CAPTAIN KLINKENBERG 49 



Charles Hanson and 01 ga. The Olga was commanded 

 by an officer whom McKenna did not trust, so he decided 

 to promote to the command Charlie Klinkenberg, a Dane 

 who had come to the country originally as a cook. 

 Before this time Klinkenberg had acquired at least two 

 kinds of reputation; one for enterprise, energy and fear- 

 lessness, and the other for a character not very different 

 from that of the buccaneers of old, or the Sea Wolf of 

 Jack London's story. 



McKenna, accordingly, did not trust Klinkenberg much 

 better than he did the deposed officer. In that connection 

 he got the bright idea of removing from the Olga all 

 provisions except food enough for about two weeks, think- 

 ing that Klinkenberg would not try to run away with 

 the ship if he had no food in it. This showed how little 

 he knew Klinkenberg. 



It was not long till a fog came, for fogs are numerous 

 in the polar ocean. The Olga had instructions to stay 

 near the Charles Hanson, but when the fog lifted she 

 was gone and was not seen thereafter up to the time, 

 more than a year later, when I arrived at Herschel Island. 

 There was a good deal of speculation among the whalers 

 as to what had happened. Some pointed out that Klin- 

 kenberg, being a better cook than he was a navigator, 

 might have gotten lost unintentionally in the fog and 

 might have wrecked his ship and drowned himself and 

 the crew. Others thought he had sailed a circle around 

 Captain McKenna, had probably reached the Pacific and 

 had sold the Olga, possibly in China or in the South Seas 

 somewhere, and disappeared with the money. Others 

 told that Klinkenberg had for years had an ambition to 

 sail farther northeast into the arctic archipelago and visit 

 some of the islands beyond the ordinary range of the 



