stefansson-wrangel-09-13-054

SHATTERS FAINT HOPE OF FINDING MEN STILL ALIVE ---------- Harold Noice Thinks Search for the Explorers’ Bodies Would Be Futile ---------- AND EXPLAINS WHY ---------- Says Every Effort to Find Crawford and Party Been Exhausted ----------

BY HAROLD NOICE, COMMA[NDER][...] THE WRANGEL ISLAND R[ELIEF][...] EXPEDITION

Akutan, Alaska, Sept. 8.—[...]

[...] [now] [...] would W[...] sake of the many mourning frien[ds][...] And relatives of the boys, to hold ou[t][...] some ray of hope, nevertheless after having considered the matter from every possible angle and taken into account all the unfortunate circumstances attending their departure from Wrangel, I am compelled to the inevitable conclusion that there is no hope, and that any attempt to search for their bodies in the shifting masses of the Arctic ice packs could be but abortive. As for their having reached the coast of Siberia I can only say that I would not now be returning to civilization had there been any chance of my securing any additional information there.

The entire northeast of Siberia is inhabited by Russians and Chuchries who have since 1921 known that the party was on Wrangel and who have been on the watch for anyone returning from the island. Captain P. J. Palsson, master of the schooner Belinda which wintered at the Kloyma river in 1921, and about one hundred and twenty miles west of Cape North in 1922, and who in May 1923, four months after the boys l[eft][...] Wrangel, traveled in company [...] Castell, a former member of [...] Canadian Arctic expedition and personal friend of Knight, he traveled with sled and dogs all along the north Siberian Coast down to East Cape without seeing any trace of the boys.

Gave up Attempt

Captain Palsson, who is now a passenger aboard the Victoria, says that he and Castell had intended making a trip to Wrangel with sleds in May, 1923, but because of open water off shore they had given up the attempt and had continued their journey along the coast expecting to find that someone had already arrived in Siberia from Wrangel farther on. As they traveled they kept a sharp lookout for any small tracks leading from the ice, and whenever they met people, usually once a day, they made inquiries for the missing.

Lastly, in July, 1923, Silver Wave and Blue Sea, two trading vessels which wintered fifty-eight miles west of North Cape, returned one after the other to East Cape without any news, although they, too, made enquiries at all the stations on the way. I have requested the United States [coast][...] guard Bear, now on her way [to][...] berie, to make additional inquiries as well as the H. B. Company’s steamer Baychimo. As to the utility of sending a searching party to Siberia I do not think that anything could be gained by it, otherwise I would have gone myself. ------------------------

“Stef[ansson][...] [...]ame for no[t] leaving them supplies for a longer period. They should have had enough with them to last for three years at least, to allow for any emergency, such as any of the supplies being lost. Stefansson got them up there and it was his duty to get them back. I do not think the do- minion government was responsible or should have sent an expedition, for they had nothing to do with the party going.”

He added: “There is another thing that should be considered, too, when a youth like that was sent to spend a year or two of loneliness [i]n the north. That is that a boy like Crawford would have to spend a year or year of two with three men whom he did not know. It is a very hard thing to live for a great period with the same man or for a youth of his inexperience to go to such a lonely place. There are many cases o[f][...] lighthouse keepers going insane fro[m] loneliness, even though old men [...] picked as a rule. In Alaska, too, [...] great many of the murders were a[...] a result of oone man getting on a[...] other man’s nerves after spending[...] long period alone together.

“Altogether I think it was mo[st][...] unwise to send an inexperience[...] youth like Allan Crawford to Wrangel Island, and, indeed, to send an expedition there at all."

STAR SEPT 4th