they recognized in the event a windfall for themselves. They 

 told me, and Castel said the same later, that they felt especially 

 keenly the destruction of the vessel in view of the faithful and long- 

 continued work they had devoted to putting her in seaworthy con- 

 dition. Written statements from all of Castel's party, himself, 

 Charlie, Binder and Masik, say that they considered the ship sea- 

 worthy, that they would have been glad to sail out in her, and 

 that they told Captain Gonzales so. Some of them explained 

 further that they were anxious to wait at Kellett until the season 

 showed that my arrival that year had become improbable. 



This was the situation that met me after a walk of twenty- 

 eight hours. Truly the first and strongest feeling was wonder that 

 these picturesque doings could have happened outside the covers 



