48 HUNTERS OF THE GREAT NORTH 



Amundsen had conceived the plan of being the first to 

 make this voyage traveling consistently in one direction. 

 He had approximately followed Franklin's route to where 

 it overlapped Collinson's, and then he had followed Col- 

 linson's route until he reached King Point, thirty-five 

 miles east of Herschel Island, the summer of 1905. Here 

 he was overtaken by the same unfavorable ice conditions 

 and early freeze-up which prevented the whaling fleet 

 from sailing out, and like them he had been imprisoned 

 for the winter. Now he had come as far as Herschel 

 Island and would already have sailed out had not the 

 spring been as unfavorable as the preceding fall. Like 

 the whalers he had been restrained by a pressure of ice 

 that hung heavy upon the west side of Herschel Island. 



Captain Amundsen invited me to be his guest aboard 

 the Gjoa. I had a delightful time learning from the Cap- 

 tain and crew, but especially from the first officer, Lieu- 

 tenant God f red Hansen, about the Eskimos of King 

 William Island and about various conditions to the east. 

 This was of great interest to me, but an event of still 

 greater interest came about through circumstances as 

 dramatic as those invented by authors who write books 

 of adventure for boys. 



One of the whaling captains was James McKenna. 

 Once upon a time he had been wealthy. Some said he 

 made his money through whaling and others that he had 

 made it selling liquor to the natives of Siberia and west- 

 ern Alaska. However that may be, he attained prosperity 

 and was said to have owned ten or fifteen ships. Perhaps 

 because the activities of the United States Revenue 

 cutters in Alaskan waters made trading in rum more 

 difficult, his fortunes had gradually dwindled until in 

 1905 he had left of his whole fleet only the schooners 



