Borden's government was hopeful that the expedition would strengthen Canada's claim to sovereignty over the Arctic islands. The Canadian government was concerned that an American-financed expedition would give the United States a legal claim to any new land discovered in the Beaufort Sea, so when the Canadian prime minister Robert Borden met Stefansson in Ottawa in February 1913 he offered to assume financial responsibility for the entire expedition.
The area known as the "High Arctic" was subject to claims of sovereignty not only from Canada, but also from Norway and the United States. For these expanded aims he needed more money, and approached the Canadian government for assistance. However, he wanted to extend his plans to include geographical exploration in the Beaufort Sea, then a blank space on the world's maps. Stefansson had returned home with plans for another expedition to continue his Arctic studies, and obtained promises of financial backing totalling US$45,000 (around US$750,000 in 2010) from the National Geographic Society (NGS) in Washington and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. His fieldwork had resulted in the first detailed information on the life and culture of the Copper Inuit, the so-called " blond Eskimos". The Canadian Arctic Expedition was the brainchild of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, a US-based, Canadian-born anthropologist of Icelandic extraction who had spent most of the years between 19 studying Inuit life in the remote Arctic Canada. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, leader of the Canadian Arctic Expedition Although Bartlett was criticised by an admiralty commission for taking Karluk into the ice, he was hailed as a hero by the public and by his former Karluk shipmates.Ĭanadian Arctic Expedition Background He escaped official censure, and was publicly honoured for his later work on the expedition despite the Canadian government's reservations about its overall management. Some of the voyage's survivors were critical of his seeming indifference to their ordeal and the loss of their comrades. Historians have divided views on Stefansson's decision to leave the ship. Before their eventual rescue in September 1914, three more of the party had died, two of illness and one in violent circumstances 14 were rescued. On Wrangel Island, the stranded party survived by hunting game, but were short of food and troubled by internal dissent. Assisted by local populations, the pair eventually reached Alaska, but sea ice conditions prevented any immediate rescue mission. Conditions were difficult and dangerous two four-man parties were lost before the island was reached.įrom the island, Bartlett and an Inuk companion, Kataktovik, set out across the frozen sea for the Siberian coast, in search of help. After the sinking, Bartlett organised a march across the ice to Wrangel Island, 80 miles (130 km) away. Stefansson reached land and then devoted himself to the expedition's scientific objectives, leaving the crew and staff on board the ship under the charge of its captain, Robert Bartlett. However, the ice carried Karluk westwards, far from the hunting party who found it impossible to return to the ship. Shortly after Karluk was trapped, Stefansson and a small party left the ship, stating that they intended to hunt for caribou. The Canadian Arctic Expedition was organised under the leadership of Canadian anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson, and had both scientific and geographic purposes. In the ensuing months, the crew and expedition staff struggled to survive, first on the ice and later on the shores of Wrangel Island. After a long drift across the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, in January 1914 the ship was crushed and sunk.
In August 1913, Karluk, a brigantine formerly used as a whaler, became trapped in the ice while sailing to a rendezvous point at Herschel Island. The last voyage of the Karluk, flagship of the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913–16, ended with the loss of the ship in the Arctic seas, and the subsequent deaths of nearly half her complement of 25.
0 kommentar(er)
