stefansson-wrangel-09-26-001-022

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colonization by any country that cared to go to that much trouble for the sake of
acquiring ownership.

The Russian aspect of the story of Wrangell Island has been
well summarized in an article on "Wrangel Island" published in "The Geographical
Journal" of the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain London for December, 1923.
The article is unsigned and therefore probably by the Editors of that journal.
We quote entire the portion of this paper that relates to Russia.

“There seems to be no record of any Russian ship having reached
this island until 1911. In the previous year the ice-breakers Taimuir and
Vaigach had been fitted out at Vladivostok for the hydrographic survey of the
Arctic Ocean and islands lying off the Siberian coast. No narrative of the
first years of this work is accessible, but a summary of the geographical and
hydrographical results was compiled in 1912 by Lieut. B. V. Davidov and
printed for the Russian Admiralty. This expedition must have erected the tall
beacon 35 feet high which stands north of the entrance to the lagoon in the
sand spit between Blossom Point and Cape Thomas ('Arctic Pilot,' 1920, p. 477).
In the summer of 1914 these same ice-breakers tried to reach Wrangel Island
again, to rescue the crew of the Karluk (see below), but were unable to get
within 30 miles of the island, and so far as can be ascertained, no Russians
were ever on Wrangel Island before or after the single visit of 1911.

"Nevertheless the island seems to be claimed by Russia. At the
end of 1916 we were informed by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs that
he had received from the Russian Ambassador in London an official notification
to the effect that "the territories and islands situated in the Arctic Ocean
and discovered by Captain Vilkitski in 1913-1914 have been incorporated in the
Russian Empire." Attached to Count Benckendorf's note was a memorandum giving
a summary of Vilkitski's new discoveries off Cape Chelyuskin, claiming them for
the Russian Empire; and the note continued thus:

Le Gouvernement IMPERIAL profite de cette occasion pour faire
ressortir qu'il considére aussi comme faisant partie intégrante de
l'Empire des îles Henriette, Jeannette, Bennett, Herald et Oujedinenia,
qui forment avec les îles Nouvelle Sibérie, Wrangel et autres situées
prés la cote asiatique de l'Empire, une extension vers le nord de la
plate forme continentale de la Sibérie.

Le Governement IMPERIAL n'a pas jugé nécessaire de joindre a la
présente notification les îles Novaia Zemlia, Kolgouev, Waigatch et
autres de moindres dimensions situées prés la cote européene de
l'Empire, étant donné que leur appartenance aux territories de l'Empire
se trouve depuis des siécles universellement reconnue. *
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