Page:The Last Voyage of the Karluk, 1916.djvu/3

 Naval Department Honors Man Who Saved the Karluk Party.

Canadian Press.

Ottawa, June 28. The Royal Geographical Society has this year awarded the "Back grant" to Capt. R. A. Bartlett for distinguished leadership after the loss of the C.G.S. "Karluk," according to an announcement made to-day by the Naval Department. This grant was founded by the celebrated Arctic explorer, the late Admiral Sir George Back, for the reward and encouragement of scientific geographers and discoverers.

Capt. Bartlett commanded the motor schooner Karluk, on which the Stefansson expedition left Victoria in the Spring of 1913, to carry out explorations In the Beaufort Sea and the Arctic regions. The ship was caught in the ice, and during the winter of 1913-14 drifted across the Arctic Ocean and was finally crushed and sank some distance north of Herald Island. Capt. Bartlett took charge of the survivors in the ice camp and led them safely to Wrangel Island. Accompanied by one Eskimo, he then undertook the dangerous ice trip across the Straits to the Siberian mainland, and then overland to Emma Harbor, whence he took passage for Alaska to advise the Naval Department of the wreck of his ship and the plight of his companions. As a result of his courage and skill in undertaking this trip, relief parties were organized and the survivors of the "Karluk" were brought to civilization.

Capt. Bartlett is a native of Newfoundland, and has made several expeditions northward. He took part in two of Commander Peary's voyages, and in 1908-09 took a leading part in a sledge expedition toward the North Pole as this famous discoverer's right-hand man. He has been farther north than any other British subject.}}