The Last Trip
At Barter Island the support crew on the schooner Polar Bear
endured a frustrating summer, including the sinking and repair of their ship,
and the drowning death of Pipsuk, an Alaskan
Native employee. The Polar Bear and her crew reached Nome in late September 1918,
where all were paid off. Storkersen and his four companions completed their five-month
ice drift in November, thus ending five years of exploration. Storkersen wintered
at Herschel Island and left the Arctic via the Mackenzie River in the spring of
1919.
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