Chapter summaries and commentaries

This chapter, for the most part, relates the adventures and disaster of the Karluk, the ship which was chosen in 1913 by the Canadian Government to make the greatest scientific expedition to the Arctic. Since a study of Robert Bartlett's character is so fundamental in the development of the book, this chapter tends to provide Mr. Horwood with a springboard for the events which later follow. After establishing Bartlett as a man of uncommon courage, determination, and leadership, among other things, the author, after a very short second chapter, begins with Bartlett's childhood, and from there attempts to follow a chronological development of events covering Bartlett's life until his death in 1946 at the age of seventy

Although Bartlett wasn't initially in command of the Karluk -that position was reserved for one Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the organizer of the expedition, who wanted to explore rather than do scientific work - Bartlett was fated to assume command. This occurred when Stefansson and a small hunting party decided to go ashore on September 19, 1914, and became separated from the ship when the ice parted. The Karluk had been frozen in ice for some time, and had begun to run into trouble on August 1 at Alaska's northern tip. Bartlett was left in charge of twenty-five people, most of them totally inexperienced, and a doomed ship.

Up to this point in the narrative, Horwood has demonstrated already much evidence of tremendous research. We read of exact numbers of people, their names, place names, and a wealth of other meticulous detail. Such precision, of course, continues throughout the book

Bartlett reveals his great leadership ability when he begins to organize things for what appears to be an inevitable disaster, The author does an excellent job of describing the setting up of igloo camps, and assembling all valuables, etc. on the ice-floes next to the Karluk. Bartlett even organizes means of entertainment; in fact they even spend Christmas there - and longer.

The fatal day for the ship came on January 10 when the crushing ice proved too much for the craft. As she sank, the captain stayed on board playing records - the last one being Chopin's Funeral March before he abandoned ship and listened to the sound until the waves smothered the music. Bartlett was an unusual individual, to say the least.

Meanwhile, the survivors on Wrangel Island continue to have their problems. For instance, the author relates a specific incident involving one Ernest Chafe who became separated from two companions in a blizzard, and his phenomenal trip to the safety of the island. All three survived. Horwood uses much description in this incident, even to the gory detail of performing operations on frozen limbs with pocketknives and amputations with hacksaw blades. The author never lets us forget the suffering of these people, and their unreal endurance.

Chapter 2

Here Horwood takes the last incident of Chapter one and elaborates on it in order to reveal an important trait in Bartlett's character. This short chapter gives a rather detailed account of the tragic deaths of the four men who perished carrying out Bartlett's orders which he denied. Bartlett's explanation contradicts that of Chafe, an admirer of Bartlett, who wrote of the event years after it had happened. However, Bartlett wouldn't admit having any share in the blame.

Chapter 3

The author takes us to Bartlett's place of birth, Brigus, Newfoundland, and presents a quaint description of houses, lanes, fences, etc., plus references to fishing vessels. Horwood puts Brigus into brief historical perspective and its successes in the fishing industry, as well as the personal successes of the Bartlett family. Horwood entertains the reader here by relating some anecdotes of Robert Bartlett's childhood. We learn that much he learned as a child became very significant to him later in the Arctic, for example, patching a leaky kettle, and the game of "copying", or jumping from one ice pan to another in Brigus harbour.

This chapter begins with a look at the teenage life of Bob Bartlett, his lack of interest in school, after attending Methodist College in St. John's, and his fanatical interest in seal hunting. He made his first sealing voyage at the age of sixteen. here the author briefs the reader on the dangers of the seal hunt and gives us a detailed description of killing, skinning, loading the pelts, and other tasks and skills associated with the hunt.

We are told that Bob Bartlett later finished his year of education in St. John's and at age seventeen he joined one of his father's fishing crews for a short run on the Labrador coast. Later he signed on for a foreign voyage to Brazil, his first step in becoming an officer and later a master mariner. Horwood then continues to recount Bartlett's experiences in Brazil and his promotion from ordinary seaman to able seaman.

Later in the chapter the author gives us a vivid description of one of many hair-raising adventures that Bartlett encountered. But the "Bartlett luck" always remained, as Horwood points out many times through out the book. This dangerous incident occurred while sailing north and Bartlett and his crew ran into a winter storm causing the ship to be driven ashore and destroyed west of Cape Race. No lives were lost, and all the crew returned by coastal steamer to Placenta and from there by train to Brigus. Horwood continues to reveal Bartlett's unusual physical endurance by relating an episode involving his swimming in the icy water in his pursuit of seals while at the front the following spring.

The next important event in Bartlett's life was when he became skipper of the family's schooner, the Osprey. This happened that following summer. Bartlett was a mere 18 years old. He continued sealing every spring but still went on, trading ships to foreign countries. He became a licensed captain at the age of 22.

Chapter 5

Horwood now shifts his emphasis to that of Robert Peary, whose fanatical ambition was to reach the North Pole before the end of the nineteenth century, with Bartlett as a guide. This chapter vividly and accurately describes Peary's plans for his expedition and makes abundant references to place names. In a very condensed style, the author covers a four-year period from July 3, 1898 when the voyage was begun, to 1902 when Peary, crippled by frost and thoroughly defeated, returned home, but having made plans with Bartlett to try again in the future.

Even though Bartlett is not a dominating figure in this chapter, we can still follow the influence that he always seems to have over others, as his character continues to develop.

CHAPTER 6

Here Horwood tells of another of Bartlett's polar expeditions with Peary in 1905, on board the Roosevelt. This is one of Horwood's best chapters in his book which reveals Captain Bartlett as a romantic. Like the knights of old, he was a man who loved adventure and who proved that he was able to meet any emergency. The chapter itself gives a compact but detailed account of an attempt by Perry, with Bartlett in command, to reach the North Pole which ended in failure. The author does an excellent job at outlining the steps taken and giving abundant geographical place names. He presents a pattern for the journey which is relatively easy to follow.

It appears most important that Horwood concentrates on the difficulties of the trip through the Arctic ice, the problems caused by unfavourable weather, the many mishaps experienced by the Roosevelt from start to finish, and the heroic bravery and determination of Captain Bartlett, who always seemed to have uncanny good luck in the middle of misfortune and often imminent disaster. Note the words towards the end of the chapter: "He had to attempt the impossible". Bartlett had performed the phenomenal feat of getting a seriously crippled ship from the Arctic to New York - a ninety-nine day voyage, and a total "nightmare voyage of six months duration."

This chapter tends to be more personal and impressionistic than the others in the book, especially through it's revelation of many heroic qualities in Captain Bartlett, told within eleven pages. A statement of theme for the chapter might be given as "triumph in the face of adversity".

Although this chapter begins with another episode involving a mishap experienced by Bartlett on board the Leopard, the emphasis abruptly shifts to the organization of yet another Polar expedition by Peary. This time Horwood does not take the reader through the details of the voyage as before, but very skillfully compresses the event in a few lines. two lines after leaving Sydney, Nova Scotia, "the ships next rendezvoused at Etah".

The author next briefly tells of the transfer of stores by sledge, and then departs from the normal routine to comment on the Arctic nights and the durability of Peary's Inuit-made komatiks. We learn also that Bartlett's job was to "break the trail and gauge the distance for the main party". Some detail is also given in relation to staying on course, the use of instruments, and the necessary use of the sun for bearing and direction .

The chapter ends with no really supporting evidence that Peary actually reached the North Pole, having released Bartlett from his duties in order to take another companion on the "final leg of the journey". This brought bitter disappointment to Bartlett.

CHAPTER 8

Horwood concentrates on the conflict between Peary and Dr. Frederick Cook regarding which of the two had reached the North Pole first. After Peary returned to the Roosevelt at Cape Columbia, the author reports him to have became a recluse, and despite reports, there was really no proof that Peary had really succeeded. Cook's claim for success, however, appeared to be genuine. Dr. Cook was supposed to have reached his destination on April 21, 1908, after a thirteen-month sled journey. The ugly situation between the two began when Peary refused to allow one of Cook's men, Harry Whitney, to bring Cook's papers and various credentials on board the Roosevelt, while Cook was looking for a passage home down Greenland's west coast. Cook announced through the American media on April 2, 1908, four days before Peary announced that he (Cook) had won the Pole. This lead to Peary's "campaign of slander" against Cook in attempting to prove that the man was a fraud. Bartlett, however, took very little part in this dispute, but always told things "as they were". Like Peary, Cook could not prove his claim, but many of Peary's accusations became disproved. When Cook died, neglected and disgraced, his claim was at least as good as Peary's.

As always, in relation to this dispute, as in other situations, the author leaves no leaf unturned in his presentation of detail and factual information. Horwood continues to take no sides and reports unbiasedly.

The chapter concludes with Bartlett's achievements in the expedition being totally ignored, and with a brief comment on Robert Peary's death in 1920.

CHAPTER 9

This chapter opens with a reference to Bartlett's famous European tours in 1910 - his big year - introducing another important aspect of Bartlett's success. However, he was invited by Harry Whitney to command another northern expedition - to hunt musk ox, walrus, and polar bears. Whitney wanted to hunt the islands of the North-West passage - untrepassed by sportsman. He and millionaire Paul Rainey paid $70,000. to outfit the Beothic, one of Newfoundland's new steel ice breakers. Horward describes this expedition as being the first of a series of voyages which Bartlett devoted to the camera, and took an official photographer with him. The author does a good job in his brief, but vivid, description of Bartlett's photography.

More important than this, however, is the accusation against Bartlett for having destroyed or lost Cook's records, since the cairn, where Whitney had buried Cook's materials the year before, was found. But the papers were gone. Bartlett felt compelled to defend himself against this charge. Horwood says very little on the matter after this.

The author then gets back to the original purpose of the voyage, and presents a detailed and rather humorous description of Bartlett's capturing "Silver King". a six-year old male polar bear, on August 15, 1910.

Horwood next turns his attention from the glory of the hunt to point out other references to Bartlett's "unusual good luck". The Beothic was almost sunk by ice sheets in Lancaster Sound, the true Northwest Passage; and another time, loaded with the "hunt", the ship ran upon rocks five miles west of Baffin Bay where there were unchartered waters.

The chapter ends on a light-hearted note with Bartlett and Rainey going out on the town in New York, and Bartlett's receiving $ 2,000. from Rainey as payment for his summer in the Arctic.

The author returns us to the events relating to Karluk disaster in chapter one. Here we find a depressed Bartlett, having little success as a sealer, and found guilty of misjudgment in the Karluk tragedy while a national hero at the same time.

The time is 1914, the beginning of World War I, and as an American citizen,Bartlett was working for the American Army Transport Command. This disappointed him since he wanted to fight overseas. Later, for a brief period, he served, with some degree of interest, as Lieutenant Commander Bartlett, U.S.N., doing the unchallenging job of rescuing American naval ships from the frozen St. Lawrence River.

Following this brief reference, Horwood quickly returns Bartlett to New York and his plans for a voyage to be a complete scientific expedition in the Arctic Ocean, the world's only unknown ocean. For this, Captain Bartlett felt he needed an invulnerable ship, and in pursuit of this the "Bartlett Arctic Council" was formed. One interesting part of this chapter is Bartlett's own detailed and scientific proposal to obtain the assistance needed - dated 1924. However, he was turned down, and following this, Bartlett fell into complete despair, and then drinking caused an accident to befall Bartlett in New York. He was confined to hospital for three months and vowed never to drink again.

Chapter 11

Here the author describes a significant turning point in Bartlett's life. Bartlett received a gift of $6,000. from a wealthy New York friend, Commodore James B. Ford, which he used to purchase a schooner from his cousin, Harold Bartlett, in Newfoundland in 1924. His boat was called the Effie M. Morrissey, and was thirty years old at the time. For the next twenty years and twenty voyages Bartlett partly fulfilled his dreams of scientific expeditions to the Arctic, which he failed to attain in Chapter 10. Without accepting any pay he collected a wealth of scientific data, sea samples, etc., and gave them to scientific institutions. He now becoming a "careful amateur scientist" in addition to a "daring navigator", putting "humanity permanently in his debt." Now he could look for financial backing again.

The author devotes the second half of this chapter to two more narrow escapes for the Captain in 1925, on board the Morrissey, on the Labrador Coast. The second escape is described in some detail.

CHAPTER 12

After reinforcing the Morrissey and installing a diesel engine, Bartlett was ready for his first Arctic expedition on his own ship, in 1926, for scientific purposes. However, Horwood devotes the greater portion of the chapter to recording various mishaps that befell the small ship off the coast of Greenland. Repeatedly, the skill, bravery perseverance, and luck of the Captain are vividly described.

Following these mishaps, Bartlett once again reached the Arctic, and finally settled down to scientific work with excellent success.

The Morrissey, having barely survived her first voyage, returned to Sydney, Nova Scotia, on September 22, almost three months since her departure.

CHAPTER 13

After referring to a number of explorers who had attempted to get through a "northwest passage", but failed, Horwood introduces Bartlett to the challenge. George Putnam, who had organized an expedition the year before, now set up another, a year later. Bartlett, the romantic as he was, suggested a foolhardy scheme involving a route that Putnam quickly disagreed with.

The author gives abundant detail to the part of the voyage beginning on June 23, 1927, when the Morrissey ran into trouble when she lost a propeller off Cape Chidley and ran aground in thick fog near Cape Dorset. Here the author quotes Bartlett at length in this dilemma which adds much realism to the event. However, the Bartlett luck held once again, and a successful voyage was completed. Horwood then move ahead to 1933 to describe a much more rewarding voyage. These two voyages - to Fury and Hecla Strait - resulted in much new information about the region's natural history, its archaeology, and its geography.

Chapter 14

Horwood introduces this chapter by referring to the difficulties of entering east Greenland, one of the least-known parts of the world in 1930, mainly because of the two-thousand-mile ice field commonly called the West Ice.

Bartlett undertook the first East Greenland Expedition in 1930. When the Morrissey was within nine miles of the land, the seemingly "indestructible ship" ran into trouble when she became seriously jammed in the ice, similar to the Karluk situation sixteen years earlier. The author briefly describes the problem which is short-lived.

Captain Bartlett made a more successful voyage to this area some nine years later, when just a few miles beyond his farthest point in 1930 he found an "Arctic paradise" - a semi-tropical valley in a Polar region which Horwood vividly describes. In all, Bartlett made four voyages to northeast Greenland, contributing much to the scientific knowledge of this part of the world.

Chapter 15

In this chapter Horwood relates the most suspenseful episode of his book. With his never-failing good luck, and an extraordinary skill at seamanship, evident throughout the book, Bartlett and his crew rode out a hurricane. They had set out from Brigus on board the Morrissey on August 24, 1935, heading for New York. Bartlett ignored predictions of gale force winds and pleas from his mother, and after rounding Cape St. Francis, it was evident that a storm was near.

The author combines detail with occasional bits of conversation to add realism to the incident. He presents a very suspenseful situation with his vivid descriptions of winds, waves, spray, cliffs, and the eerie blackness of the night, and in the midst of all this, Bartlett and his crew working feverishly to rig the sails and manoeuvre the boat to keep her from driving ashore which would have lead to certain disaster for all on board, But all survived and without a single injury, to reach New York in triumph.

Chapter 16

Following this introduction, Horwood recounts some bits and pieces of information surrounding Bartlett's life in relation to various ways and means that Bartlett used to help finance his northern voyages during the Depression Years of the 1930's. The author gives such examples as: lecturing, working for advertising companies, receiving small contributions from scientific institutions, selling Arctic photography, and live Arctic animals to the zoo. A wealthy film company, Pathe News hired him at $3,900. a year, and supplied Bartlett with film in return for whatever choice of pictures the company desire.

Horwood also provides information revealing Captain Bartlett's extreme generosity in those "lean years".

A fair portion of the second half of this chapter is devoted to two interesting descriptions of capturing walruses - one in 1935, and another in 1940, the year the Morrissey reached her farthest point north at Kennedy's Channel, Ellesmere Island, appropriately on Bartlett's sixty-fifth birthday.

The Second World War was now in progress, and in 1941, having taken a government expedition north for scientific work, Bartlett thought of retiring, and probably would have, had not the American Government commandeered the Morrissey for war work - as a supply ship in Hudson Bay and Greenland. Bartlett was now too old for active war duty, but he volunteered, along with a crew from Brigus, to go with the ship to do what they had done for many years.

Chapter 17

In the first half of this chapter Horwood concentrates on Bartlett's attitude to the Second World War. Even though Bartlett continued his war work in survey and supply, his logs contain very little information directly related to the war. Instead, they contain such writing's on such things as animals, sunrises, and flowers. Bartlett had no interest in the war and looked upon it as a contest between barbarians. Here, the author reveals Bartlett as an ardent reader of such noted writers as Wordsworth, the Bronte sisters, and Jane Austen. He was also a lover of the opera, musical comedies, and the like. Such a description of Bartlett's character presents him in sharp contrast to the man who "looked like a walrus", and who"could be heard bellowing five miles away" as earlier described by Horwood. The author also mentions some of Bartlett's own interests in writing of which he achieved little success, if any.

Much of the latter half of the chapter is devoted to Bartlett's two voyages to Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay in 1942 and 1943 respectively, before returning again to his friends the Greenlanders in 1944 and 1945,. Here he found that the war had sent them back to the ways of their ancestors - healthier and happier than Bartlett had seen them before.

Horwood ends this chapter with another storm encountered by the Morrissey in which Bob's brother, Will, was swept overboard and almost drowned. But he survived and returned safely to Brigus while Bob spent one more winter in New York.

Chapter 18

The closing chapter briefly describes Robert Bartlett's death of pneumonia on April 28, 1946, in a New York hospital, followed by the publicity his death caused, and finally the return of his body to Brigus for burial.

Horwood concludes the chapter and the book by commenting on the Bartlett family, house, and thriving farm now five generations later. He finally mentions the continued success of the Effie M. Morrissey, which sailed for thirty years after her former Captain's death. She was sold to the Portuguese in 1949 and continued in service until 1976. The boat was never returned to Newfoundland, and the last information the author gives is that she is still in Cape Verde Islands with plans being made to use the vessel as a permanent memorial to Captain Robert Bartlett.

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