Episode 157.1 - “Like Small Black Specks Against The Everlasting White”: HMCS Karluk, Pt. I ft. Jessica Watkins

We're joined by longtime listener and longer time polar exploration enthusiast Jessica (@jesslovesboats) for a tale that would be a certified goofball comedy if not for the overwhelming tragedy of it - it's the story of the Karluk, the Canadian Arctic Expedition, and the men, women, and (yes!) children who fought to survive in some of the cruelest conditions that Planet Earth has to offer.

*This is Part One of a four-part series; there will also be an Able Seaperson-tier bonus episode related to this series

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Sources for Part I:

Cavell, Janice. "The Karluk's Lost Men: The Alexander Anderson and Alister Forbes Mackay Parties, 1914." The Journal of the Hakluyt Society, March 2025, pp. 1 - 31. 

Diubaldo, Richard J. Stefansson and the Canadian Arctic. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1978.

Levy, Buddy. Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk. St Martin’s Press, 2022. 

Niven, Jennifer. The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk. Hyperion, 2000.

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur. The Friendly Arctic. Macmillan, 1921. www.loc.gov/item/21021129/

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur. “Letter from Mr. Stefansson.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 52, no. 4, Oct 1918, pp. 248 - 255. 

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur. “‘Living Off the Country’ as a Method of Arctic Exploration.” Geographical Review, vol. 7, no. 5, May 1919, pp. 291 - 310. 

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur. “Stefansson’s Expedition.” Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, vol. 46, no. 3, 1914, pp. 184 - 191. 

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