LETTER FROM THE DOCTOR’S PARTY TO CAPTAIN BARTLETT
LETTER FROM THE DOCTOR’S PARTY TO CAPTAIN BARTLETT
LETTER FROM THE DOCTOR’S PARTY TO CAPTAIN BARTLETT
Their supplies consisted of the following: one Nome sledge, one Burberry tent, 96 pounds of Underwood pemmican, 112 pounds of Hudson’s Bay pemmican, 138 pounds of biscuit, four tins of Horlick’s malted milk, 30 pounds of sugar, four boxes of tabloid tea, 16 tins of cocoa, 52 cakes ofchocolate, six gallons of coal oil, one quart of alcohol, one Primus stove and outfit, four mugs, four spoons, one spade, one ice axe, one hatchet, one Mannlicher rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition, 20 yards of rope, one dozen candles, one package of matches, five pounds of butter, one tent floor and a tracing of Wrangell Island from the chart. These supplies were sufficient for fifty days.
The cook was up at four on the morning of the seventh and we breakfasted at half past five. At 6:15 Chafe and Williams left for the fifth camp with a sledge-load of supplies, consisting of 96 pounds of Underwood pemmican, 80 pounds of Hudson’s Bay pemmican, one case of oil, seven days’ food for themselves and their dogs and a camping outfit. At seven Mamen and the two Eskimo got away, with three sledges and seventeen dogs. Their sledges were loaded with four cases of Underwood man pemmican, three cases of dog pemmican, each case containing forty-eight pounds, three cases of oil, ten cases of biscuit and 256 pounds of Hudson’s Bay pemmican; they were to pick up supplies enough at the fourth camp to give them 1800 pounds’ weight for their three sledges. They were then to go on and look for the mate’s party and leave one sledge and the supplies as far in as they could along the trail, bringing back the other two sledges light.
Mamen could report on the condition of the trail and keep it open and at the same time carry out the essential part of my plan of getting the supplies well along towards the land in advance of the main party. If he should fail to find the mate’s party, the assumption was that they had gone on to Wrangell Island.
At 2P.M.Mamen came back to the camp; with him was Williams. When some distance along the way Mamen had dislocated his knee-cap, which had already been dislocated when he was ski-jumping in Norway. He had been going on, however, in spite of his accident, when he met Chafe and Williams returning. Williams had fallen through the young ice about four miles out and they had decided to return so that he could get his clothing dried out, when they met Mamen. The latter had told Chafe of his accident and it was decided that he and Williams should come back to camp while Chafe took over the command of Mamen’s party and went on towards the island.
I was busy about the camp when I heard them coming. I knew that something must be wrong and went out to meet them. Mamen was riding on the sledge and Williams was running to keep warm, for the temperature was about thirty-five degrees below zero and he had got pretty wet in getting out of the water. I rushed them into thebox-house where Williams had some hot tea and changed his clothes. Then I sent him, with the chief engineer, to overtake Chafe and continue on the shoreward journey.
Williamson, the second engineer, worked over Mamen’s knee, massaged it and finally got the knee-cap back into place. It was hard work because it kept slipping out of the socket and had to be bandaged with surgeon’s plaster to keep it in place. In fact it was not until the tenth that Mamen got so that he could hobble around and the dislocation was very painful.
Sunday, the eighth, I took stock of our pemmican and found that we had 4,932 pounds left in camp; we had used up and sledged along the trail some 5,000 pounds. We ate no pemmican in camp, and fed the dogs mostly on seal meat excepting when on the march. Most of the dogs were now out and we had in camp only those which were crippled or otherwise incapacitated.
Shortly after noon on the ninth Mr. Munro and Williams came in. They had been held up by open water between the second and third camps and had been unable to overtake Chafe and the Eskimo. The next day they had started on the march again, only to be held up again by open water; late in the afternoon, however, the ice had closed up so that they could go on to the fifth camp.Here they could not find a heavy enough floe to build a cache on so they had returned and put off the load at the fourth camp, which was on a large heavy floe, an ideal place for a cache.
Munro left camp again early on the morning of the eleventh, with Malloch, four dogs, seven cases of pemmican, a camping outfit and food for seven days. They were to go beyond the fifth camp and leave the pemmican at the best place they could find. The temperature was 38 degrees below zero, the weather fine and clear.
The next day, however, was dull and cloudy, with a fresh northeast wind and a falling barometer. It looked as if our fine weather would soon be over and I feared that the different parties out on the trail would be storm-bound. Towards night the wind came on strong east, and continued so through the following day; I was sorry to see this for we should be set towards the west if it continued. The next day, however, was a beautiful day; the air was clear and frosty, with little or no wind. The land was distinctly visible and I thought I could see Wrangell Island to the southwest. It was St. Valentine’s Day and Bob, the cook, sent two of the men valentines of soup advertisements.
About noon the chief engineer and Malloch came in. They were in a sorry condition. They hadspent a most uncomfortable night walking about on the ice to keep warm, for late in the afternoon while trying to make quick time they got on to some thin ice and Munro broke through. The sledge began to sink but fortunately Munro got out all right and they held the sledge up long enough to cut the pemmican away. The pemmican was, of course, all lost and their clothes and camping outfit were saturated. The stove was damaged in the accident and they had nothing to warm themselves with. We got them fixed up at once and then cleaned off the sledge and loaded it again, for Breddy and Maurer were to go to the fourth camp the next day.
It was my turn to be watchman that night and I spent a good part of the time studying the chart. From our present position Herald Island seemed to be about sixty miles away.
Breddy and Maurer left on the fifteenth with seven cases of pemmican to go over the trail to the fourth camp.
The next afternoon at four o’clock Chafe and the Eskimo came in. They were heartily welcomed. Chafe reported that he got to a point within three miles of Herald Island when he was held up by open water. In fact for two days he and his party were adrift on a small sheet of ice in a three-mile lead. They were close enough to theisland to see the land clearly and in detail but though he looked constantly with binoculars he could see no one on the island nor any tent or other indication that men were there, so he concluded that the mate and his party had carried out their orders and gone on to Wrangell Island. This seemed likely to me and I hoped that it was so. The Eskimo had improved the time in shooting and succeeded in getting four seal.
On the way back the trail was faulted in places and the party had difficulty in finding it. When about twenty miles from Herald Island on their return trip they had come upon the Mackay party, struggling towards the land. Mackay, Murray and Morris were drawing the sledge; Beuchat was a mile and a half behind, with hands and feet frozen and partly delirious from suffering. Morris had cut his left hand with a knife and blood-poisoning had already set in. Chafe’s opinion was that Beuchat would die that night. He said that Beuchat expressed his sorrow that he had left the main party. The Mackay party had taken their pemmican out of the tins before they left Shipwreck Camp and put it all in a bag; in going over some young ice their sledge had got into the water and the bag of pemmican had got wet. Altogether they were in bad shape. Chafe offered themassistance. They declined it and said they were bound for Wrangell Island. They did accept some seal meat which Chafe had. Munro and Malloch had spoken the Mackay party earlier on their march and so had Chafe himself, when he had first started out, but their condition had then been good, though they had been making slow progress, and each party had tried to persuade them to return to Shipwreck Camp.
Chafe reported that he had left all his supplies at the sixth camp, excepting just enough to take him back to Shipwreck Camp. He had lost one dog and had had to leave a broken sledge along the way.
Maurer and Breddy came in soon after Chafe arrived; they reported that they had left their load safely at the fourth camp. All hands, except the four men of the mate’s party and the four of the doctor’s, were now assembled once more at Shipwreck Camp.
It was a severe disappointment to me not to have word of the safety of the mate and his party. I had thought that they might possibly return with Chafe and be with us on our final march to the island which I was now planning to get under way at once.
We had a northeast gale on the seventeenthwhich continued for many days. On the seventeenth and eighteenth we had all hands hard at work, drying out clothing and getting sledges and equipment ready for the march. There was a pronounced drift westerly so that on the eighteenth Herald Island bore southeast by south, half south.