the karluk’s last voyage

“We did not all come back”. Thus begins this firsthand account of the extraordinary adventure of the Karluk, the flagship of explorer Vilhjalmar Steffanson’s Arctic expedition of 1913-1916. When the Karluk became trapped in the ice, Steffanson abandoned Captain Robert A. Bartlett and his crew, nearly half of whom perished before the ordeal ended. When the ice crashed the Karluk and sank her, Bartlett led the shipwrecked survivors safely to Wrangell Island. From there, with one Inuit companion, he journeyed across 700 miles of frozen seas and Siberian wilderness to return with rescuers. It is a feat that rivals Shackleton’s own celebrated efforts to seek help for the crew of the Endurance.