stefansson-wrangel-09-13-054-001

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 Craw-
ford and Party Been
Exhausted
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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 circum-
stances 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 re-
turning to civilization had there been
any chance of my securing any ad-
ditional 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 re-
turning from the island. Captain P.
J. Palsson, master of the schooner
Belinda which wintered at the Klo-
yma 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 per-
sonal 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 far-
ther 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 send-
ing 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 em-
ergency, 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 Craw-
ford 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 Wran-
gel Island, and, indeed, to send an
expedition there at all."

STAR SEPT 4th