National Park After Dark - Last One Standing: Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (Part 3)

Episode Date: December 8, 2022

In the series finale, Ada finds herself alone on Wrangel Island. Meanwhile, Steffanson tries to secure a new ship to come to the island, but mysteriously disappears. All while tensions are rising between the countries, as Russia claims the island as their own and threatens to capture the expedition team.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Thank you so much to our partners, check them out!Uncommon Goods: Use our link and get 15% off your next gift.StoryWorth: Use our link and save $10 on your first purchase.Beam: Use our link and code NPAD to get 40% off at checkout. Gerber Life: Follow the link to get a free quote. For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally. Breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress.

Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. Hello, everyone. We are back with part three. Finally, the much anticipated conclusion of the grandest three-parter you've ever done. The only three-grandist and the only. Yeah, maybe another one someday, not right now.

Oh, my God. I totally forgot. We've just been talking for like two hours before we hit record, but I forgot to tell you. So I forget when we recorded part two before Thanksgiving, obviously. And I had a dream because in part two, you talked a lot of about scurvy and the things that were happening to you, uh, or could happen to you. Like your gums and your yes. Teeth falling out and all that good stuff. Yeah. Okay. So I had to dream that it was, I mean, I'm not going to get fully into it, but, and I don't remember if this is actually something that happens, but do you bleed out of like all of your orifices, like your eyes and like your ears and your mouth and nose? Yeah, that's part of it. Okay. Well, I had a dream that there. There, There was like people trying to break into the house that were bleeding all out of their, like every hole on their face. That is a nightmare.

Well, okay, so it was a nightmare. And I was inside with like other people and they were asking why they're like, we need to help them. We need to help them. And I was like, you don't understand like they've contracted whatever. Obviously like scurvy like it wasn't scurvy that these people were infected with in this nightmare. But I'm pretty sure that visual came from your graphic depiction of. What happens? Yeah. Isn't that so weird? And I woke up immediately. And I was like, I definitely had that because Cassie was just talking to me about scurvy. Yeah. Oof, that's a nightmare.

I'm sorry. But I didn't have anything, nothing to do with the teeth, which is interesting because I have a recurring nightmare about spitting out my teeth. Me too. It's a really common one, actually. I looked it up once and it was like, this means you have financial trouble. Like, well, no shit. Like, everyone has financial trouble. Like, that's such a blanket statement. You know what I mean? When I looked it up, it said that if your teeth are falling out, that it's a sign that you're insecure about areas in your life. Because like it's something like you look in the mirror or something in your teeth are falling out or your teeth break off. And it's supposed to symbolize insecurity and decisions or events that are going on in your life. Oh, interesting.

I mean, I guess that's also a blanket statement as well. I feel like everyone can attribute something in their lives that that's true for. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's probably true. All right. Anyway, enough about that. Anyway, recap us. Let's do a recap of part two.

Just so everyone can be on the same page. If you're just starting part three and you haven't listened to part one or two, definitely go back. This will make absolutely no sense to you. And we'll give a lot away from the previous episodes. So going to part two, Ada, Fred, Robert, Lauren, and Alan had finally all become close friends and they had gotten into a routine. Ada was working well and had adjusted to their life there.

it wasn't an easy life. The team was running low on their food supply and they were having difficulty finding food sources so they began rationing their food in anticipation for Stephenson's ship to come bring them supplies and to pick them up from the expedition because they were coming up on one year there. But summer came and went and no one showed up. By fall, they knew that no one was coming that year because of the ice that was surrounding the island. So they devised a plan to leave. Lauren and Alan headed off with their sled dogs to try and make it to Nome Alaska across the ice, but with the weather, the amount of weight they packed on the sleds, and their exhausted sled dogs, they couldn't make it. On top of that, Lauren had been suffering from Scurvy that he had been hiding

from the rest of the crew up until that point. They returned, and Fred, Robert, and Allen decided that they would go out to Nome instead and go across the ice because they didn't have enough resources is left to feed five people. They left with the sled dogs and a less amount of supplies than they had tried to leave on before. And they had plans to let Stephenson know about the situation and try to get a supply ship and rescue ship back to the island to get Ada and Lauren. But while on the island, Lauren became so sick with Scurvy that he was no longer able to help at camp.

Ada had to take over all of the duties and take care of him. Eventually, though, Lauren succumbed to his illness, leaving Ada alone with only Vic the cat to fend for herself. So that is our recap. That is where we left off with Ada alone on the island. And we don't know anything about the other three as of now that left. As of right now, we have no idea what happened to them. They left and Ada is just waiting for them to return. Okay. So meanwhile, while all of this was happening on the island, back in the United States, Stephenson was still set on colonizing Rangel Island, despite not having any support from any country. When concerns from family and friends came in about the welfare of everyone on the island

and not being able to send supplies out there months prior, Stephenson assured everyone that they were fine. He said it was easy to live on the island, that the men there had plenty of ammunition to hunt and they knew how to hunt big game animals. He also said that the air there was healthy and it was easy living, and it was unlikely that anyone on the island would be suffering from illness, and it was much more likely that they would get sick in the city than they would get sick on Rangel Island. Well, did he know? Yeah. I do you think he truly believed that, like in his heart of hearts?

I do. I think he's just misinformed. I don't know what it is. I think maybe his ego is in the way of this. Okay. Where he wants to be right so bad, but he doesn't falter ever. He's just like, this is fine, this is great, we're doing this. We are colonizing it.

You know, so far, he just, he hasn't said. anything that maybe something's going wrong, maybe he made a mistake somewhere. I really think he just he's all in on this for whatever reason. On top of saying that they're probably totally healthy, he stated that they were probably just homesick and besides that they were thriving out there. He also was still actively looking for another ship to go out there to employ more men and groups of Inuit people to continue the steps to colonize the island. So he wasn't even done. He wanted to send us relief ship to go pick them up and drop off a whole new crew. The problem with this was, his mission had actually become embarrassing. And despite Britain not being involved with it,

they were formally given a notice that they were violating Russia's rights by trying to occupy their land. So now Russia is reaching out to the British government saying, hey, you can't be trying to take over this land. And Britain is looking at Stephenson like, we're not. We didn't even know this was going on. Right. Like no one wants to like take responsibility from. We're like, no, we have no idea what the hell is going on over there. It's like it's just this lone like expedition guy who wanted to do this. And Stephenson had reached out to Canada because Britain was pretty upset with him to help find a relief mission to bring more supplies to them. When questioned if this was a relief mission or a rescue mission, Stephenson explained that everyone on the island was fine again and he wanted

to send more people to live there. Because he said that he wanted to continue this mission, Canada refused to help him because they wanted nothing to do with this. So then he ended up going back to asking Britain if they would help him. And again, Britain still was not interested, especially because Stephenson was asking for financial assistance of $10,000, which in today's money would be about $100,000. So they're just like, we don't want to do this. We don't agree with you. and we're not giving you a ton of money to go there. Well, and the irony is they keep asking if it's a humanitarian effort. Like, if there's people in need of assistance, and there is, but he just doesn't know it or

doesn't want to admit that that's a possibility or whatever. I just don't understand how he could say no so confidently because he doesn't know. For all he knows, they're not even alive anymore. But for him, this is the friendly Arctic. He's like, there's no way. It's so easy to survive. Yeah, I guess it's not even a possibility in his mind. And a polar bear nesting ground. Right. Yeah, right. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice.

Off campus, L, every year after, The Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. So with no prospects from governments to help Stephenson, he still didn't give up. He was still set on this mission. And he reached out to people privately. And one of those people was a man by the name of Griffith Brewer.

Griffith was a British man who managed a British airplane company who actually knew Lorne. They had met previously and Griffith was very very very. very impressed by him and saw a lot of promise for his future and his career. He was concerned about his well-being and also intrigued on why he would take on such an expedition. Because of this, he vowed to help in any way he could, including financially. Because of this, Stephenson was able to secure the help of an explorer named Harold Noyes, who had been on the expedition that actually found Stephenson stranded up in Canada years prior. Since then, Harold had really looked up to Stephenson and was following his lectures and his writings about being able to live in the Arctic.

He had also met Lorne before as well, so he was familiar with him, although Harold didn't like Lorne, and they had actually gotten into a physical altercation in the past. But despite this, the idea of heading back to the Arctic on a mission Stephenson was organizing was very enticing to him, and he agreed to go to Rangel Island. Stephenson did make it clear to Harold when he hired him that this expedition was to colonize Rangel Island, and that if the men did not want to stay, he needed to stay on the island or he needed other people with him to do so. Harold at this had no intentions of staying on the island, especially with the issues between the countries of occupying it. So he thought that it would be best to hire Inuit families,

and he wanted them to bring their dogs and sleds, and he also thought that they would be more willing to stay behind on an expedition like this. There was only one suitable ship and gnome that could make the journey to Wrangell Island that summer, and it was called the Donaldson. This ship was owned by a man named Alexander Allen, and after some convincing from Harold, he agreed to let them use the ship, and he agreed to come on the ship as a navigator. They reached an agreement that Seffinson would pay $1,000 up front as a down payment to secure the use of the boat, and after that, they would pay $581 per week for one month to cover the rest of the cost. While Harold could not find any Inuit people who were willing to make the journey because of the dangers of it, the rest of the

trip looked like it was going to go smoothly. Reported ice conditions in the area were favorable for them, and the ship itself was prepared to make the journey. They planned to leave on August 1st and arrived to the island within two weeks. But suddenly, when payments were due, Stephenson, mysteriously, became unreachable. They wired notice after notice to him, stating they needed payment to be able to take the ship, but each one of them was ignored. Because of this, Harold was not able to pick up essential supplies for the voyage, and the shipowner, Allen, was getting very frustrated. On top of that, the Russian government had also gotten involved now. The Siberian government announced that they were outfitting a vessel to Rangel Island with the intentions of capturing the explorers and to take official possession of the island. under Russia. The British government responded saying that this would be an act of war if they were to capture the people on the island. But with these growing tensions rising, rumors started to spread

that no ships were allowed to actually go to Wrangel Island. Without permission, and even with permission, Russia would be taking over the boat and confiscating any supplies on board. There were also rumors that there was a Russian gunboat patrolling the ship path looking for any foreign visitors. They mean business. They're like, cut the shit. Yeah, they're mad now. They're mad. And they were so mad.

They actually began wiring Harold directly, threatening to commandeer his ship, and instructing him if he was to complete the mission, that he would have to stop in Siberia to pick up Russian guards to go to Wrangel Island with him. So now they're directly reaching out to him. Like, hey, we mean it. We're stealing your shit. Get off our island. This isn't a joke anymore.

And Stephenson is just. out of reach. He's gone. Where is he? He's not responding to anyone. He just disappeared. Left everyone on red. He's like, I'm out of here. He's like, I don't have the money, so I'm not going to respond. Yeah. Even with these threats, Harold was really concerned for the safety of the men and Ada on the island, so he wasn't super deterred. And a lot of this was because no one had heard anything from any of them in a year now. And he, even though Stephenson didn't think that they were at risk or

in danger, he knew that they were at risk from tying from exposure, and now they could possibly die by the hands of the Russians. So still with no word at all from Stephenson, he decided that he would ignore the Russians entirely. Okay. I mean, great, great. Bold. Yeah, bold is the one word that keeps coming to mind. I feel like I said it a lot in the last episode, but here it is again, bold. Yeah, it's like, ah, I'm just going to ignore you and hope you go. And hope I don't run into your ships out. Yeah, your gun ships. Or get captured. You know, have you ever seen Locked Up Abroad that show? Yeah. Yes. It's so scary. I know. No way. I actually remember watching a Russian one. I think it might have even been somewhere in Siberia. And it was a prison that no one has ever escaped before and is heavily guarded.

They have the prisoners and they have all the jail cells. And the way that it's set up is that they never want the prisoners to know their way around the jail. So every single time, that the prisoners leave. They blindfold them, handcuff them, they'll like spin them around to disorient them and take them around the jail cells. And I think they eat lunch in their cells. But if they're being transported anywhere, they make it so they'll never be able to map out the layout of the jail.

Interesting tactic. And no one has ever escaped that one. And it's in Russia. Wow. So all of this is happening back in Nome, Alaska. Meanwhile, Ada is still on the island and she's trying to survive. She had gotten into the habit of sitting down at a typewriter that Robert had left behind, and she would write him a note about where she was going and her plans for the day every single day,

just in case he or the ship would show up, and she was out hunting. She didn't want them to leave without her, so every morning she'd type up exactly what her plans were. I have a couple of her diary entries, and they went like this. June 24th, I'm going to the other side of the harbor mouth to do some duck hunting. 25th. Going same as yesterday. I got seven ducks. June 26th. I'm going to take a walk to the small island. I saw two polar bears going ash from the ice way over west of camp. It's four o'clock now. I write down when I saw them. I don't know what I'm going to do if they come up to camp. Well, God knows. On June 27th, she shot and killed her first seal. One week later, she shot another one. This was a major win for Ada and she was

very proud of this. This would sustain her for a couple of weeks. She could use the skins for clothing, oil for her lamps, and the meat would be her food source. She brought it home to clean, cut, and store it. While she sat in her tent, she heard a noise outside of the door. It sounded like a dog sniffing and walking around, and in that moment, she became really excited. Because if it was a dog, that meant that it was a sled dog, and that meant that Robert, Allen, and Fred were back. She jumped up and opened the tent flap, expecting to see them standing outside, but quickly her excitement turned into fear. Standing 15 feet away from her was a massive mama polar bear and her cub. Oh shit.

Ada clutched her rifle and for a moment planned to shoot them, but quickly realized if she missed or if she just scraped them in the middle of the shoulder or somewhere that wasn't fatal, it would definitely initiate an attack. Instead, she grabbed the rifle and shot into the air, over and over. The booms from the gun startled them and they ran. But when it stopped, so did the polar bears. They turned around, staring at Ada, and then took a few steps in her direction. Again, Ada lifted her rifle into the air, letting off shot after shot. After five loud gunshots, the bears took off and disappeared over the horizon. Ada at this point had become a very skilled hunter.

She was able to make her own skin boat over the summer that made hunting seals easier as she could get into the water. She also hunted ducks. She was storing food in preparations in case a ship did not come again, although that was a thought that was hard to bear. But now, with only her there, she was eating enough food to sustain her. She used the seal skins to also make more pliable mold for the soles of her boots. She practiced shooting at targets. She knitted herself gloves and she was able to sew herself a warm parka. She made herself warm new leggings from reindeer skins and some slippers.

She was also sewing clothing for Bennett for when they would be reunited. She sewed him a pair of slippers and sewed beads onto them, something that she thought that he would like. Vic was doing pretty well too. She would go outside and play during the day, and at night she would snuggle up in Ada's lap. She had become a good companion for Ada in a time where she felt very alone. She would often stand on the shores, looking out to sea, in the direction that the men or a ship would come from, but day after day, no one arrived. One night in July, as she slept, strong gale force winds came in and blew her skin boat away and out to sea. In the morning, when she

saw that it was gone, she spent the entire day crying. She was tired from all the work she was doing, and despite having all the food she had now, she was still weak. There was no one there to help her, and seeing her boat gone was devastating. Eventually, after crying as long as she could, she decided to stop pitying herself. If she remained in bed crying, that meant that the fire would never stay lit, food would not be brought to her, and no one would bring snow to her to melt into drinking water. So she stood up and she got to work. She needed to make herself a new boat. This time she constructed one out of canvas instead of seal skin. She gathered driftwood to make a frame and used her needle to sew the canvas into place until eventually it was a boat. It wasn't as good as the first one she built,

but it was sturdy and it would withstand the water. From then forward, she tied up her boat every night so that the wind could not blow it away. I have to say she's become a badass. I was just about to say she's flourishing. She started, you look at her in part one and she had Arctic hysteria. She's crying. She's literally throwing herself into storms. And over everything she's been through and over this year, she has just really taken on this role.

and she's very active in her own survival at this point. Yes, I mean, you said it. She has to step up to the plate. There's no other option. And she's doing it so well. From what you just described, she's not just scraping by. Like, she's really, I feel like she'd be a solid contestant for a loan. Like, she would blow everybody out of the water.

Oh, she is. I mean, she's alone on Rangel Island and she's just doing her. Yeah, she's doing a thing. I mean, I don't want to take away from how much. much work it is because I mean she did she had to light all the fires she had to keep them going she had to catch all of her food she had to cook all of her food she had to do all of it herself and had no help but she's come into a routine and she's doing it yeah and i think even little things like you said as far as vick goes and sewing things for bennett those mentally probably did wonders for her as far as keeping

her going as well because you know that's half the battle is just your mental state it's It's just unbelievable how much the company of an animal can truly bring you, like how much peace and comfort. And in a way, maybe she probably feels like responsible for Vic too. Like, you know, like I'm taking care of something. I have a responsibility to someone other than myself, which probably helped her even a little bit, I would imagine. You know, like, oh, this is someone who's dependent on me.

And to have that companionship, like a little cat, like snugged up on your... I can't even believe this cat. This cat's just too. This cat is thriving. It's just like I was a kitten. I was brought to Rangel Island. This is all I know. Right.

Yeah. That's so true. I live in a little snow shelter and I sleep in sleeping bags and I try and catch rodents during the day. If there's not a blizzard outside. That's so true. Yeah. The original adventure kitty. Literally.

Now on August 1st, Stephenson finally responds. to the wires Harold had been sending to him without a reason for his absence. Oh, my. It just reminds. Sorry. But it's just like, hey, sorry, just saw this. What's up? That text.

Yeah. It's like, it's been months. What are you talking about? It's been two months. Like, oh, sorry, I just saw this. By the way. Pretty much what he did. He just jumped back to it in and was like, hey, sorry for the delay.

Here's the money. Oh. So he did provide the money. He does. He gives him the money that he needs, and overall, the expedition costs about $46,000, which in today's money would be about $800,000. So he doesn't provide an explanation for where the money came from and where he was. No. He's just like, hey, sorry, here you go. I mean, that's the kind of text I'd be down for, you know, like, hey, sorry, I just saw this. Here's $800,000. I'd be like, oh, it's fine. It's like, okay, it's a little late, and I was kind of pissed, but I'll accept it.

All is forgiven. Right. Interesting move. He also did respond over the concerns of Russia. And he stated that he still believed that Rangel Island was not officially claimed by anybody and they had the right to be there. So he wasn't worried about Rangel Island or the people on it because he thought Russia had no reason to go there.

However, he was a little bit worried about them in the water and he wanted to keep the mission a lot quieter now in case of any interference from Russia on their way there. So he didn't want them to talk to people of the papers about it. He didn't want any direct information about their trip to get out in case Russia got word of it. Okay. On August 2nd, 1923 at 3 p.m. The Donaldson set sail. With no Inuit people willing to join their expedition, they had plans to hire others at another port along the way, buy more supplies, acquire dog sleds, and get a Yumeak boat, and hunting gear for the island. Harold was taking enough food, ammunition, scientific equipment, and clothing to last another year of occupying the island. Sounds kind of familiar, like exactly what the first ship did. They arrived at Cape Blossom, a port farther north in Alaska, four days later. Here they stocked up on supplies as they needed, and this time they were successful in finding Inuit people to join them.

The ship was running well, and they were on schedule for arriving to Rangel Island. As they sailed there, there was originally no sign of ice, which was a very welcome site because they had been worried about it. But on the night of August 11th, temperatures dipped down to 37 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 2.8 degrees Celsius, and they began to see chunks of ice floating throughout the water. Shortly after, in front of them was a horizon filled with a long stretch of ice with no sign of it ending. And when I was reading this in the book for this, I actually could really picture it because when I flew to Iceland recently, I flew over Greenland. And when we flew over, it was clear skies. It was a perfect day. There were no clouds. And we flew over Greenland, which was really beautiful, which I was excited for just to see it because there's a lot of mountains and a lot of ice. But then when we got to the water around and past Greenland, I could see from the plane these huge, huge ice chunks. I mean, they looked kind of small from where I was, but I could see them, which meant that they were huge. And I could see them scattered throughout the water. So I can just

picture when they start sailing and they're looking around and they're like, okay, there's starting to be ice chunks everywhere. And you know when you see just the tip, there's a lot more underneath. Yeah. It's very concerning. Yeah. I just rewatched my favorite movie over Thanksgiving. So I also have icebergs on the mind. The Titanic. What a Thanksgiving movie. It's a classic. It is a classic.

A holiday classic, you know. Sure. Watch it for every holiday. It's applicable for everything. Most people are watching the corny Christmas movies on Netflix right now. It wasn't like the best, obviously I've watched the Titanic. I actually thought about this the other day. while I was watching it. I'm like, I wonder what, how many times I've now seen this movie. Like,

is this my 15th time? Is this healthy? Am I okay? And I, like, obviously know very well how it ends. And it just, God, it hits you so much worse, like, or hit me so much worse this time around. And I'm like, what am I doing to myself? Like, am I? Okay. Well, I like kind of a totally separate reason, but I am, DMI, but I was just about to get my period and I wanted to watch like all the saddest things on Netflix that I could. And I legit for like three days just watch Netflix. I had, I was sick too, so I wasn't out. And so I was just sitting there watching the saddest movies on Netflix. I could just like sobbing for like three. Isn't it weird how you do that to yourself when you're like, okay, I'm sad. How can I make this worse for myself? Oh, I know. Oh, I know. The perfect thing. Let me watch from scratch on Netflix in one day. From scratch. That was rough. And then I watched the third season of Dead to me. And I just, I cried. Oh, yeah. You told me about that. I haven't seen it yet. Is it sad? Oh, my God. How can it be sad? Isn't it a comedy? It is a comedy. It is a comedy. But there's just so many reasons why.

It made me sad. And one was Christina Applegate. She was recently diagnosed with MS. And just seeing her and how, like, you know that she's going through it, but she just puts on the best performance. And she is just, like, thriving. And I've always loved her as an actor anyway, but just knowing that she's going through that.

And then you notice little things, like she's sitting in a lot of the scenes instead of where before she was always up and running. So you can notice tiny little things. but her acting and like her performance is amazing. And then the storyline itself, which I won't give away in case people haven't seen it yet, I just destroyed my life. I was just crying the entire. I cried like I want to say, I don't know how many episodes there were.

We'll say there's 10 episodes. I cried seven out of the 10 episodes. Are you okay now? Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. Good. Yeah. I recovered.

However, I will say you came out of that binge. considering bangs because of that character. What's her name? Judy. Judy. Yes. For context for people listening, I texted. No, I just showed up on one of our Zoom meetings with these extension bangs.

Fake bangs I put on and I'm like, what do you think? I didn't want to cut them myself. I think they look dope. I think you should still do it. I know you won't. I know you won't. I have commitment issues. So it's hard, but I am considering it, but I don't know.

I don't know. I can't. I can't decide. Okay, so they're on the ship. They're looking out into the horizon and they're concerned because they see. Nothing but ice. Okay. They actually had to go backwards on their boat until they found an opening in the water.

But then fog came in and it was so thick that they couldn't see anything around them and they were blindly sailing. The boat crashed through layers of ice and it was plowing through it. Shortly after this, the engine labored and made sounds of struggling before the engines completely stopped and it went silent. In front of them, there was an iceberg as tall as the ship's mast, directly ahead of them, and the current of the water was bringing them straight towards it. With nothing they could do, everyone on the ship just stood there in silence and watched as they drifted closer and closer to this iceberg. Do you know if the ship has, and I don't know if I'm making this up, are there some ships that are specifically outfitted to have like kind of like ice rams in the front to kind of break up the ice a little bit? Do you know what I'm talking about? I do, but from the book, I didn't read anything of that. In fact, I read in this part where they're plowing through the ice, the captain was actually worried about everything was watertight at that moment, but they were worried. of how long that that would be sustainable for.

Right. And as we know from Titanic, it can only withstand up to a certain edac or something. I forget. Right. Right. Right. Just as they were getting closer to this iceberg, suddenly the engines roared up and began working again.

And with this, they were able to back themselves away. They spent the next 10 days navigating through ice flows, having to steer the ship around icebergs, zigzagging, backtracking, and then trying again. There was no direct path to follow, and they just went wherever the ice allowed them to go. The bow was being smashed over and over by ice, and they spent every moment steering their ship. There was no time to change their clothes, there was barely any time to eat or sleep, because someone had to be steering it at all times, or they were at risk of crashing into an iceberg. Day after day, they hoped to see Rangel Island, but through the thick fog, they could see nothing.

When they finally made it through the miles and miles of ice into open water, the crew couldn't help but feel like the likelihood of anyone being on the island was very small. But when Rangel Island finally came into view, their hope came back. They saw gravel shoreline with moss-covered prairies, and they could hear the roaring of walruses. And there happened to be some life there after all, which after all the ice they had seen, they were worried that there was just nothing out here.

They lowered a skin boat and several of the Inuit people that they had just hired, jumped off, and sailed to hunt for food. They were able to hunt two massive walruses and brought them back aboard. Harold instructed the crew to make a special dinner for the team on Rangel Island. Because with the life that they had just found on the island and the ability to hunt, they suddenly had these really high hopes that everyone was alive. When they approached the shores where they were led to believe that the can, camp would be set up. There was no sign of anyone. They could see no camps, no tents, no sign of any

people. Harold continued to sail around the island until about 10 miles, which is 16 kilometers later, when they came across an abandoned camp on the shore. Herald and the other men dropped a skin boat into the water and sailed to shore. They searched for clues of where the team may have gone, but the only thing they found was a bottle with a piece of paper inside of it. Inside, they found a note declaring Rangel Island as a part of Britain in the name of King George, and with all four men's name signed on it, Fred, Allen, Lauren, and Robert. With no sign or a clue of where they could be, Harold's worries returned. He made the decision to sail around the island in hopes of seeing any clues of a second camp,

and it was in the morning of August 20th when Harold saw a small figure standing on the beach. The figure was hard to make out from afar, but they were clearly facing them with their stretched out and waving at them. The night before this day, Ada had dreamt of ships arriving. So when she heard the sounds of the boat the following morning, she took her binoculars out to get a better look. When she saw the mast of the ship, she ran to the beach waving to them.

She was so happy to see them that she then ran right into the water. But when she was closer and looked through her binoculars, she was shocked to see that she did not recognize the white men approaching her now on a skin boat. She was expecting to see Alan, Fred, or Robert to be coming back for her. When Harold was close enough to her, he leapt out of the boat and ran over to her. He immediately noticed that she did not look like a seamstress that he had been expecting. She looked like a hunter. She was dressed in her all-fur parka and her face was lined and dirty.

As soon as he reached her, Ada asked where Fred, Robert, and Alan were. This question took Harold by surprise, as he was expecting to find them there as well. And in that moment, he realized that something had gone terribly wrong. He took a moment to speak, and then as gently as he could, he told her that there had been no news of them in Nome and that they were expecting to find them all on Rangel Island. Ada immediately began to cry when she told him, There's nobody here but me. I am all alone. Lauren died on June 22nd.

I want to go back. Will you take me to Nome? She asked him, her voice was broken, and she was in tears. When Harold told her that he would take her back, she collapsed into his arms and sobbed. They stood there for several moments before Harold carried her onto the skin boat and rode her to the ship. They welcomed her with hot food and coffee and allowed her to settle down. When she was feeling up to it, she explained what had happened, how Alan, Fred, and Robert had left for Gnome. She was distraught and worried that they were still out there missing on the ice, but Harold could not comfort her.

There was no word in gnome and no reports from Siberia of any men showing up there either. He knew that a journey across the ice was almost impossible, and it was more likely that they fell through the ice or were crushed by ice flows. Given their weakened conditions and lack of food on their journey, he knew it was almost impossible that they would have survived. When she was fed and ready, they returned to the island to her camp. Ada showed them around and how she had been surviving for so long. Harold was amazed by Ada, seeing the condition she was living in. It was clearly a miracle that she was alive, and the way that she was doing it was incredible. She showed them Lauren's body, and on August 21st, they buried him on the island.

She gave Harold his diaries from the time that they were there, along with other supplies and belongings on the island, but she kept the Bible that Lauren had given her. Harold read through the diary and was shocked at what he read about Ada, the stories of her throwing herself at Allen, but then the way that the men treated her and retaliation of it, tying her to flagpoles, sending her to bed without food, making her sleep out in the cold. It was absolutely horrible the way that she was treated, but the expedition itself was also embarrassing. Harold noted incompetence throughout his journal from the way they hunted to what they brought to the island and the decisions that were made. They stayed on the island for a few more

days as the new crew unloaded their supplies and organized their camp. Then Ada and Vic the cat joined Harold on the ship. They left the island to sail to Gnome on August 23rd and reached its harbor on August 31st. When they arrived, the first thing Harold did was wire a telegram to Stephenson. It read, Arrival last night Wednesday. Blackjack only survivor. Stop. Buried Lorne August 20th. Stop. Alan Fred Robert left Wrangell January 28, 1923. Stop. Believe entire party perished. You should notify relatives of the boys as you think best. Stop. Have left colony of two Inuit families and two unmarried Inuit men in charge of Wells, stop. Equipped party for two years, stop. Game conditions. Rangel, apparently excellent, stop. Failure of last expedition due to combination of poor equipment and experience.

Back in Nome, Ada was so excited to leave the ship and see her sister and her son. But the men wouldn't let her leave immediately. They were concerned that Ada did not care for Lauren, as she had said, but instead that she had murdered him. What? This poor woman. Okay. Did Lauren say anything nice about her in his journal at the end?

His journal, a lot of it said, from what I saw in the journal entries, a lot of it was saying she wasn't hunting for bears. if she would get a bear, then he could live. And then at the end, it did say stuff that she was taking care of him, but a lot of his journal entries were saying that she wasn't hunting properly for him. So now Harold, having read parts of the journal, he's like, are we sure you didn't, you were caring for him or did you actually murder him? Whoa.

Okay. Especially because he had entries of being rude to Ada, and Ada in her own diary had entries about him being horrible to her. So it's like, did you just murder him because he was mean to you? So it took several hours of questioning before they eventually allowed her to leave the ship with all of her belongings, including Vic. Life was very different when she returned. Her stepfather had died while she was away, and so did her ex-husband, who had drowned

in a river. Her sister had a baby and named her Ada. Newspapers were covering Ada's story around the country, and she could not go anywhere and known without people looking at her, talking to her. or talking about her, and she hated the attention. She was also struggling with her time in the Arctic, watching Lauren die, missing the men that she had become close to, and surviving alone for so long. She often had flashbacks to her time there. She was reunited with Bennett, and during her time away, she had accumulated enough money in her bank account to make her a rich woman by her standards.

She had enough to take Bennett to Seattle to get the care that he needed. In the early fall of 1923, Ada and Bennett packed up their belongings and headed to Seattle. Before she brought Bennett to the hospital, they went to the movies together, which was something that they both loved, and then she brought him to the hospital afterwards. While in Seattle, he was treated for tuberculosis and his conditions did improve, although he was not cured, and he struggled with health issues because of it, but he was able to live a more normal life after this treatment. Ada's story in the meantime had been sensationalized, but she had refused to speak to reporters.

However, her diary, along with diaries from the other men from the expedition, had been being used by Harold and Stephenson to make money, to which Ada received none of the profits for. Stephenson wrote a book called The Adventure of Rangel Island, which made him a lot of money, parts of which he had convinced Ada to give him an interview for. Harold had publicly criticized Ada for not being able to save Lorne Knight and accused her of not saving him because he didn't treat her well. There were news articles published about it, and she was met with a lot of scrutiny over it, including from Lauren's family. It wasn't until Ada met with Lauren's family that they realized that the newspapers and the way that other people were portraying her was completely wrong. They found her to be extremely kind and loving, and from their conversations, it was clear

that she cared about Lauren and tried her best. After this, they became close friends, and they publicly acknowledged that she had done everything that she could to save her son. Stephenson was publicly scrutinized for the expedition as a whole, but he still didn't listen, and he believed that he had rights over Rangel Island. He even tried to sell Rangel Island to Britain for $30,000, and when they weren't interested, he tried to sell it to the U.S. for $27,000, although he had no right to sell the island to anyone and was ignored by both countries.

I just-hadacity. I just can't believe this guy. It is, it's wild. I mean, he had a pipe. dream and he's just like not letting it go. But it's like, yeah, it's not even yours to begin with. Who, what, in what world? Imagine trying to sell a whole country or part of a whole island that's part of a country and you're just like, you have no rights to it at all. It's like if I win and was like, um, I'm going to just take a plum island and I would like to sell it to the UK.

And the US would be like, we own this. What are you talking? Right. You know, like it's just like, yeah, very odd. It doesn't make any. And how do you even go about doing that? Like what it's the procedure? Like what paperwork? It's just non-existent. It sounds like he just approached like government officials and was like, hey, do you want this island? I'll give it to you for $30,000. They're like, what? You don't own this? Right. Yeah. Like, not yours to sell, sir. It was also public knowledge that maybe Stephenson didn't know or was ignoring, but Russia did claim the island as their own. And eventually they send a ship to Wrangel Island and arrested everyone that was there that Harold had dropped off to colonize it, and they confiscated

over $10,000 worth of fur that they had gotten on the island. So finally, Russia's like, hey, get out. Knock it off. Ada remarried in Seattle and had another son who she named Billy. She eventually divorced that husband and married again, only to get divorced again. Then she contracted tuberculosis as well, and she fell ill. Eventually, she spent all of her money that she had and fell into poverty again and moved to Seward Alaska. She eventually had to give her children to another children's home to care

for them while she struggled for nine more years to gain the funds to take care of her family. All while, Stephenson had become rich off of her survival story. I never offered to give her any royalties from his book. How infuriating. Like what a difficult life. She survived all of this. You know, she was the survivor. She is the story and she doesn't get any money from it. It's just it's crazy. In 1937, she did get back on her feet and she got her family back together. Doctors estimated that she would die young because of her tuberculosis, but she lived to be 85 years old with her son Bennett and Billy. Bennett, who they estimated to also not live as long, lived to be 60 years old, or 59 years old, and died in 1975. Billy served in the army, Mary,

had a family and worked in assisting Alaskan native communities until he died at the age of 79 in 2003. And that is my story of Ada Blackjack. Wow. That was a while. Okay. So I'm just going to go ahead and wrap that. The one question I think that everyone has that we all know the answer to. The three men were never seen or heard from again.

No, they were never recovered. No one ever found them. And if you read the book, it's Ada Blackjack. a true story of survival in the Arctic by Jennifer Niven. It's really good. After the survival story, they do go into a long history of what happens after she returns, which I didn't include in full, full detail, like I summarized it at the end there, but there are some weird rumors flying around that they might still be alive, and then three men end up being seen off the coast of Siberia, which they think might be them, but it doesn't turn out to be them, and there's all these rumors going

around, but ultimately, they're never found. And it is assumed that they died on their way across the ice. Okay. I figured just because I understand like there's rumors and conspiracy theories and things like that, but you would think that they would announce their arrival or survival or their families would be at least notified. Like they would go to their families at least, you know? Yeah. And given the circumstances, it's probable that they didn't make it very far, I would imagine. Yeah, and just, I mean, that was a really ambitious trip to begin with. They barely had any food. They barely had any supplies.

They're going across dangerous ice that is solid in some areas, isn't solid in the other. It's constantly moving. They're literally over an ocean. You know, it's... Yeah, but they didn't have another choice. It was a last-ditch effort. It was because they didn't have enough supplies back there. but and then again kind of how Harold had said he said you know this expedition didn't make it because of

the lack of experience which was true i mean some of the people on the mission didn't have i mean robert he was the youngest one he just had a good attitude and that's why stepans and hired him so everyone on the mission definitely wasn't experienced enough but i also think referring to the arctic as the friendly arctic is a little misleading and unrealistic as well yeah of course Ada's story is incredible. What she overcame, how she adapted and evolved and really came out on top is incredible just because any survival story is all of those things. But adding in the element of that Arctic environment just makes it so much more incredible

just because of how harsh and dangerous and unforgiving it can be, which I think obviously any environment is, but it just has an extra added layer of difficulty. And afterwards to go through all of that, you know, it kind of, kind of reminds me a little bit about Lieutenant Steve's that I did in Kings Canyon when he survived for months. And then people questioned his entire story once he made it out on the other side. It's like, what do you mean? I just went through absolute hell. And now I'm catching flack from the public. It's like just kick me while I'm down. Right. Exactly. It's just, it's rough. And, you know, for anyone to question that is, I think, out of touch and just speaks to them, you know, like, I don't know.

But anyways, wow, that was an incredible story and definitely deserving of three parts. I'm glad you did it that way because it really immersed us in the entirety of the story versus just glazing over some of the details, which I know you had to do either way. But yeah, I appreciate it. book, you know, but it was kind of easy to put it into three points because there were just so many different sides because you had the people back in Nome, you had Stephenson, you had the people he was hiring and all the issues going on there. And then you also had Ada's story and then you also had the other men's story as well. So it was just easy. I felt like if I had kept it all in one story or two stories, it would have all been jumbled together and we would have lost pieces in it. So I liked

separating it into three parts. But it's definitely a crazy story. And Ada, I mean, it's devastating what happened to her after. I personally think just that she ever lived in poverty while Stephenson never even went to Rangel Island to go help with that expedition, made a bunch of money off her story. And then just being questioned, like you said. And the biggest part for her, though, it seemed that she was mom and she just wanted her son and then sons to have a good life. Both of them had that. So despite what happened and how difficult her life, I think that her goal, no matter what, was for her children. And she definitely was able to help give them a life that she wanted to. So in that aspect and her survival, she was definitely very successful in her life.

I agree. Totally agree. She achieved her goal, even though she went through hell for it. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you. And I'm cold now. I just feel cold after listening to that story. You know what I mean? Like, I'm just mentally in. In the ice. In the ice. Yeah.

When you said she, like, ran out into the water because she was just so excited to see. I'm like, oh, I feel like I just did a polar plunge. It was definitely a polar plunge. But she had all that winter gear on. I don't know if it was waterproof. Probably not. And I guarantee she did not care. She was just so overjoyed.

She's just like, I'm leaving. Yeah. I'm out of here. I know there's heat on that shit. Get me out. Yeah. All right. Well, cool. Thanks everyone for hanging in there for three parts. Hope you enjoyed it. We'll see you next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale you'd like to share, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com.

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