OFF FOR WRANGELL ISLAND 
309 
away from the island, towards the Siberian shore. 
At 4.12 a. m. on the morning of the twenty-seventh, 
Captain Cochran decided to go back to Nome for a 
new supply of coal. My feelings at this moment can 
be easily imagined. The days that followed were 
days to try a man’s soul. In fact, until the final 
rescue of the men, I spent such a wretched time as 
I had never had in my life. 
We did not return directly to Nome but called 
at Cape Serdze to make an attempt to find out 
about a missing boat owned by Dr. Hoar, which 
had broken away from Point Hope the previous 
fall. Mr. Wall was away. I went ashore with 
Lieutenant Dempwolf and tried to find out whether 
the Russian ships had been to Wrangell Island. 
I learned from Corrigan that a Russian ship had 
passed west but that he had not seen her coming 
back; it turned out that she had gone up to Koliu- 
chin with coal and was not one of the ice-breakers. 
I gave Corrigan some pipes and tobacco. 
From Cape Serdze we went on to East Cape 
and I went ashore here to see if I could learn 
anything about the Russian ice-breakers at Mr. 
Caraieff’s. Mr. Carpendale told me that the report 
was that the Vaigatch had been within ten miles of 
Wrangell Island on August 4, when she got a wire¬ 
less message with news of the war and was ordered 
