CHAPTER II 
THE VOYAGE BEGINS 
On June 17 , cheered on our way by the good 
wishes of the people among whom we had spent a 
pleasant month, we left Esquimault for Nome. 
The trip north was a memorable one for me, for 
I had never been up the Alaskan coast before and 
enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We reached Nome 
July 7 and remained there until the thirteenth, tak¬ 
ing on supplies that had come up on the mail-boat 
Victoria from Seattle and transferring supplies 
from the Karluk to the dock for the two other ships 
of our little fleet. 
On July 13, with a farewell salute from the Bear , 
which happened to be in port at the time, we left 
Nome for Port Clarence, which we reached the 
next day. All hands immediately set to work get¬ 
ting things in readiness for our voyage into the 
Arctic Ocean. We blew down the boiler, over¬ 
hauled the engines, took on fresh water and rear¬ 
ranged our stores and equipment, so that w T e might 
know where everything was to be found. The 
weather was very variable, usually good but very 
windy at times, with occasional showers. Some of 
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