stefansson-wrangel-09-16-008-003

I am sure that if they were living

All four of the Wrangel party were together off and
on for several weeks on the Pacific coast before sailing
and discussed
/every aspect of the case that has since been discussed by
anybody. That this was so is well known to the parents of
Lorne Knight, Mr. and Mrs. J. I. Knight of McMinnville, Oregon
for all four the boys visited at their home; less directly, it is also
known to the family of Fred Maurer, the head of which is his
brother John Maurer of New Philadelphia , Ohio.

It was also an error, in the reported Parliamentar
discussion, to say I had "blamed” the Government for the late-
ness of the sailing of the Teddy Bear in 1922. This impres-
sion seems to have arisen from a defense I made of Captain
Joseph Bernard, when he was accused of not having tried his
best to reach Wrangel in 1923. I said, in that connection,
that Bernard had sailed at the earliest date after money be-
came available, tha and that during the remaineder of the sum-
mer he had, in my opinion, tried faithfully to reach the is-
land and had taken every reasonable risk towares that end.
This belief rested on my general opinion of Bernard that he
was an honest man and competent navigator.

We now know pretty clearly, from the diary of
Lorne Knight, that Captain Bernard could not reach Wrangel
Island the season 1922.