Shipwreck Camp
Books
- Left on the Ice The Karluk Disaster and the Canadian Arctic Expedition's Fight for Survival · Liszt Think
In August 1913, the Karluk, flagship of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, became trapped in pack ice off Alaska. When leader Vilhjalmur Stefansson departed on a hunting trip, he never returned to the vessel.
- Camp on the Ice…recorded scientific observations and personal impressions, now he listed stores and noted the behavior of the ice. The floe that supported Shipwreck Camp was perhaps a mile across, a temporary island in a sea of shifting plates. At night, the men heard it moving: pressure ridges building wher…
- The Decision to MarchThe watch continued. The ice drifted toward whatever destination currents and winds had chosen. At Shipwreck Camp, twenty-five survivors had settled into a rhythm suspended between living and waiting. They rose from snow houses, checked meat caches agai…
- The First Party Vanishes…of wind-packed snow and occasional dark lines of pressure ridges too distant to read. The captain snapped the telescope shut. Behind him at Shipwreck Camp, twenty-one men moved through their routines with exaggerated care—the caution of people who had seen how quickly competence could become c…