99 Days in the Dark; The Overland Relief Expedition

In October 1897, eight whaling ships became trapped in pack ice near Point Barrow, Alaska — the northernmost tip of North America — with 265 men aboard and no possibility of rescue by sea until the following summer. With the crew facing starvation, President McKinley ordered the only vessel capable of Arctic work, the Revenue Cutter Bear, to attempt the impossible: get food to those men before they died. What followed was a 99-day, 1,500-mile overland march through an Alaskan winter, at temperatures as low as negative 45 degrees Fahrenheit, led by volunteer officers on foot and snowshoes. The plan hinged entirely on a herd of reindeer — and on a missionary who left his wife and children alone in a remote Bering Strait village to guide them through the most brutal leg of the journey. This is the rescue that almost no one knows about, and it is one of the most remarkable survival stories in American history. 00:06 Wilderness First Aid 01:08 Podcast Intro 01:32 Point Barrow Rescue Tease 03:27 Sources Listener Shoutout 04:19 Whalers Trapped In Ice 06:14 Rescue Mission Problem 07:30 Reindeer Rescue Plan 07:43 Meet The Volunteers 12:00 Reindeer Program Origins 13:37 Overland Trek Begins 14:37 Team Splits To Survive 17:00 Negotiating For Reindeer 20:09 Driving The Herd North 21:15 Arctic Medicine Reality 22:32 Snow Blindness Solutions 23:14 Snowblindness Hacks 24:06 Power Bar Wrapper Goggles 25:30 Calorie Deficit Breakdown 27:02 Bad News From Tilton 28:10 Belvedere In Ice 28:57 Arrival At Point Barrow 30:54 Scurvy And Reindeer Cure 32:53 Bear Breaks Through Ice 34:14 Medals And Missing Credit 35:55 Where They Ended Up 39:49 The Lost Ship Wanderer 40:21 Jarvis Philosophy And Wrap Listen AD FREE: Support our podcast at patreaon: http://patreon.com/TheCruxTrueSurvivalPodcast Email us! thecruxsurvival@gmail.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thecruxpodcast/ Get schooled by Julie in outdoor wilderness medicine! https://www.headwatersfieldmedicine.com/REFERENCES Jarvis, David H. Expedition Journal, 1897–1898. As quoted in U.S. Coast Guard and NOAA primary source accounts. McKinley, William. Message to Congress, January 17, 1899. The American Presidency Project. presidency.ucsb.edu. Thiesen, William H. "The Overland Expedition — Saving Lives Above the Arctic Circle Over 120 Years Ago." NOAA Ocean Exploration, September 9, 2019. Thiesen, William H. "David Jarvis, the Early Bering Sea Patrol and the Famous Overland Relief Expedition." NOAA Ocean Exploration, June 3, 2021. Thiesen, William H. "The Cutter Bear and the Arctic Expedition to Save 265 Whalers." Maritime Executive, September 13, 2019. "The Incredible Alaska Overland Rescue." Naval History and Heritage Command, U.S. Navy. history.navy.mil. "Surgeon Call — Arctic Hero of the Coast Guard and Public Health Service." National Coast Guard Museum. nationalcoastguardmuseum.org. "Overland Relief Expedition." Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overland_Relief_Expedition. "David H. Jarvis." Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Jarvis. "W. T. Lopp." Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomas_Lopp. Taliaferro, John. In a Far Country: The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder, and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898. New York: PublicAffairs, 2006. Lopp, William Thomas. Diary of the Relief Expedition for the Whalers in the Arctic Ocean, 1898. Lopp, Ellen Louise Kittredge. Ice Window: Letters from a Bering Strait Village, 1892–1902. 2001. "There Was Much Money to Be Made in Reindeer Herding." HistoryNet. historynet.com.
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