APPENDIX 727 



for in the uncertainties of the ice even the weak may have the luck 

 to succeed where the strong fail. McConnell now went to Mr. Swenson, 

 the owner of the Seattle walrus and trading schooner, King and Winge, 

 and asked him to attempt the rescue. Swenson generously consented 

 at once and the three ships were soon under way, bound for Wrangel 

 Island. 



With good luck and the skillful management of Captain Jochimsen, 

 the King and Winge won the race although Lindeberg's Corwin came 

 in the next day. We will let McConnell tell the story of the voyage 

 to the rescue: 



"My first intimation of the Karluk's fate came at Point Barrow. 

 After I had participated in the preliminary stages of the journey over 

 the ice, Stefansson placed mo in charge of the North Star camp at 

 Clarence Bay, with instructions to turn over to Wilkins the ship and 

 all the equipment, which he would take to Banks Island. Late in the 

 summer I started 'outside' with a definite plan to rescue the Karluh 

 survivors, wherever they might be, by airplane. 



"Fortunately the Bear, with Captain Bartlett as a passenger, ar- 

 rived at Point Barrow just about the time we arrived from Clarence 

 Bay, and it was then for the first time that I learned that the Karluh 

 had been crushed in the ice and that at least eight members of the 

 party were missing. The Bear was then on her way to Wrangel Island, 

 after having made one attempt at rescue, but it seemed to me that the 

 chances of rescue would be twice as great if another should approach the 

 island from an opposite direction. If the wind kept the ice fields tight 

 against the island on one side, I reasoned, the opposite side should be 

 comparatively clear of ice. Hastening down to Nome while the Bear 

 was en route to the is'cind I suggested by cable to the Canadian Gov- 

 ernment that it charter another ship to proceed independently of the 

 Bear and approach Wrangel Island from a different angle. Whether 

 the war preve'^ted the Government from giving due consideration to 

 this proposal or whether it felt that, having entrusted the rescue work 

 to Captain Bartlett and the Bear, it could not entertain this proposal, 

 I do not know. At any rate, my suggestion was turned down. 



"It was now late in August. The Karluh had been frozen in two 

 weeks earlier the year before, so it was evident that no time was to 

 be lost if the survivors were to be rescued. To add further to our 

 uneasiness at Nome, the Bear now returned from her second attempt 

 at rescue, and reported that she had been blocked by ice twenty miles 

 from the island. Without sleds, dogs, or umiaks she had been helpless. 



"It now became apparent that the Karluh suiwivors were in a pre- 

 carious situation. Equipped with an umiak, it would have been a com- 

 paratively simple matter for them to have landed on the Siberian 

 mainland, but this essential piece of Arctic equipment had not been 

 saved from the wreck. The freeze-up was likely to come at any 



