This year is the centenary for the start of the last, ill-fated journey of the 'Karluk'.
Captain Bob Bartlett, Peary's trusted ice-master and the man who had waved farewell to him and Henson at 88°N on their final dash to the Pole, was in 1913 hired by Vilhjalmur Stefansson to captain the former whaling ship 'Karluk' for his grand expedition to explore the uncharted waters of the Beaufort Sea.
Caught in the ice pack north of Alaska, they drifted west for months before the ship finally succumbed to the ice and sank. Trekking for 130 miles across the ice, they finally reached the desolate Wrangell Island, north of Siberia. The captain set off together with the Inuit Kataktovick to cross over to the mainland and reach civilization, leaving behind a fractious group, few of whom had polar experience, and including a two-year-old girl.
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