In 1913, Vilhjalmur Stefansson led an ill-fated voyage into the Arctic. The team was separated and one group spent time on Wrangel Island, 200 miles northeast of Siberia and 400 miles northwest of Alaska. After essentially rescuing themselves, the survivors of the smaller group told stories of the rich wildlife they encountered on the island. Stefansson, a proponent of the idea of the “Friendly Arctic,” soon had dreams to claim the island for Canada and Great Britain and use it as a waystation for people making their way through the frozen north.

Stefansson sent a group of four young men and Ada Blackjack, a young Eskimo seamstress, to lead the way for colonizing efforts in 1921. (The author chooses to use terminology appropriate to the time period.) Russia had claimed Wrangel Island decades earlier but Stefansson felt that his earlier team’s extended occupation of the island called that claim into question. The 1921 team was too small, too untrained, and didn’t find the same amount of wildlife that the earlier crew did. When rescuers finally made their way to the island two years later, Ada Blackjack was the only person who had survived. Ada only told her story publicly one time but Niven has pieced together primary source material, newspaper articles, and interviews with one of Ada’s sons to present a record of that harrowing voyage.

First of all, this isn’t a sequel to Niven’s book, The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk, but it is set partially in the same place and features a few of the same people. I haven’t read The Ice Master and I followed this just fine; I do feel that my understanding would have been a bit deeper if I’d read the earlier work first though. I’d recommend taking that approach.

I found this book absolutely fascinating. The remarkable thing about Ada’s survival is that she knew very little about surviving Arctic conditions. She was raised in the village of Nome. She’d seen some Inuit (the preferred term now) elders hunting and employing traditional skills when she was very young but she attended a missionary school, where she learned how to clean houses and sew. She never had the opportunity to learn the ways of her people so she was spectacularly unprepared for the conditions on Wrangel Island. And yet she survived.

My heart ached for this little expedition. The four young men (Lorne Knight, Milton Galle, Fred Maurer, and Allan Crawford) were all in their twenties and boyishly excited to embark on such a grand adventure. Only Knight and Maurer knew anything about Arctic survival. They did their best but when wildlife was scarce and a rescue boat couldn’t get to them because of ice floes the first summer, they didn’t stand a chance. The author includes passages from their diaries and letters from their families reassuring each other that their “boys” must be safe. These were hard to read, knowing that the group was suffering.

Stefansson, the backer of the expedition, is infuriating. He continually tells reporters and the families of the expedition members that the group is safe in the Arctic. He actually wrote a book called The Friendly Arctic, detailing his belief that reports of the inhospitable conditions of the far north are essentially fake news. His theory states that game is abundant and anyone with common sense can survive. What an insult to his young explorers.

The book goes on to describe Ada’s life after her rescue. That’s heartbreaking too. She was a very private person but everywhere she went, reporters recognized her and tried to interview her. Expedition leaders ordered her not to speak to reporters before leaving for the island or else they wouldn’t pay her. She was always afraid to speak to anyone about her experiences after that. She finally spoke out when the man who rescued her published some libelous rumors.

I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in stories of exploration and survival or stories of women history almost forgot. Ada and her other crewmates will earn your respect and admiration. ( )

Une histoire tragique qui ouvre sur une suite tragique. Le récit est magnifique, même si les passages sont lourds de sens, lourds de tragédie, lourds de mépris.
J'ai été pris dans l'histoire, à ne plus pouvoir m'arrêter, à vouloir connaître la suite. ( )

Fascinating story of survival but over-all it was mostly just a sad story. Well-intentioned and courageous men and a woman trying to explore and survive in the Arctic Circle while others exploited and neglected them. It was very detailed but since the main outcome of the expedition was on the back cover, it felt somewhat slowly paced. ( )

Jennifer Niven calls Ada Blackjack a hero. I don't think I would go that far. She didn't save anyone's life and her heroic deeds were limited to having the courage and resourcefulness to survive her unlikely predicament physically unscathed. I say unlikely because what would a impoverished and divorced 23 year old Inuit woman (a rumored prostitute) be doing on a potentially illegal expedition in the wilds of an Arctic island with four young white men and a cat? Desperate to find a husband and to make enough money to care for her oft-ill son, Ada signs on a seamstress with explorer Vilhjamur Stefansson's mission to colonize barren Wrangel Island off the coast of Siberia. Using the theory of squatters' rights, Stafansson sent four young men and six months worth of supplies to plant the British flag on what he thought was unclaimed land. He only sent them with six months of supplies because he was sure they could survive off the land once they had exhausted their stores. What could possibly go wrong in the "friendly" Arctic?
It's not a plot spoiler to say that Ada was the only human to make it out alive (and yes, the cat survives, too). But, here's where the story gets interesting. Stefansson vacillates between wanting to take all the credit for Ada's survival and pretending he's never heard of the woman. It's what happens after the rescue that becomes the bigger story.

As an aside, I love the process of discovery. While Niven was researching her first book, The Ice Master she discovered Nome, Alaska native Ada Blackjack. Ada's adventure intrigued Niven enough to prompt her to dig into Blackjack's life story and ultimately, write a memoir about her expedition with four white men (and a cat) to Wrangel Island. ( )

When you read about the hardships of another person, there really are no words to describe the impact of that book. Everything seems trite and shallow. This is such a book. All that I can say is that I am amazed at the naivete of people of that era and also the callousness with which these explorers were treated.... Friendly arctic indeed.... ( )