Robert Bartlett (1875-1946)

Abstract

Although he was indisputably one of the world's greatest arctic mariners, Captain Robert A. Barlett's name and accomplishments are relatively obscure. As a sealer, arctic explorer, ice captain, and scientist, Bartlett made over 40 voyages in more than half a century at sea. He was decorated by the American Congress, the Explorers' Club, and geographical societies on two continents. He survived two shipwrecks and, thanks to his skill and perseverance, prevented a number of others, and he saved the lives of many shipmates. An eccentric who could play Chopin records as his ship was about to sink below the arctic ice, a man frequently inconsistent in accounts of his own voyages, a man blessed with incredible good luck when at sea, a known drinker who professed to be a teetotaler, Bartlett was, nevertheless, an exceptional leader of men. ... From the perspective of the late twentieth century, three periods loom pre-eminent in Bartlett's life. The first was the decade between 1898 and 1908 during which he accompanied Robert Peary on three separate attempts to reach the North Pole, the second was his captaincy of the Karluk on the Canadian Arctic Expedition in 1913 and 1914, and the third, his scientific voyages on the Morrissey from 1925 to 1945. Robert Peary encountered Bartlett in 1898 when Bartlett was the first mate on the Windward, the flagship of Peary's first unsuccessful journey to the North Pole. On Peary's subsequent expeditions Bartlett played critical roles. ... Yet Peary denied Bartlett a part in the final dash for the Pole and reserved this privilege for himself. ... The Karluk, under Bartlett's captaincy, was to be the main vessel in the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913. The expedition to the Western Arctic is famous for the anthropological and geographical work conducted by Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Diamond Jenness; however, the real hero of the venture has surely to be Robert Bartlett. When Stefansson left the Karluk in September 1913, ostensibly for a brief hunting foray on the mainland, she had been held fast in the ice for a number of weeks northeast of Point Barrow. But soon after Stefansson's departure, a gale carried the Karluk far to the west, still firmly fixed in the ice, and upon returning, Stefansson gave the ship and crew up for lost. Eventually, in January of the next year, the ship succumbed to ice pressure and sank about 400 km from the coast of Siberia. Under Barlett's leadership, the crew passed the next few months in an ice camp before the captain led the remnants of his party to Wrangel Island. From there, Bartlett and an Inuit companion travelled through incredible ice fields 320 km to Siberia, and a further 650 km to the Bering Strait and thence over to Alaska. By virtue of Bartlett's exertions, the survivors were picked up on Wrangel Island nearly a year after the Karluk had become entrapped in the ice. Bartlett's journey through incomparably tough ice conditions to save his crew is an event of epic dimensions, .... In 1925 Bartlett purchased the Morrissey, which he was to captain for the next 20 years. In these two decades Bartlett explored both northeast and northwest Greenland and various remote parts of the Canadian Arctic. He gathered botanical specimens and Inuit relics for many museums and societies and brought back numerous live arctic mammals for zoos. ... He was the complete explorer: navigator, adventurer, scientist, and leader of men. It does not seem just that men whose ships Bartlett captained, such as Peary and Stefansson, and whose expeditions Barlett personally saved have received so much more historical and popular attention than has Bartlett. ...