Photograph copyright, 1914, by Lomen Bros., NomeMunro Hadley Captain Keruk McKinlay Chafe WilliamsWilliamson Bartlett HelenTempleman Mugpi Kerdrillo MaurerTHEKARLUKSURVIVORS ON BOARD THEBEAR
Photograph copyright, 1914, by Lomen Bros., NomeMunro Hadley Captain Keruk McKinlay Chafe WilliamsWilliamson Bartlett HelenTempleman Mugpi Kerdrillo MaurerTHEKARLUKSURVIVORS ON BOARD THEBEAR
Photograph copyright, 1914, by Lomen Bros., Nome
Munro Hadley Captain Keruk McKinlay Chafe WilliamsWilliamson Bartlett HelenTempleman Mugpi Kerdrillo Maurer
THEKARLUKSURVIVORS ON BOARD THEBEAR
The next day we returned to Nome to get the Eskimo who belonged on King Island. They had come to Nome in their large skin-boats a month or two earlier to sell the great variety of articles that they are in the habit of carving from the tusks of the walrus; it is really remarkable what they can carve in this way: ships, cribbage-boards, houses, models of men, women and children, etc. The deck of theBearhad the appearance of the first of May—moving day. These Eskimo had come to Nome, of course, in the summer; now the season was getting late and the weather was variable, so that they did not want to take any chances. And, indeed, why should they? TheBearwas there and the wires were tapped to Washington; furthermore, Nome did not care to have a couple of hundredEskimo on its hands during the winter, so the easiest way out of the difficulty was to get theBearto take them aboard and carry them to their home at King Island, seventy miles away. When we reached there we found that the Eskimo lived in clefts in the rocky cliffs; they were cliff-dwellers. It was a dreary view that met our eyes that cold, windy September morning, but the Eskimo were delighted for to them it was home.
Leaving King Island we called at the school-master’s at St. Lawrence Island, to leave mail and provisions from Nome. The latter were badly needed, for short rations had been the order of the day for some time. Steaming around the western end of the island through a smooth sea under brilliant sunshine, we were at last definitely bound south.
With St. Matthew’s Island a-beam, the next morning, our wireless reported that all the boats from theTahomahad been picked up; we had heard the S. O. S. call from theTahomaa day or so before. As we afterward learned, theCordova, anchored in the roadstead at Nome, had picked up theTahoma’scall and had gone to her assistance. TheTahomahad struck an uncharted shoal about a hundred miles south of Agattu Island, one of the western Aleutians, and had become a total loss. The officers and crew had reached land in the ship’sboats and were picked up later by theCordovaand thePatterson.
During the twenty-ninth we were held back by a strong southeast gale, but the following day the wind moderated and on the morning of October first we tied up at the dock at Unalaska, which at the present time is the base where the revenue-cutters get their coal and other supplies. The coal comes from Australia and costs twelve or thirteen dollars a ton. The officer in charge of the station here was Captain Reynolds, who had been a lieutenant on theCorwinwhen she visited Herald Island in the eighties; he read me his diary where he told about their landing on the island and climbing to the top and said that no one could live there and that it was accessible in only one place.
TheBearhad to stay at Unalaska for several days to have her boilers overhauled. We passed the time in trout-fishing, chiefly, and also climbed Ballyhoo, a thing which every officer in the revenue-cutter service must do. There is a book placed at the summit and every one who climbs the mountain has to sign his name in the book. I went up with Lieutenants Barker and Dempwolf. Lieutenant Kendall and I had some good ptarmigan-shooting in that vicinity.
While we were here McKinlay became ill and had to go to the Jesse Lee Hospital, where he wassoon restored to health. I was glad that he was all right, for in circumstances calculated to show men in their true colors I had formed a high opinion of his efficiency and courage. One of the younger members of the expedition and a man of scholarly disposition—he had been a teacher—he showed no lack of grit in an emergency. In such careful transactions as the checking over and dividing up of supplies, I found him of great assistance. He had a good understanding of human nature—perhaps his experience as a schoolmaster had given him that—and I relied on him to preserve harmony if any question should arise among the different groups on Wrangell Island. In all difficulties he was the cool and canny Scot. Of the six scientists left on theKarlukafter the departure of Stefansson, McKinlay was the sole survivor.
About this time the Revenue-cutterManningwas sent to Scotch Cap, Unimak Island, to bring back a lighthouse-keeper who was very ill. TheManninganchored off the lighthouse and sent a boat for the keeper. There was a strong tide running but the boat reached the lighthouse safely and started back with the keeper, when it was capsized and the ship’s doctor was drowned. We all felt his loss keenly because we had got well acquainted with him while the vessels had been in port together.
At Unalaska I met Captain Miller, of thePatterson,
the Coast and Geodetic Survey boat, which had been doing a great deal of work that season off the south entrance of the Unimak Pass. He was a very clever man and as I was much interested in his work, we spent a good many hours together; not so very many months later he was to be drowned on theLusitania, in the course of the war whose first unbelievable rumblings we still scarcely heard.
On the afternoon of October 14, with the long homeward pennant flying, we cast off from the pier at Unalaska and steamed south on the last leg of the long journey we had travelled since the June day the year before when we had first left for the north. The voyage south was uneventful and on October 24, 1914, theBearlanded us once more at the navy yard at Esquimault.
The next day, under the instructions of the Canadian Government, I paid off the men; soon they had started for their homes, while I left for Ottawa to make my final report of the last voyage of theKarluk.
THE END