THE VOYAGE BEGINS 
11 
the scientific staff went ashore and cut grass for use 
in our boots later on; when a man is wearing the 
deerskin boots so essential in Arctic work, it is 
necessary for him to line the bottom with dry grass 
to act as a cushion for his feet as he walks over the 
rough sea ice and also to absorb the perspiration, 
for otherwise his feet would be in constant danger 
of freezing. 
By July 27 we were at last ready to start. Some 
further repairs were still to be made on the Alaska 
so she remained behind but at three o’clock in the 
morning we weighed anchor and, accompanied by 
the Mary Sachs, proceeded to sea. Besides the 
officers and crew we had on board the Karluk , Stef- 
ansson and his secretary, Burt McConnell, with 
Murray, Mamen, Malloch, Jenness, Beuchat, Mc- 
Kinlay and Dr. Mackay. We had also a white 
dog-driver who left us at Point Barrow. 
As we were steaming along in the forenoon, 
about a mile and a half offshore, abreast of Tin 
City, I saw a rowboat coming towards us, making 
signals to attract our attention. We altered our 
course to meet her and when she came alongside 
we found that she had brought us a message for 
Stefansson, which had been telephoned from Teller 
to Tin City. It proved to be from an aviator 
named Fowler who was then at Teller with his 
aeroplane; he asked permission to bring his ma- 
