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THE PLANNING OF THE EXPEDITION 75

With the exception of Storkerson and myself, there
was no man living in 1921, not even Nansen, who had
traveled as many miles over moving sea ice or who had
spent as many days upon it away from a ship as had
Knight. Of the great explorers of the past, Peary was
the only one who had excelled Knight’s record. At
twenty-eight he was in age, experience, physical strength
and temperamental adaptability an ideal man for the
work he so passionately desired to continue undertake.

Frederick Maurer I saw first in 1912 when he was on
a whaling ship wintering in the Arctic north of Canada;
in 1913 he became a member of the crew of our Karluk.
He was with the ship when it sank and was one
men who spent more than six months on Wrangel Island
in 1914 after the shipwrecked party men landed there. It was
he (as we have told in a previous chapter) who raised
the flag at the time the British rights to the island were
reaffirmed on July 1, 1914. Maurer was eager to get
back to any part of the Arctic, but particularly eager
to get back to Wrangel Island, for his knowledge
of various other parts of the North led him to consider
that as one of the richest and most desirable islands.
One year older than Like Knight, he was twenty nineat the ideal age of twenty eight, and
qualified by experience, temperament and physical
strength.

Shortly before I received the telegram from Ottawa
saying that the projected expedition had been postponed
for at least a year, I had received another letter from
Knight in which he said wistfully: “I have been away
from the Arctic nearly two years now, and it has been
quite a long two years.”

In 1921 it was reported in the press that the Japanese