MAKING THE KAYAK ON WRANGELL ISLAND“Hadley and Kerdrillo fashioned a rude Eskimo kayak, by making a framework of driftwood and stretching sealskins over it, and Kerdrillo made good use of this in hunting seal after the ice had broken up.”
MAKING THE KAYAK ON WRANGELL ISLAND“Hadley and Kerdrillo fashioned a rude Eskimo kayak, by making a framework of driftwood and stretching sealskins over it, and Kerdrillo made good use of this in hunting seal after the ice had broken up.”
MAKING THE KAYAK ON WRANGELL ISLAND
“Hadley and Kerdrillo fashioned a rude Eskimo kayak, by making a framework of driftwood and stretching sealskins over it, and Kerdrillo made good use of this in hunting seal after the ice had broken up.”
Both at Rodgers Harbor and at Waring Point the anxiety as to the possibility of our not having made a safe crossing to Siberia to bring help increased as the time went on. It required no undue exercise of the imagination on my part to realize the intense relief which the men felt when, on the morning of the seventh of September, the sound of a steam whistle came across the water to those in the tent at Rodgers Harbor and the party from theKing and Wingecame ashore. This party included Mr. Swenson and members of his own force, together with Eskimo walrus hunters, whom he hadtaken aboard at East Cape and who had brought the rescue party ashore in their oomiak, and Burt McConnell, who had come up on theKing and Wingefrom Nome. Reunited with these other members of the original ship’s company, McConnell was now able to tell them of his trip ashore with Stefansson in the previous September and briefly how Kataktovick and I had fared in making our trip to Siberia.
The rescuers helped the rescued to gather together the few possessions of value or interest at the camp and then, leaving a notice for any other ship that might come to see about the men, all hands were soon on board theKing and Winge, enjoying the luxury of a bath, clean clothes and an ample breakfast. The tent was left standing as it was, but the British flag that had flown so long at half-mast was taken with the rescued men.
With the Rodgers Harbor party safe aboard, theKing and Wingesteamed to Waring Point. On account of the ice they were unable to get nearer than two miles from shore. Swenson and his party, again accompanied by McConnell, went towards the shore over the ice; Kerdrillo came out to meet them. Escorted by him they covered the rest of the distance to the shore, several of the others rushing out over the ice to meet them. It was found that if it had not been for the snow-stormwhich was already growing severe the whole party would have migrated that very day to a point on the north side of the island where, if they had to stay through another winter, as seemed not unlikely, they would have a fresh supply of drift-wood to draw on. Their camp at Waring Point was in bad shape. Their tents were wearing out, their food supply was scanty and they had only forty rounds of ammunition left with which to provide themselves with food during the coming winter. To save their cartridges they had lived as far as possible on birds’ eggs, fish which they caught through the ice and gulls which they obtained by angling for them on the cliffs with hook and line, a form of bird-hunting without a shot-gun. The rescue, both here and at Rodgers Harbor, was effected just in time.
Leaving a message for whatever ship might follow them here, the Waring Point party joined their companions from Rodgers Harbor on theKing and Wingeand the rescue was complete. The little Eskimo girl brought on board the black cat which had already had so many vicissitudes that it was a wonder that it had any of its nine lives still left to draw on. Here, as at Rodgers Harbor, the tents were left standing. The party brought with them the three surviving dogs,—all that were left out of the twenty that were still living whenwe had started for Siberia—and three puppies.
TheKing and Wingesteamed towards Herald Island, as I have previously said, but though she kept alongshore for miles she was prevented by the ice-floes from getting very near and finally, to make sure not to be frozen in for the winter, Mr. Swenson decided to set his course for Nome. The weary and anxiousKarluksurvivors enjoyed the food that was hospitably placed before them and the opportunity to bathe and put on clean clothes. The beards that adorned their faces came off and it was a greatly transformed company that I observed from the deck of theBearthe next afternoon.
We reached Nome on theBear, September 13. Our arrival aroused great excitement, even though shipwrecked mariners from the Arctic are not altogether a novelty in Nome. The rescue was more than ordinarily a matter of local interest and pride because of the number of men and ships concerned in it that were well known all through that part of Alaska.
The hospitality of the Alaskan is unstinted, as I had already had occasion to find out, but it seemed to me best to keep the men on board theBearfor a day or two, for in their reduced state they would be more than usually susceptible to contagious diseases. It would be the irony of fate for them to survive six months of semi-starvation and thenfall victim to some ailment of the civilization to which they had so longed to return. To walk in shoes again, too, after so many months of wearing skin-boots, would be painful for a while. After a few days however, they had improved so much that I let them go ashore; they realized the necessity of being careful and had no trouble. Kerdrillo and his family, too, went ashore at Nome, to start on their way home to the North.
It was marvellous how quickly the men picked up in health and strength. On account of frost-bite Chafe and Williams were under the doctor’s care, though they were otherwise in good shape. The sickest man was Templeman; he could not have survived many days longer. Munro, McKinlay and Hadley, who was in his fifty-eighth year, were all in good condition and would probably have lived through another winter.
We were in Nome until the nineteenth; on that day we headed for the south, our first stop St. Michael’s. It seemed advisable to keep the men on theBear, instead of transferring them to any other vessel; there were no mail-boats leaving for the “outside,” and the men were warm and comfortable and well cared for. While on our way to St. Michael’s we heard by wireless of the stranding of theCorwinoff Cape Douglas; she was on her way from Wrangell Island to Nome, having heard byher wireless that the men had been safely taken off. About eight o’clock in the morning we came within sight of her. On account of the broken bottom we could not get nearer than a half mile from her, so a boat was lowered and the third lieutenant went on board. TheBearlent some of her crew to help lighten theCorwin; then we went on to the reindeer settlement at Port Clarence for water. Late in the afternoon on the twenty-third we reached theCorwinagain and our men were returned to us; she was floated a short time later.