Marooned in the Arctic: The True Story of Ada Blackjack

Marooned in the Arctic: The True Story of Ada Blackjack — page 7
clothing while they were on the island Ada was a superior seam stress and her ability to speak English would be another plus Jordan shared with her what he had heard about the trip north but at that time had no knowledge of the real purpose of the expedi tion Jordan told her that Vilhjalmur Stefansson a noted Canadian and Arctic explorer was organizing and arranging financing for the expedition although he did not plan to participate He would stay behind to continue fund raising through his lecture tours and to seek private backing for another exploration to search for a continent north of Wrangel Island Stefansson personally selected four young men to represent him on the current exploration He used his strong personality reputation and powers of per suasion to convince them to carry out the colonizing expedition while he remained at home The chosen members included Errol Lorne Knight a big 28 year old outspoken happy go lucky American from McMinnville Oregon he had been on a prior north ern expedition with Stefansson Frederick W Maurer another 28 year old from New Philadelphia Ohio had been a member of Stefansson's five year Cana dian expedition Joining Maurer and Knight was their fellow countryman 19 year old Milton Galle from New Braunfels Texas who was Stefansson's secre tary when they traveled on the Chautauqua lecture circuit The fourth member was 20 year old Canadian