The Friendly Arctic: The Story of Five Years in Polar Regions

A research project and exploration in conjunction with the Canadian government. As a result of the expedition many thousands of square miles have been added to the territory of Canada. The expedition also observed that the cold of the Arctic deprived no one of health or comfort if he understands the conditions, realizes necessary precautions, and makes good use of common sense, and governs himself accordingly. - From introduction.

Though born in Manitoba to Icelandic parents in 1879, the explorer Vilhjelmur Stefansson (born William Stephenson – he changed it to an Icelandic form in 1899) grew up in North Dakota in the United States. In the first decade of the twentieth century Stefansson worked in Iceland for a time, before spending an extended period between 1906 and 1912 conducting ethnographic surveys of the Indigenous populations of the North American Arctic, spending the winter of 1906-7 with Inuit in the Mackenzie River delta in Yukon.

In 1913 Stefansson organized the Canadian Arctic Expedition, arranged by the Canadian government to explore the sea west of the Parry Archipelago, the northernmost islands in the Canadian Arctic. The expedition set off from Nome, Alaska, but soon ran into trouble. The lead ship Karluk became trapped in ice and Stefansson disembarked to continue his travels, purportedly to gather provisions, but, in the eyes of the crew, in order to avoid drifting off course.

The Karluk drifted westward in the ice floes, eventually being crushed in January 1914. Survivors attempted to reach Wrangel Island, north of Siberia, but many perished, either from carbon monoxide poisoning or from the severe cold. Eventually, the captain of the ship, Robert Bartlett with Inuit guide Kataktovik ventured across the sea ice first to Siberia and then to Nome, where they arrived in May 1914, and arranged a rescue party to pick up the rest of the survivors.

Stefansson continued his expedition across the frozen Arctic for a further four years, discovering numerous islands that were unknown even to Inuit and better surveying many others. The Friendly Arctic is his published account of the expedition.