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The Last Voyage of the Karluk: A Survivor's Memoir of Arctic Disaster

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It's hard to picture any expedition more ineptly run than Scott's, but the Karluk expedition was indeed even worse. And while Scott's mistakes were exposed for the world to see, the leader of the Karluk expedition, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, was so successful in covering up his that he was lionized after his return by the National Geographic Society and no less a personage than Robert Peary. This book was written some sixty years after the fact by a survivor of the expedition, and while the execution could be better, this is an interesting tale that provides a useful counterpoint to the story of the Endurance. While Sir Ernest Shackleton, through his courage, self-sacrifice, and leadership saved every one of his men when the Endurance was crushed in the ice and sunk, when the Karluk was similarly beset the vile Stefansson left his men to die.

Unliked the other reviewers thus far, I have not read other accounts of polar expeditions, never found the subject intriguing enough when there were so many other histories clamoring for my attention. I'm still not sure what persuaded me to buy this little book, but I am SO glad I did. I found it sufficiently detailed to give me the progressive pictures of ineptitude, boredom, labor, frostbite, incompatibility, isolation, hunger, despair, et al, without becoming bogged down in tedium. By virtue of having waited so many years to pen his account, McKinlay is probably more even-handed in the telling than he would have been otherwise, and makes the book a moving experience rather simply a bitter one. Kudos to the man, he was indeed a canny Scot, and has related a story worthy of being captured on film.

A totally gripping true-life adventure, written in 1976 by an 88-year old Glasgow schoolmaster who, prior to serving as an officer in WW1, was one of the survivors of a horrifically mismanaged Arctic expedition. The "Karluk" was one of three vessels involved in an exploration of the Canadian Arctic in 1913, master-minded by one Vilhajalmur Stefansson, a monomaniac fixated on the idea of the Arctic as a friendly environment in which abundant food could be soured. In the event however none of the expedition members received any relevant training in survival skills before setting out. The ships' crews did not expect to winter in the Arctic while the scientific staff, of whom McKinlay was one, were almost all young men straight from University, with no previous Arctic experience. Steffanson's callousness in deserting the Karluk once it was ice-bound, and starting an independent five-year exploration journey without making any attempt to arrange rescue of its crew, almost beggars comprehension. McKinlay's story of misery, squalor, sickness, death, cowardice and heroism over the following year is at times depressing reading, but is always gripping. Of the Karluk's complement of twenty five, eleven died following the break-up of the ship in the ice north of Siberia, in the attempts to reach land and during the subsequent struggle to stay alive under conditions of extreme privation. That any survived is due to the heroism of the Karluk's captain, Robert Bartlett, who with one Eskimo companion managed to reach the Siberian mainland to seek help while the other survivors attempted to eke out an existence on the bleak Wrangel Island. The author's account is understated as regard his own role but it was obviously critical in maintaining morale and cohesion in an ill-assorted group with no real basis for camaraderie and discipline. It is the lack of these two factors that McKinlay found the great difference with his later, albeit terrible, experiences in Flanders, making the Wrangel Island episode incomparably worse. The writing is simple, spare and elegant and sweeps the reader along. It is the narrative of a decent, courageous man and it deserves to live on as a classic or adventure and exploration.

This superb little book is a well-kept secret on polar expedition literature. The ill-fated tragedy of the Karluk and her crew has never achieved notoriety, bacause its return ocurred right at the time of the stupefying return of Robert Scott's last expedition survivors, and also because Mr. Vilhjalmur Stefanson was proficient in concealing the veridical facts. If the usual clamour is that Scott's 1910-13 expedition was confused and wrongly conceived, what to say about Karluk's ? Three overloaded ships, but no man aware of which equipment was in which of them; the main ship tiny and fragile, predictibly crushed by the sea ice; a bunch of men without the essencial feature to survive the shortage and the wildness of nature in high latitudes: comradeship. The sixty years between the start of the journey and the writing of this book work as a filter, allowing the maturation of the author's memories and emotions - but it may have obstacled this astonishing narrative of endurance of turning itself into a classic. Nevertheless, it's never too late to rewrite history.

I purchased this book to send to my son who teaches history. I decided I would read it, first. The author was a teacher and was honored that he was selected to take this exploration voyage with so many distinguished scientists. This book will show you what the body and spirit can endure when it has the ardent desire to live; among the survivors is the Eskimo family with two children, ages eleven and three, and a cat. This happened in 1913-1914. It will make you wonder if today's people still have the endurance and the will to survive as seen in this era.

This is the story of a scientist who joined the ill-fated Karluk expedition organized in 1913 by V.Stefansson. Poorly organized and ill-equipped,he tells the story of his survival extremely well. This book is very readable and you have to keep reminding yourself that this story is real and not from Hollywood. Arctic expeditions are dangerous enough- but pre-W.W.I they were even more so. That anyone survived this experience is truly amazing. Mr. McKinlay goes into great detail about their day to day struggle for survival. He writes extremely well, considering he was a scientist. I wish I could have met this man. Great Book!!

The author was a member of Vilhjalmur Stefansson's Arctic Expedition of 1913, and was on board the main expedition ship Karluk when it was frozen into the ice north of Alaska before the expedition was truly begun. The Karluk (abandoned by Stefansson early on) drifted west almost to Wrangell Island before the ship was crushed.

The only ones aboard with Arctic experience were the ship's captain and an Inuit family, including two girls ages five and three. Two men were veterans of Shackleton's 1907 attempt on the South Pole, but land ice and sea ice are two different kettles of lutefisk, and their conviction that they knew more than the ship's Captain just made things worse.

After leading the men to Wrangell Island, the Captain and one Inuk went ahead to Siberia to seek rescue. Without the Captain's leadership the remaining ill-assorted, inexperienced men fought, stole food from one another, became ill, and generally had a dreadful time. Eleven men had died by the time rescue finally arrived.

The author blamed Stefansson's lack of organization and foresight for making the plight of the Karluk worse than it needed to be. In later years he gathered evidence to debunk Stefansson's image as one of the great polar explorers. He twenty-five when he took part in the expedition and was in his eighties when he wrote this memoir.

I am a fan of shipwreak tales, and this true story is a fine example of the genre. Written by a survivor of this 1913 disaster, the book does an excellent job of describing the suffering the untrained Arctic explorers went through during their months of isolation. However, one major fault is that it is difficult to identify with individuals; they tend to be a jumbled comglomerate. I think this is because the author gives very little personal data about anyone, therefore they are little more than a name and an undescriptive phrase. What compounds this fault, is that two of the shipwreaked crew were from Shakelford's Antarctic shipwreak. It would be interesting to see how their previous experience affected them psychologically. Further, the captain of the Karluk left his ship stranded; an entire book could be written about him. Yet we are given little here to understand his motivations. These real individuals, as well as other crew members, deserve more attention and description. (Book review by Tom Bruce)

If you are interested in Polar survival stories, The Last Voyage of the Karluk is a must for your collection! This is a thought-provoking book on why some people survive under catastrophic conditions and others go under. Not only is it interesting to read for its own merits, but it makes a fascinating companion piece to Lansing's Endurance. Here was a ship stuck in the polar ice where things did not turn out well. Uncertain leadership, class differences, and extreme conditions led to great suffering and loss of life. The author was quite elderly when he wrote it, but the writing style is anything but antiquated. Clearly and gracefully written, The Last Voyage of the Karluk speaks with humor and pathos about a little known episode in the annals of polar exploration.

Geat time reading !
I still have 2 questions :
1. What is a Crowbill bird ?
2. No Mosquitos pested the stranded crew ?