Lorne Knight & Ada Blackjack
In July of 1922, Lorne Knight began to show signs of scurvy, a disease that results from a lack of vitamin C in one’s diet. The Wrangel Island expedition group was quickly running out of food, ammunition, and other supplies because their relief ship didn’t arrive as scheduled in summer of 1922. In an attempt to get help, expedition members Crawford, Maurer, and Gale left in January 1923, heading towards Siberia. Unfortunately, all three disappeared, leaving Knight, Blackjack, and their cat, Vic, alone on Wrangel Island.
As time progressed, animosity grew between the two surviving members of the Wrangel Island expedition. With Knight being too sick to help Ada out around the camp, Ada had to take care of everything on her own. She did an excellent job, even going as far as to teach herself to shoot a rifle in order to hunt and defend the camp. Ada also spent a lot of time caring for Knight as his scurvy progressed. She did everything in her power to get him healthy, including giving him most of the food, reading to him, and tending to his bed sores. Knight repaid her with cruelty, and in her diary she often references how horribly he treated her.
This cruelty wasn't anything new. Even before Knight came down with scurvy, he was often mean to Ada. In his diary, he often referred to her as "the seamstress," and treated her horribly when she didn't do what he wanted. Knight wrote, "the seamstress refused to patch a pair of boots to-day, so I tied her to the flagpole until she promised to repair them."
In this entry from April 21st, Ada Blackjack describes the dynamic between her and Knight as his condition worsened. She says, “...knight started to cruel//with me, I cann’t count how many times cruel with he started to cruel at me.” Ada then goes on to explain how hard she was working to help Knight and maintain the camp, but whenever she came back to the camp, Knight just criticized her. She comments, “This is the worust life I ever live in this world.” Ada hated the way Knight treated her, but also was really scared for him to die, as it meant she would have to survive alone on Wrangel Island until help reached them. Knight eventually died on June 23rd, 1923. Ada recorded his death in her diary writing, "The daid of Mr. Knights death. He died on June 23d. I don't know what time he die though." When Knight died, Ada was too distraught to bury him. Instead, she left his body in his sleeping bag but built wooden boxes around his body. Ada then took the cat, Vic, and set up camp in what was previously the storage tent.
Works Consulted:
Ada Blackjack: Stranded on Wrangel Island (U.S. National Park Service). www.nps.gov/articles/000/ada-blackjack-stranded-on-wrangel-island.htm.