The First Landing on Wrangel Island

The First Landing on Wrangel
Island

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Title: The First Landing on Wrangel Island With Some Remarks on the
Northern Inhabitants
Author: Irving C. Rosse
Release Date: June 21, 2006 [EBook #18643]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE FIRST LANDING ON WRANGEL ISLAND,

WITH SOME
REMARKS ON THE NORTHERN INHABITANTS.
BY
IRVING C. ROSSE, M.D.
On May 4, 1881, through the courtesy of the Chief of Revenue Marine,
Mr. E.W. Clark, I was allowed to take passage from San Francisco,
Cal., on board the United States Revenue steamer Corwin, whose
destination was Alaska and the northwest Arctic ocean. The object of
the cruise was, in addition to revenue duty, to ascertain the fate of two
missing whalers and, if possible, to communicate with the Arctic
exploring yacht Jeannette.
Our well-found craft made good headway for seven or eight uneventful
days of exceptionally fine weather, while the ocean, somewhat
deserving the adjective that designates it, displayed its prettiest
combinations of blue tints and sunset effects as we steamed through
miles of medusidæ; and had it not been for the sight of occasional
whales and the strange marine birds that characterize a higher latitude,
we should scarcely have known of our approach to the north. Soon,
however, we were beset by pelting hail and furious storms of snow and
all the discomforts of sea life, causing a pénible navigation in every
sense of the term. On May 15 we were somewhat disoriented while
trying to make a landfall in a blinding snowstorm, and groped about for
several hours before anchoring under one of the Alp-like cliffs of the
Aleutian islands.
* * * * *
Without going into further details of the cruise, I will state that on the
previous year five unsuccessful attempts were made by the Corwin to
reach Herald island, and that Wrangel island was approached to within
about twenty miles. This "problematical northern land," the existence
of which the Russian Admiral Wrangel reported from accounts of
Siberian natives, and which he tried unsuccessfully to find; a land that

Captain Kellett, of Her Britannic Majesty's ship Herald, in 1849,
thought he saw, but which, under more favorable circumstances of
weather and position, was not seen by the United States ship Vincennes;
a land, in fact, that from the foregoing statements and from the
imperfect accounts of whalemen we had begun to regard as a myth, was
actually seen; and I shall never forget the tinge of regret I felt when the
necessity of the position obliged the withdrawal of the ship and I took a
last lingering look at the ice-bound and unexplored coast, fully
realizing at the time the joyous satisfaction that must animate the
discoverer and explorer of an unknown land.
However, better luck was in store; for Captain Kellett's discovery was
afterwards completed by the Corwin. I now purpose to narrate a few
circumstances attending this first landing on Wrangel island, which
may be best told by further reference to Herald island. Captain Kellett,
the only person known to have landed at the latter place previously to
this account, reports that the extent he had to walk over was not more
than thirty feet, from which space he scrambled up a short distance; that
with the time he could spare and his materials "the island was perfectly
inaccessible." He expresses great disappointment, as from its summit
much could have been seen, and all doubts set aside regarding the land
he supposed he saw to westward. An extract from one of Captain De
Long's letters, making known his intention to retreat upon the Siberian
settlements in the event of disaster to the Jeannette, says, in reference
to a ship's being sent to obtain intelligence of him: "If the ship comes
up merely for tidings of us let her look for them on the east side of
Kellett land and on Herald island." Being in a measure guided by this
information, the Corwin made the forementioned places objective
points in the search. It was not, however, till after the coal bunkers
were replenished with bituminous coal from a seam in the cliff above
Cape Lisburne, that an effort was made to reach the island. During the