stefansson-wrangel-09-26-001-004

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occurred to meWhen it occurred to me to ask
Mr. Knight to write the introduction, I was just taking ship for Australia there was barely
time to write him but no time to receive his answer. I asked him
merely to let me know in Australia whether he would write an
introduction, saying I would not have wanted to review the introduction
before publication even had I been in American, but that I was
now in any case unable to do so, for the book must go to the
printer in less time than it takes to send a manuscript to
Australia and get an annotated copy back. I shall not know,
therefore, until after publication, what comment Mr. Knight may
choose to make on this book and on the condition. But I have
asked him to do what he can do so much better than I - to speak
of his knowledge of his son's relations with his [?] both
before the expedition and on it, and especially to quote what
Lorne wrote home about them from Wrangell Island.

At the close I must speak once more of my gratitude to
friends who have helped with money. I am trying to get for the
appendix of this book a full list of those who contributed to the
sending of the Donaldson to Wrangell Island in 1923 - by looking
in the appendix the reader may see if it has been possible to make
up this list. A. J. T Taylor and John Anderson of the Combustion
Engineering Corporation, Toronto, Canada, have had the thankless
task of handling nearly all the outfitting and other commerical
affairs of the Expedition. Their motives, aside from personal
friendship, have been only those of a firm belief in the wisdom
and importance of what we were trying to do; their only possible
reward the same as that of the rest of us - the consciousness of
having done their utmost for what they believed in. The Lomen
Brothers of Nome, Alaska, (especially Ralph and Carl Lomen) have
handled all our Alaskan affairs without pay - the outfitting of
the Silver Wave in 1921, the Teddy Bear in 1922, and the Donaldson
in 1923. The late Sir Edmond Walker, president of the Canadian
Bank of Commerce, who helped to finance my first expedition to the
Arctic in 1906, gave the largest Canadian contribution to the
Wrangell Island Expedition and supported us in every way. For
England the list of subscribers will (I hope) be included in the
appendix, but I must mention that the (then) First Lord of the
Admiralty, Colonal L. S. Avery, not only contributed himself but
secured for us contributions from others to the amount of 600
pounds. Several friends in the United States made me unsecured
personal loans. It was Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, whho loaned
me the money which enabled us to outfit the Teddy Bear in 1922
a week before we got the grant from the Canadian Government. As
stated elsewhere, Griffith Brewer of 33 Chancery Lane, London,
loaned me (against anticipated public subscriptions) the money
which outfitted the Donaldson in 1923, a loan which turned out
to be considerably in excess of the receipts through subscriptions,
so that we are still in his debt.

So far as loans are concerned, I have already begun to
pay off these debts and hope to manage the rest in two or three
years. For I want to be eventually the only finanacial loser. But
my gratitude will remain undiminished when the money has been repaid.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson
Sydney, Australia,
May 23, 1924.