WAITING 
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coming up from San Francisco, was about due in 
Nome, to bring the mail and take up her regular 
summer work, the first ship from the “outside” to 
reach Nome that year. On account of the ice 
around Nome and the delay of the mail-boat 
Victoria from Seattle, which ordinarily would have 
brought the mail from Nome to St. Michael’s, the 
Bear came in to St. Michael’s and landed the mail 
there. I went on board and Captain Cochran and 
his officers talked over the plight of the men on 
Wrangell Island with me and expressed a desire 
to go to the island and rescue the men. At this 
time they had not received instructions from Wash¬ 
ington regarding the trip, but not long afterwards, 
while they were on their way over to the Siberian 
coast, their orders came by wireless to go to the 
island and to take me with them. It was while the 
Bear was at St. Michael’s that I first made the 
acquaintance of Lord William Percy, the son of 
the Duke of Northumberland. He was making a 
summer cruise in the Bear to study the ducks of 
Alaskan waters. He was a master of his subject. 
My first meeting with him was down in the ’tween- 
decks of the Bear s in a corner among boxes and 
barrels, surrounded by various kinds of knives, 
scissors and the other gear necessary to mount birds. 
He gave me welcome messages from friends of 
mine whom he had met in Boston and New York. 
