ENVS 15: The Earth's Cold Regions (Winter 2024)

Canadian Arctic Expedition

Although Frederick "Fred" Maurer had experience with northern whaling expeditions, on which he worked from 1911-1912, Maurer's pursuit of his true passion – to be an explorer – began in 1913.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson had begun work with the Canadian government to organize a team to explore the Canadian North and beyond. The main goal in mind was the search for land beneath the ice of the Arctic Ocean. Maurer, eager to prove himself as a valuable member of an expedition, signed on to the expedition as a fireman. 

The Canadian Arctic Expedition commenced aboard the Karluk, a retired wooden whaler ship,  in August of 1913. The ship, captained by Robert Bartlett, quickly found itself trapped in ice. Stefansson, recognizing that the food supply was ineffecient to sustain them for the entire winter – until the ship would be released from the ice's tight grasp – assembled a small crew to leave the ship and hunt for caribou. Unfortunately, while the Stefansson crew was far away on the vast ice floes of the arctic, the Karluk broke free and drifted west. Stefansson's crew realized they would never find the ship, and instead marched back towards Canada.

Abandoned, with nowhere to turn and ice breaching the hull of the ship, Maurer and the rest of the crew were forced to leave the ship. As soon as they disembarked, the Karluk sank beneath the waves. Over the following months, they journeyed in groups in search of Wrangel Island– their best chance at survival. The trip was difficult, underendowed with resources, and freezing cold. Bartlett, the captain, journeyed 700 alongside one Inuit guide back to Alaska, eventually finding help for his crew. 

Unfortunately, the time and the cold took the lives of eleven crew members. Although injured, Fred Maurer had survived to see another day.

The Karluk survivors on Wrangle Island

Frederick Maurer, having survived the wreck of the Karluk, photographed on Wrangel Island dressed and armed for a seal hunt

This Photograph, depicting Fred Maurer while on Wrangle Island during this first Canadian Arctic expedition, stands as a testament to Maurer's intrepid spirit, his enduring, relentless passion for exploration, and his ability to be a leader on an expedition. Maurer poses heroically in this photograph, staring down death in the form of a months long stint without enough food, in the blithering cold, and little hope of rescue. Rather than giving up, however, Maurer acts as a stabilizing force for the crew. He stands strong, his posture straight, his expression stoic, ready to hunt for seals and other arctic wildlife in order to prolong the lives of his fellow crew members. Maurer seems undeterred by the cold, his hands comfortably bare, and by the passing of time, his eyes piercing the camera, far from sunken and tired. 

Maurer's spirit, as demonstrated by this photo, shines throughout his career as an explorer. He, like many great explorers, displayed the tendency to weigh the research and expansion of human knowledge, as well as the safety of his crew, above his own livelihood. Thus, this harrowing experience did little to his morale as an explorer. After his rescue, Maurer enlisted in the army to fight during World War I. It is noted that Maurer spent the majority of his time as a soldier "thinking about and discussing the Arctic." Unsurprisingly, despite narrowly avoiding death during the Canadian Arctic Expedition, Maurer's story in the Arctic had only just begun.