stefansson-wrangel-09-15-059-002

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I concluded it would be impossible to go any farther. I had a
hard time to turn back there. I was sqeezed into the ice very tight
off Cape Wankarem and it took us three days to draw the boat back. We
came as far back as Koliutchin Island, which is a pretty high island.
We went up to the top of it and on a clear day could see ice everywhere
solid to the north and northwest. But to the east it showed a little
open water. So then I went back and followed the coast back as far as
Cape Serge, where it looked to me from the top of the island as if there
were open water. I entered that lead of open water and started out for
two days. In those two days we made around 55 miles, north-northwest
off Cape Serge. There we came out into fairly open water where we had
no more difficulty. It was foggy and we ran about ten miles into an
open water or iceberg area where we didn’t have to buck ice. After
making about ten miles we ran into the heavy northern pack, a different
ice altogether.

All the ice we had gone through and all the ice we had seen before
this time was shore ice. When we came here it was the heavy, old arctic
ice, solid. We laid outside of it for two days. The next day it cleared
off so we could see everywhere in every direction and there was no sign
of open water, not even a mirage of water - nothing but that solid,
heavy floe ice. That was around the 12th or 14th of September.

Long before this time everybody in the party that was going to
stay there, became quite anxious to turn back. I was not afraid of
getting caught as long as I didn’t enter the heavy floe. As long as I
stayed in the inside ice we would be carried south into the open water.
When everybody was quite satisfied that the attempt was good and
strong, I turned back, but I had a lot of trouble getting out. As soon
as I turned back the wind shifted to the northeast and packed the ice.

When I got turned back from Wankarem it would have been all right
to go with dogs and sleds to Wrangel. (I do not agree - would have been
very dangerous and unlikely to succeed. V.S.) But where I turned back from
the pack it would at that time of year have been a pretty risky proposition,
because it was a little too early to be on the ocean ice. Still, as
far as we could see that ice would have been safe to travel on but it
would have been very slow travel, full of water and very rough. But
from Wankarem it would have been easy travelling along the coast with
dog sleds even at that time of year. At Cape North, which is only
110 miles from Wrangel, it would be safe to take a chance in early
November. Use as footnote. (I agree with this. Bernard probably did not mean to be misspoke himself
quoted as he is in the first sentence of this paragraph. which seems to mean its opposite of this sentence. V.S.) The ice
is pretty still there with no large openings. There should be no
difficulty going with a sled from Cape North.

It took us about eight days to get to East Cape from where we
turned back from the heavy ice pack. The boat only made about a mile
and a half an hour with its power and I worked it hard because I wanted
to get out quick. I could have laid there and drifted out in about a
fortnight, but I pushed out. Lots of times I could see no water at all
but the ice was not heavy, small pieces, perhaps half an acre in size.
You could come against them and force them apart. Apart from binding
the propellers, we didn't suffer any damage, though we chafed the
sheathing a little.

We got back to Nome about the 15th of September. The Teddy Bear
is now at Nome.