The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast January 9, 1990

     Radio Amateur Robert Gleason, 7OY, got what he thought was only a summer job as radio operator on one of Olaf Swenson's two fur trading motor schooners, the Nanuk.  Swenson's other schooner, the Elisif, was at the time icebound in the Arctic for eleven months.  Swenson took supplies to the Arctic each summer in exchange for furs.
     The Nanuk left Seattle on June 15, 1929, with a total of 14 aboard, including Swenson, the officers and crew.  In addition to the ship's 500-watt transmitter, Gleason took along his small 5-watt amateur short-wave set for emergency back up.
     Progress was slow while making deliveries to several outposts.  In the meantime, Gleason was in radio contact with his high school chum, Chuck Huntley, who was the radio operator on the sister ship, the Elisif, that was now free.  Both ships were pushing through heavy ice fields, and blinding snow blizzards made it very hazardous.
     Once, as Gleason turned his set on, he heard Huntley, who had been calling for 30 minutes, sending "SOS SOS WKDB from LCYB.  For God's sake Bob, please come on.  If you don't answer, I'll send blind."  Bob replied and found that they had run aground, were leaking badly, and were abandoning ship.  No lives were lost but the ship was a total loss.
     Gleason`s amateur radio was often the only means of communication.  After being assured that all were cared for and safe, the Nanuk went alone to the last outpost, took on a large cargo of furs and started back.  The weather and heavier ice were much worse and on October 4, 1929, Gleason radioed that they were icebound near Russia's North Cape where they remained for nine months.  Temperatures dropped down to 40 below zero.  They supplemented the food supply by hunting duck and deer.
     Stories of their plight appeared in the press.  Aviators volunteered and flew the five-hour hazardous flights from Alaska.
     The famous Arctic aviator Carl Eielson and co-pilot Earl Borland were killed when they crashed in bad weather.  It took several months before their bodies were found.  Several more aircraft were damaged in rough ice landings.
     Gleason was in great sorrow when he received radio messages of his father's sudden death.  The long isolation was showing on everyone.  Finally, the ice broke up and they sailed for Seattle and home, arriving on August 2, 1930.
     Gleason said, "From almost every standpoint, the voyage had been a disaster.  Less than half of the fur had been taken out; two lives had been lost; one airplane had been destroyed and three others damaged.  The schooner Elisif was lost.  Despite all this, I felt as though I had participated in an unselfish, heroic adventure.  The dedication, perseverance, and tenacity of crew, pilots and mechanics, and the ability of men without adequate equipment and facilities to cope with cold, wind, darkness and adversity, made this a tremendous experience which I never will forget."

January 9, 1991

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **

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