In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic Read Online Free PDF Page B

supplies, along with a stock of old marine charts and logbooks, dating from the purchase of the
Saint Anna.
     

    * Aleksandr Vasilyevich Kolchak: Arctic explorer and naval officer who was recognized from 1919 to 1920 by the “Whites” as supreme ruler of Russia; after his downfall he was put to death by the Bolsheviks.

    † Frederick Jackson’s expedition on board the
Windward
took place from 1894 to 1897.
     

    From Franz Josef Land we would still have to reach Svalbard, and we knew even less about that archipelago.* In the same English journal, I found quite by chance ten or twelve navigational coordinates that approximately matched the latitude and longitude of Svalbard. I copied these coordinates onto a chart that I had sketched with meridians and parallels, but I had no idea what they might mean. Did they indicate an island, a cape, a mountain, or a bay? In short, they were on my chart, and my imagination could draw totally arbitrary lines to link them all together.
     

    * Albanov could not count on being rescued from rarely visited Franz Josef Land. Svalbard, however, was are gular stop for exploring and hunting expeditions.
     

    We also knew, regarding Franz Josef Land, that the
Stella Polare,
belonging to the Duke of Abruzzi, had sailed through the British Channel as far as the Bay of Teplitz, and that in 1912 the Russian lieutenant Sedov had intended to disembark on one of the islands. After sending his ship back to Arkhangel’sk, Sedov had planned to spend the winter there before attempting to reach the North Pole the following spring.

    On the eve of our departure Brusilov summoned me to read the draft of an order he wanted to copy and give to me. This document, dated April 10, ordered us to set out right away, with our homemade boats and sledges, carrying provisions for two months, on a journey which we would pursue until we reached land. Then, depending on circumstances, we were to try to reach the British Channel and Cape Flora, where we would be sure to find some huts and winter stores. Temperatures permitting, we were then to head for Svalbard, but without losing sight of the coast of Franz Josef Land. To the extreme south of the archipelago we might come across inhabitants and, offshore, perhaps some seal hunters. These were the directives, so to speak, for our southward trek. At the same time, the document set out the up-to-date calculation of the wages owed to each of us by the owner of the
Saint
Anna,
Boris Alexeyevich Brusilov,* a retired general and landowner in Moscow, who had financed the expedition. Our signatures confirmed that the amount was correct.
     

    * Lieutenant Brusilov’s uncle.
     

    Late in the evening the lieutenant called me once more into his cabin to give me a list of items we would be taking with us and which I must, if possible, return to him at a later date. Here is that list as it was entered into the ship’s record: 2 Remington rifles, 1 Norwegian hunting rifle, 1 double-barreled shotgun, 2 repeating rifles, 1 ship’s log transformed into a pedometer for measuring distances covered, 2 harpoons, 2 axes, 1 saw, 2 compasses, 14 pairs of skis, 1 first-quality malitsa, 12 second-quality malitsi, † 1 sleeping bag, 1 chronometer, 1 sextant, 14 rucksacks, and 1 small pair of binoculars.
     

    † Malitsi are heavy, sacklike, Samoyed garments sewn from reindeer hide, with the fur on the inside. Slipped over the head, they have crude openings to accommodate the arms and the face. Thirteen of the men in Albanov’s party used malitsi in lieu of sleeping bags at night.
     

    Brusilov asked me if he had forgotten to list anything. His pettiness astounded me. It was as if he thought there were horses waiting at the gangway to take those of us who would be leaving to the nearest railway station or steamship terminal. Had the lieutenant forgotten that we were about to set off on foot on a daunting trek across drifting ice, in order to search for an unknown landmass, and this under