The Karluk was the flagship in an Arctic expedition initially led by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, famous for his studies of Inuit culture, who hoped to find a last unexplored continent hidden under the cap of the North Pole. The story of Karluk's voyage is similar to that of Shackleton's Endurance (see Dynamic Planet Blog, Feb. 5, 2003), but was not quite as fortunate. "We did not all come back" begins the book written by Captain Robert (Bob) Bartlett, in which he tells his story of what happend to ship and crew in 1913/14.

The expedition was poorly organized, and when the Karluk got stuck in the ice in the winter of 1913, Stefansson is believed by some to have deserted his men, claiming he would go on a hunting trip, and vanishing on a 5-year expedition of his own. After his return to Canada in 1918 he was criticized by the government and the press for abandoning the ship, but he suggested the deaths were justified in the name of science and progress. Moreover, he blamed Captain Bartlett for the disaster.

After Stefansson did not return, Captain Bartlett carried the responsibility for the lives of the 22 men, most of them scientists insufficiently accustomed with the Arctic conditions, an eskimo woman and her two children aboard the Karluk. But he was determined to save their lives after the Karluk got crushed by the ice and sank. The Captain has had polar experience: he had commanded the Roosevelt under Admiral Peary, when Peary had made his try for the North Pole.

Bartlett maneuvered his party and their supplies to Wrangle Island, 200 miles off the Siberian coast, arriving there in March 1914. Because the others were too weak, he then decided to make the further trip alone only in the company of a young unmarried Inuit, Kataktovick, and the two successfully reached Siberia. Here, they were welcomed and helped by the native Chukches, and could organize a rescue mission of the other party members.

William Laird McKinlay was one of the scientist aboard the Karluk and the last surviving member of the expedition. He published his memories in 1976, some 60 years after the voyage. Some of his unpublished writings greatly influenced Jeniffer Niven's book 'The Ice Master', which is the most recent analysis of the events in the Arctic.

Vilhjalmur Stefanson (1879-1962) wrote some 24 books and more than 400 articles about the high north and its people. He was an ambitious and successful explorer. He soon became a public figure in North America and Europe, well-known for his description of the "Copper Eskimo" (a group of Inuit with unexpectedly European features), his discovery of new lands in the Arctic, and his anthropological approach to travel and exploration. Despite all his accomplishments, Stefansson's reputation was tarnished for his role in the tragedy of the Karluk. It still remains controversial whether he had indeed intentionally abandoned his ship and crew.

Other Links:
Photos of the Karluk and Bob Bartlett
Photo: The Karluk in Ice
The Fate of Those Aboad the Karluk
Article: The Intimate Arctic: The article studies Stefanssons writings on how he dealt with his Inuit companions and his intimate relations in the Arctic.
Jeniffer Niven Website
Other Arctic Expeditions
Enchanted Learning: Explorers

Books:
1.) Jennifer Niven, The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk (2000)
Review: MostlyFiction
Review: The Frederick A. Cook Society
Review: MyShelf

2.) William Laird McKinlay, The Last Voyage of the Karluk: The Classic Memoir of an Artic Disaster (1976)

3.) Robert A. Bartlett: The Karluk's Last Voyage (1916)