stefansson-wrangel-09-09-010

AUGUST 21, 1922.

Dear Taylor:

As you see by the enclosed telegrams, I have authorized Crawford to send a 500-word story to the "Province" and have instructed him to send a more confidential message of about 100 words to you, covering the business part.

I think Brown should have a telegram awaiting Crawford in Nome, giving him some instructions as to how to send the message to the "Province" and what kind of message it is to be. In 1914 McConnell, of the the Karluk party, tried to send out a press despatch (according to my orders) from Nome but was unable to do so because they would not take a message unless it were prepaid or unless a newspaper wired to Nome saying that they would pay. The real reason why McConnell’s message was not transmitted was a personal one but still the refusal to transmit was based upon rules which the Nome wireless station keeps or breaks as they like. I knew the reason why the Nome station did not want to send out the McConnell message and I do not know any reason why they should similarly want to hold up Crawford’s message. Still, you had better be on the safe side.

In editing the message at Vancouver for transmission to the rest of the world, I suppose Brown will weave in a short resume of our enterprise and the public spirited motives back of it. In addition to that he can add interest to the story by having a paragraph about Joseph Bernard, the captain of the Teddy Bear. If you look in the indexes of "My Life With the Eskimo" and "The Friendly Arctic’’ you will find several references to Joseph Bernard (who must not be confused with Peter Bernard - Joe was Peter’s nephew). As I know you have both the books, I shall not repeat what the books tell.

Joseph Bernard is one of the best-known arctic navigators and the relations between us have been long and friendly. As you see from "My Life With the Eskimo," he came into Coronation Gulf in 1910, a few months behind my party,. The reason why he came was that he had heard of our going in and that gave him the idea. His ship, the same Teddy Bear which he has now and of which you will find a photograph on page 336, was the first power ship to enter Coronation Gulf from the west. The only other power ship had been Captain Amundsen’s Gjoa which came from the east in 1905. Before

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Amundsen there had been in Coronation Gulf only two ships, both of the British Navy and both about the middle of the 19th century - the Enterprise and the Investigator.

Towards the end of my 1908-12 expedition Captain Bernard gave us a good deal of assistance, especially in the year 1911 when he brought my assistant, Dr. Anderson, from Coronation Gulf to Cape Bathurst and also a large part of my ethnological collections of that expedition, which are now partly in the American Museum of Natural History of New York and part of them in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

As you see from the various references to Joseph Bernard in my two books, he has at several times since been in contact with our expeditions. It is especially interesting, therefore, that he should be the man to undertake our work for us this year.

Mr. A. J. T. Taylor, Credit Foncier Building, Vancouver, B. C.