Original chart from Bob Bartlett's doomed Karluk voyage discovered

Curators of an American museum have discovered the chart that Newfoundland's Capt. Bob Bartlett kept of the ill-fated voyage of the Karluk more than a hundred years ago.

Bartlett was a Newfoundland ship captain from Brigus, and became famous for his ability to navigate through ice.

In the summer of 1913, he sailed theKarluk, a former whaling ship, through the Bering Strait at the behest of the Canadian governmentand the National Geographic Society.

By September, the ship was caught fast in the ice,which began to slowly crush the vessel.On Jan. 11, 1914, the Karluk sank off the coast of Siberia,stranding its crew and passengers on the ice.

Bartlett and Inuit guide Kataktovikthen trekked for 700 miles to find help for the survivors, who stayed behind in a camp.

One of the few items Bartlett carried was the chart on which he had been mapping the Karluk's doomed course.

The maphad gone missing but turned up a couple of years ago in a box of donations to the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum in Maine.

Dove family donations

When the chart arrived, it was unidentified and came in a large envelope that had been unopened for a number of years. The document was donated, along with dozens of miscellaneous papers, photographsand artifacts, in 2012 by the family of William James ("Jim") Dove, a nephew of Bartlett's.

The museum's curatorial staff examined the chart and noticed annotations of locations and dates and realized that they corresponded with the drift and sinking of the Karluk.

Comparing the document to a chart illustrated in Bartlett's published account of the disaster, the soiled areas, a major tear and fold patterns were all identical.

Catherine Dempsey, a former member of the Newfoundland Historic Trust and an avid fan of the Bartlett story, says news of the discovery sent a shiver down her spine.

The chart, which had been folded, shows a number of stains from Bartlett's sweat, as he and the guide travelled in search of their shipwrecked crew.

"He'd been marking the soundings and the position of the Karluk as she floated on the ice," said Dempsey.

"It's wonderful to find something like this because it personalizes that voyage in a way. Keeping a log book, that's fine, you're making notes, that's separate but this has been close to his heart."

Nome, June 1913

The Karluk expedition, however, was a disaster waiting to happen.

The ship left Nome, Alaska in June 1913, and 11people perished almost half of the expeditionary crew.

Bartlett emerged from the incident as a hero for his handling of the situation after the ship sank, and for his epic trek to seek assistance.

He received the highest award from the Royal Geographical Society for his outstanding heroism.

Over the next three decades, Bartlett continued to sail north, most often at the helm of his own vessel, the Effie Morrissey.

On Wednesday, CBC'sOn the Go host Ted Blades spoke with Susan Kaplan, professor of anthropology and the director of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center. Click the audio player above, to hear their interview.