He Walked 700 Miles Across the Ice to Save Them | The Karluk, 1914

On January 11, 1914, in the frozen Chukchi Sea north of Siberia, Captain Robert Bartlett sat alone in the galley of his crushed ship, playing gramophone records and throwing them into the stove. When the Karluk finally went down, he put on Chopin's Funeral March, stepped off the rail onto the ice, and said: "Adios, Karluk." Twenty-four people were waiting for him on the ice: sailors, scientists, a young Inuit hunter, and an Inuit family with two little girls. This film follows them from the drift of the Karluk to Shipwreck Camp, the letter four men signed before they walked away, the march to Wrangel Island, and Bartlett's 700-mile journey with Kataktovik across the moving ice and along the coast of Siberia to bring help. It is told from Bartlett's own book, John Hadley's account, and the photographs of the expedition. ⏱ Chapters 0:00 Adios, Karluk 2:53 The Newfoundlander 5:51 A Ship Called Fish 12:00 Ten Days 18:39 The Long Night 22:51 Adios, Karluk 28:32 The Letter 34:34 The Wall 38:05 Two Men, One Sledge 44:13 Strangers 49:50 The Island 55:23 A Ship's Whistle 58:39 What Remains 📚 Sources Robert A. Bartlett and Ralph T. Hale: The Last Voyage of the Karluk (Boston: Small, Maynard, 1916). All quotations from Bartlett, the doctor's party's letter and the telegram of May 29, 1914 are from this book. Vilhjalmur Stefansson: The Friendly Arctic (New York: Macmillan, 1921), including John Hadley's account "The Story of the Karluk". Robert A. Bartlett: The Log of Bob Bartlett (New York: Putnam, 1928). Ernest F. Chafe: "The Voyage of the Karluk, and Its Tragic Ending", The Geographical Journal 51 (1918). William Laird McKinlay: Karluk: The Great Untold Story of Arctic Exploration (1976). Jennifer Niven: The Ice Master (2000). Richard J. Diubaldo: Stefansson and the Canadian Arctic (1998); Gísli Pálsson: Travelling Passions (2005). Kenn Harper: "Ruth Makpii Ipalook: 1911–2008", Nunatsiaq News (2008). 🖼 Image credits Photographs, maps and the diary page from The Last Voyage of the Karluk (1916), The Log of Bob Bartlett (1928), The Friendly Arctic (1921), The Adventure of Wrangel Island (1925), R. E. Peary's The North Pole (1910) and the 1899 report of the cruise of the revenue cutter Bear, scanned by the Internet Archive; Victoria Daily Times, 1914 (Internet Archive). All public domain in the United States. Chukchi photographs (Uelen, 1913; East Cape; Anadyr, 1906): A. M. Collins, E. M. Scull, P. Niedieck, public domain (Wikimedia Commons). General ice views: National Library of Norway and DigitaltMuseum (public domain). Pressure-ridge and ice-cake scenes are from Peary's 1909 expedition, shown to illustrate the same kind of ice travel. Narration: AI voice (ElevenLabs). Research and script: Final Dispatch. #Karluk #ArcticExploration #FinalDispatch