The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 446 - Ada Blackjack

Episode Date: September 8, 2020

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine Iñupiat explorer Ada BlackjackSourcesTour DatesRedbubble Merch

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better. You're a peach. I'm a peach. That's the most defeated peach ever. It's a resignation. You're listening to the dollop on the All Things Comedy Network. This is a bilingual American History podcast where each week I tree viewer man who likes clouds, Labradoodl Daddy, Dave Anthony, read the story from American history to his guy. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. There we go. You seem mad. Well I just there's a lot in the intro I did not care for this week so I think we should just a lot mm-hmm I mean we're not even

a minute in. Yeah I know that's how that's how big that's how much you are full of bullshit. Do you remember last week when pretty early on I had to get permission to treat my co-host as hostile? Yeah but you get permission from nobody. So permission granted. What? Yes yeah yeah that happened again and you know why it happened? Because you have a very bad attitude today. A very bad attitude. I come here I'm excited I'm happy I'm ready to go and what do I run into? What do I run into? Captain Sourpus. Okay you know Captain Sourpus. This is how I would define you okay. A cervic owner of rude thoughts and weak nickname giver.

Those are your three. Go with those next time all right. Leave me out of it. I'm just a guy. What do I know? I'm just a guy. Permission to be really sad. Dave you are just. Permission granted. You're hard to you're hard to deal with. Do you understand that? And called it quote is jam-packed. Jam-packed? I'm the fucking hippo guy. Dave okay. My name's Gary. My name's Gary. Wait. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna come to Tickly Podcast. Okay. This is like an up-five-part coefficient. Now hit him with the puppy. You both present sick arguments. No sleep though hippo. That's like a hippo. Actually partner. Hi Gary. No. Nice to be done my friend. No. No. Rhonda. Rhonda

in the car. Apparently last week I did not read the date and I was reprimanded by several people. Oh and I didn't even catch it? You didn't catch it but I didn't do it and you know you're gonna take heat for that. That's a ball dropped on my part. Do you want to do last week's date now or should we just pick up? Hmm. Let's do that. Let's do last week's date. Okay. Let's do last week's date now. So for anybody listening Dave, the date that Dave is going to shout is not this week's date. There will be a second date shouted. But we're just doing a makeup shout for last week. March 29th, 1937. Okay. So that was last week's. So that's the heavy lifting. Now to the podcast we've all waited for. March

10th, 1898. Year of our Lord Jesus Christ. There we go. Now we're back baby. Now we're back baby. Ada Delatuk was born in Solomon, Alaska to a new pee ought to parents. Okay. Let's go into this. So the term that is offensive that used to be used is Eskimo. Yes. So that's like a catch all that white people came up with for everybody. All indigenous people living north. It just sounds, it's, let me just jump in. It sounds out of character for the whites. So a lot of the research she was called that. So then it gets into what they call themselves, which is what they should be called obviously, but there's different, you know, different parts. So in Alaska in this part, from what I could tell, they are

all called a new Piot. So hopefully I'm not wrong about that, but that's just, if everyone's in the history books, if they call them Eskimo, then you don't know what they are actually. You know what I mean? You don't know who they actually were. So, so I hope I'm getting this all right. I, I took a, I took a, I took a guess based on the geographic region that, that they are from, which is, it sounds like they're a new Piot. So, hopefully, if choosing to not use the racist term is a lot more than most white people are doing now. So. And we've used racist terms ignorant on this podcast before and had to been told that we

were doing that. So, you know, hey, look, we're, we're just old white guys. Thank you. Fill us in. Thank you. Okay. So that's the breakdown. So if I am already offending someone because I'm, I, and you know this person and they have the, I have the wrong indigenous background, I apologize. Okay. So when Ada was eight, her father became sick after eating old meat. We've all been there. We've all done that.

That's just a hazard of living in a, in a snowy area. Yeah. I was truly like, if you're in that situation, like, you know, you're, you just got to, you got to, your eyeball and old meat. So you're like, yeah, probably it'll work. But he died. Yeah. Well, uh, their mom was away when he ate it. So Ada and her younger sister tied him to a sled and started dragging him towards the town of Nome, which was 30 miles away. Good. God. So just, it's what we call kids stuff. Jesus.

But he died on the way. So they dragged him back to their village. That's that out of the two, that's the least fun drag. That's right. Yeah. So now Ada's mother, after the father passes away, sent her to live with missionaries in Nome. Okay. And they taught her how to read and write and, and, you know, do the, you know, as we call it, uh, assimilation. Okay. Converter to Christianity. Smart. And by the way, that, to me, that is one

of the fundamental things you've got to do after reading and writing. Get to the good book right away. Pound it in, right? That's really, if you're old enough to read, you're old enough to be misled. So she, there, she learns how to cook. She learns how to wash. She learns how to iron. She learns how to sew. Okay. Sewing is actually super important for young and new Piot girls. Uh, it helps, it helps them survive in the freezing cold because they can make fur coats and sew shit together. So it's actually a genuine, I don't know about iron, irons, probably not.

Right. Okay. All right. Relax. You're shouting. So Ada also learned, uh, quote, how to sing hymns, to bathe, to comb her hair, to brush her teeth, to avoid tobacco and alcohol, to handle money and to honor the American flag. Oh my God. Jesus. So she went to Trump University. Look, if you're a, if you're a young native, uh, girl living up, uh, on the Bering Sea in Alaska, you're really the, one of the main things you got to learn is to honor that American flag. You really got to get in on that. Yes. Absolutely. And Dave, let me say, honor it forever. No matter what missteps or misdeeds

are done on behalf of that, always embrace it, never question it. It is not yours. It is ours. And if you fall out of line, we will kill you. Okay. I've said this, I've said this a lot. Yeah. That should be the anthem. Don't ever fall out of line. It's a piece of cloth and it's colored differently than other pieces of cloth. Yes. So fucking show it some respect. It's the best colored cloth that's ever been clothed. That's right. So unlike most Anupiat people, Ada's not familiar with tribal living, uh,

because she's raised by these missionaries, right? Where are we in her? How old are we? Well, well, so now she's, now she's past being a teen. Like she, she's, she's grown up with these missionaries. Right. So she's spent her formidable years learning about how to respect the flag, God handle money, and don't drink and don't do baggy. That's right. So she's not used to the tribal living that her other people have experienced. Uh, that, so she did learn about hunting, trapping, building shelters, those sort of

things. She gets a job as a seamstress for minors, which is just a great gig for a young lady. Sure. Her biographer said she was quote, small, not even five feet tall, poker faced, pretty, and unassuming. She liked nice clothes and hats. Who doesn't like hats? Yeah. And dressed as smartly as she was able on her skimpy earnings, she displayed a particular

fondness for dark blue suits. Okay. Now, now let me let, okay. Just as the investigator on the podcast, the fact that she has a biographer, interesting. I feel like this person might be memorable. Yeah, that gives it away. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. No, please. The fact that we're doing it up. So I'm just kidding. Well, I usually, but I usually drop that kind of stuff, but I forgot. Okay. A friend of Aida's said she was shy private and had a habit of sitting extremely still and was distrustful of strangers.

Is that a habit or a disposition? I think that's just what some people would call fear, just living in fear. I have a habit of being terrified. I can't stop. It's impossible. I should stop. I'm actually weaning myself off. I'm just being totally freaked out for 30 minutes a day right now for the week. Next week, 15, week after, I'm only going to be freaked out two days. And then just socially, when I'm around people, I might just lose my shit every now and then, but that's it. I don't think with all the white guys, I don't think that that's going to, I don't think

you're going to be able to wean yourself off. Oh yeah. No, you, I trust them. You can trust them. Great. That's why I call white guys frosted flakes. They're great. So when Aida was 16, she married a well-known hunter in the area named Jack Blackjack. Dave, let's end the podcast. Look, I'm going to say he made that name up. I'm going to say that wasn't his given name. Jack Blackjack. Yeah, it's a, you know, it's not a normal name. All right. So anyway, the marriage doesn't last long.

Mrs. Blackjack didn't, she wasn't into it. Well, he's abusive. He abuses her. He starves her. And then he ended up deserting her in the sewer peninsula. So Jesus Christ. That's a shit marriage. God damn. But I, yeah, I mean, I guess a guy named Blackjack hits a lot. In the, in new Piot ways, they're not officially married. So she can just leave. So the, whatever the marriage is, it's over. She just leaves.

Yeah. I think, I think he's made it pretty clear that it's not working either. So it feels like it's definitely time to call it. So she left, she was quote, bone poor, almost naked for lack of clothes and with no money. Good God. Okay. So I, I mentioned for a comeback. She has a five year old son. She throws them on her back and she walks 40 miles back to her mother's home. Her son Bennett was sickly and he had tuberculosis and Ada couldn't afford medical care or food.

So it's cool how nothing's changed in America. I mean, So she left him at an orphanage, you know, That is so depressing. Her reality and then what you just said. Yeah. Yeah. So she leaves them at an orphanage and no, like now it's like a fucking family tradition, right?

Yeah. A mother, mother, her husband, or husband dies and then you got to drop off with, you know, All right, there you go. You're going to learn about money and Jesus. Yeah. Go in there. And they're trying to find a job hoping to make enough money to bring Ben at home.

Okay. Now Fred Maurer was from Akron, Ohio. Fred had quote piercing blue eyes and a chiseled jaw, thick blonde hair, broad shoulders and a stocky football player physique at 18. He leaves Ohio and he gets a job as a deck hand on a whaling ship. Okay. And then he docks at Herschel Island in Canada. And there he met explorer, Will Helmer Stevenson, okay, or Stephenson, so Stephenson was pretty

famous with kids who wanted to go out and adventure in the world. Guys like Fred, when they were boys, he, he had gone on many expeditions. He was always seeking a continent at the top of the world. And in 1913, Stephenson, what does that mean? He thinks there's a continent at the top of the world. Okay. Okay. So he's, he's, he's been looking for it for years.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. That's not Gareth. It's not there. Well, Dave, to be fair, I mean, I feel like this does crack the flatter theory a little bit. If someone goes across the globe looking for a continent that doesn't exist, it has to

be here. It just must be here. I've looked everywhere. Where the fuck is it? God damn it. I just know it in my, in the marrow of my bones. I know there's a continent up there. Someday I'll find it, the continent up there.

Is that the song? It's to the tune of Rainbow Connection, but I've made it for me. Okay. So in 1913, Stephenson meets Fred in Canada while, while he's preparing for an expedition to the Canadian Arctic Circle to find the, the continent. Right. Well, you see, I'm preparing a journey. We're going to go find something that's not there.

That's right. Won't be easy, but I think at the end of the day, when we have nothing to show for it, we'll feel accomplished. Now, follow me to your death, gentlemen, for nothing. So he hires Fred. Okay. They go off on this ship after one month, the ship becomes trapped in ice. Okay.

Now that is bad. I'm not into ships, but that's bad, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's not, from what I understand about ships, that's not a great thing. So Stephenson then takes a couple of the guys and he leaves the rest of his crew on the ship and starts, and starts heading on foot to cross into Alaska. Okay.

So he walks off and now the ship just, it's stuck in ice, just drifts for five months. What? For five? Until the ice finally crushes it and it sinks. What? What kind of? What? Yeah.

What's the crew doing? Well, we're going to die. Well, they get off and they kind of scatter. Some go one way, some go the other way, but they're all stranded on polar ice. They're cursing Stephenson while they're struggling to stay alive of the 25 crew. So they're out there for six months on the ice or on islands. Of the 25 crew members, 11 die, Fred survives for six months on the desolate Rangel Island, which is 400 miles northwest of Alaska.

And then they're finally rescued. Okay. Now Dave, did they find the continent? Did they find the other continent? No. They didn't find the continent yet. No, but they'll find it. So back in America, Fred is mad at first, but then eventually he forgives Stephenson for

being abandoned. Boy, time, time is really can heal all wounds. If you can just eventually be like, I'm not mad. Yeah, it's really crazy. So now there's another guy, Errol Lorne Knight. He's a loud, very saucy 27 year old dude, six feet tall, 230 pounds. Knight was, quote, course and unrefined, but he had a good heart and decent values. Okay.

When he was 21 years old, his neighbor, who was a captain, invited him to go on an arctic expedition. And as their ship reached the Canadian shore, they saw a single man trying to get the ship's attention. And this turned out to be Stephenson, who had been walking alone for 100 miles abandoned in his ship. Someday I'll find it, the continent is up there. So Knight, ever since he met Stephenson in that way, was by his side forever.

Now Fred ends up forgiving Stephenson somehow after he was abandoned. And Stephenson starts on, it's called the Chautauqua tour, which it's an American tour, an adult education movement that turns into sort of a circus event. So sorry, that is the craziest. No, no, no. What did you just say? So an actual tour, like a tour tour. It's a tour.

It's a tour. It's like an experts tour. Okay. But it turns into, it starts to have like a circus feel to it. So it's experts, it's specialists of the time, like Stephenson, who's an explorer expert, right? By the way, he should not be on that panel, but keep going. So he tours in towns, he's running it.

They hold lectures, performances, and speeches, and they have a big tent, like a big circus tent. Sure. And Stephenson is a really popular actor on the country, because even though he did that thing with the boat, he still made excuses why it happened, and said he was going back for him. Right. The captain of the ship hated him for doing this, but then other people were like, no,

he sacrificed himself to go save, like, yeah, well, you know, it's one of those fucking things, right? Right. Right. Now, Knight is on the tour, Fred joins the tour. Another dude on the tour was 19-year-old Milton Harvey Robert Gale. He became, he became Stephenson's secretary. He was, quote, irresistible to everyone with raw and reckless good looks, a wicked sense

of humor, and an easy charm. Okay. So he's a bang machine? Well, another quote, girls developed wild fervent crushes on him, swooning over the angular lines of his face, his firm chin, and his tussled brown hair. Wow. Okay. So he's, so, I mean, I want to fuck him right now.

I, I banged him. I did bang him. So Fred, Knight, and Gale, these are three guys that are now hanging out. They're very close on the tour, and they all want to go back to the Arctic. They're all like, we got to get to the Arctic. And Stephenson's their only chance, but he's not committing to another expedition. He's gotten really busy with writing, lecturing, and teaching. The idea.

Then in 1921. The idea that if you're Fred, that you're like, please, can we go out again? Yes, Stephenson, please. I'm sorry that I almost died out there. I didn't mean to. It's, it's really crazy that you would go through that fucked up a thing and just be like, let's do it again. Hey, that thing where I had to chew on rocks to get moss to survive.

Let's do that. Oh my God. And he's asking him, please, please. Please man, it almost killed me. Please try to finish the job. Kill me. Please. Kill me this time.

So Stephenson says, he tells them he has no intention to return to the Arctic. But he's lying to them because he's also secretly planning an expedition to Wrangel Island. Okay. And this is the island that Fred was trapped on and it's, it's in the Arctic Ocean. It's a hundred miles north of Siberia and 250 miles away from Alaska. So surely just above Siberia, but over. Surely Fred wants to go back there to meet some of the rocks he left behind again. See how they're doing.

See if there's more moss on them. So Stephenson goes to the Canada's prime minister and other government officials and he tells them of this plan. I'm looking to kill some men. But the problem is the ownership of Wrangel Island is an issue. Some people thought the Russians acclaimed it. Some thought the U.S. had, so no one's really sure. And then also like, why would you want it?

Stephenson thought both claims were not valid because so much time had lapsed since they claimed it. The actual longest occupation of Wrangel Island turned out to be the crew that Stephenson abandoned for six months. Oh yeah. So it is his. It is. By the way, I like that ownership over an area of land is like a domain address.

It's like, that's been two years. It's not yours anymore. You should have paid $5.99 for the year. This is so weird. Yeah. Okay. So he would have, I mean, it sounds like it's basically Stephenson's island. Yeah.

And he wants to claim it for Canada. And he wants to make an, he wants to turn it into an air base for Canada. And so he, on the tour, he keeps asking Fred questions about the island. Honestly, I don't want to keep talking about it. It was kind of a nightmare. What was your favorite part when I got picked up? All right. My favorite part.

When I was out there and I thought I was going to die. Okay. He's hoping he can make something out of Wrangel Island and that the Canadian government would quote, forget the disastrous results of his previous expedition and the condemnation by his peers. Sure. So he wants to wipe out the thing where he'd left a bunch of guys to die. But surely Fred helps that case a little bit.

You would think. Okay. So Stephenson needed a British or Canadian citizen to lead the expedition so he could validate the claim. So he wrote a confidential letter to the University of Toronto seeking a recent graduate who quote, might be interested in lending his nationality to the cause. The letter said it was a three year expedition and he sought a man of science, a young man, quote, the chief qualification is temperamental.

He should be especially a good walker and the eyesight should be above the average. Those are, those three qualities should be terrifying to anybody who's like, well, I can do that. So do you get angry a lot? I'm pretty chill. And what about walking for you? Yeah, I don't, I don't mind a walk. How about your eyes?

How about your peepers? Oh, they're great. Yeah, I can see everything. Look over there. That's a pine cone. You know what you are to me? What? A natural explorer.

Wow. That's exciting to hear. It's like you were, it's like you were born for it. Yes. No, it's true. I'm, I'm pretty cheery all around. So I'm excited for this. The able to walk really far thing stood out to me as a little.

Yes. Let me ask again. Can you walk far distances? Yes, I've said I can. I mean, I, yes, of course I can. Yes. I mean, and while you're walking, while you're walking, you can see. Yes, of course.

Yes. Yes. Of course I can walk and I can see. You're basically talking to Marco Polo. Yes. But again, the temperament also seems a bit, why, why does my disposition matter so much if we're, I mean, we've already, I'd like to have a, I'd like to have a happy fellow.

Okay. Yeah. No, that's fair. Okay. Well, I promise you, I will have a good attitude, my friend. In case you're eating like it or something of the sort. So chewing on a rock. Yes.

That is not to be, to hear in there. That seems fine. And yes, here and there, I would do that. All the time. All the time. Well, sure. Yep. I'm in.

Yes. Yeah. So Alan Crawford was a 20 year old student who was studying geology, paleontology, chemistry and mineralogy and he was very patient with an even temper and Crawford was in. Okay. Okay. But the Canadian government funding is not looking good. A lot of government officials still resented Stephenson and quote, no one wanted to give

him the responsibility of another expedition under the Canadian flag. Okay. So, you know, the whole burned once thing, when you leave a bunch of guys to die, people are like, maybe you shouldn't do another one. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Burn them once. Yeah. Yeah. The commissioner of parks said quote, he is a Canadian in the sense that he was born in Canada, but that is all, which is true. He was born in Canada, but then he moved to South Dakota when he was like two or something. Well, but Dave, he was on a quest to find land that wasn't there.

I mean, that's sure you got to leave home to do that. Also the commissioner of parks, it's like, what's the matter, you're going to shut down the playground. Come on. Let's get out of here, boys. But Stephenson wanted the ship to depart by summer because of rumors that the Japanese and Russians were interested in the island. So Stephenson took matters into his own hands.

He goes and he meets with Crawford in Michigan and he swears Crawford a secrecy. Stephenson told him he would be unable to join the team until next year. So Crawford would have to lead it. Okay. So Crawford's... So he's going to send them up. Uh-huh. He's going to send them up and Crawford's going to lead him, then he's going to come

up a year later. Interesting. It feels very outsourced. It's very outsourced. He also said there was a possibility of no pay if the government didn't come around and fund them. We're going to have what I like to call one of my good news chats. Hey, you want to be an intern on an arctic island?

Yeah. I mean, to go from like, okay, so you don't get angry and you can walk far and your eyes are good, which is great. I think you're just going to be in charge of this and I'll just meet up later. Isn't that... Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah.

It makes sense. I'll just meet up with you guys later. You guys go there for a year, figure it out, get a big moss pile, and I'll just show up in a year once there's a TGI Fridays or something. Great. Yeah. Great. You're a really good explorer.

Well, I have found a man who will do the job I can't. Manho! So Stevenson said he could pay Crawford 150 per month from his own money and Crawford says he'll do it. He's really willing to do anything. He just wants to explore. Yes. Okay.

So the Canadian government officially said no, but he officially said no funding. They come down, but he still moves forward with the expedition. So now he knows that it's all going to come out of his own pocket or he's going to have to find other people to fund it. Stephenson. Yeah. Okay. So he's basically sending, it's like if you started construction on a bridge, but you

only had money for the first half. That's what he's doing. Okay. And those always work out really well. Yeah. Yeah. So what he's hoping for is there's a Canadian election coming up and he's hoping that there'll be a flip of who controls the country and the new guys will come in and go, we'll give

you money. It's a crazy bet. So in July Crawford goes to meet Stephenson's business partner in Vancouver and Crawford's given a contract of employment. Well, feeder, feeder, feeder went off. Sorry. Go ahead. Go get it.

Jose. He's already there. He's eating. So he's given three Canadian flags and two British flags in a contract. What? And then, and then Crawford goes to meet the rest of the team, Fred, Knight and Gale. They all get along great. Wait.

Why is he getting? Why is he like, why is he like the Jason born of flags? Why is he getting like flag options? Well just in case the other flags don't work out or something or he wants to plant them in different places. Okay. It's all. It's very strange.

Okay. So it's, I believe it is, I don't know if it's still called British Canada, but it's, you know, they're in the Commonwealth and there's a connection there. So it's the British Canadian thing. So Steveson had, he gave them a $2,500 check. So they buy supplies and then they get on the ship Victoria and the chief steward gives them a tiny gray stripe kitten for good luck, which is a common thing when you're on ships. Cats are good luck.

Oh boy. I can only imagine. They name her Vic. Okay. So Steveson had not told them about the lack of funding. Sure. Or how, or how dangerous it would be if the Russians learned of the trip. Okay.

It's fine. No, it sounds. Why would you want to know that? It just sounds like there's, you know, I think going into something like this, details would be key. You know, you'd want to hear some of that stuff. I don't know. You sound kind of like a baby.

You know what I mean? Well, I think it's fair to say I would like to know all the information of the endeavor that I'm going into before I go into it, like a, like a baby, like a big giant. No, no, no, no, no, like a grown, like a, like a, no, like a grown person who wants to evaluate whether or not they should do something like this. I'd like to know all the details and that sounds like boss, baby. That's what it sounds like. I do not appreciate that term.

If you want to go buy a car and they were like, this is the car. And then once you bought it, they were like, Hey, it explodes. Would you feel bad? Did you feel misled? Would that car help me find the undiscovered continent at the North Pole? It's going to explode. Yes, I would do it. Idiots.

All the, all these guys are young, right? They're 19, 20 ish. Their parents aren't worried because Stephenson is giving very vague descriptions of the expedition. And so they're like getting a little concerned. Sure. He would only say they're going North for an unspecified amount of time. That's not how this works. I don't know.

I don't know how this works. And that's not how this works. He also led them to believe he was leading the expedition, but he wasn't Crawford was. So they leave Seattle on Victoria on August 18th, 1921, and they stop in Nome, Alaska. They bought sleds and dogs and they searched for an umiac, which is a skin boat. So it's indigenous people up there make them. It's basically like a frame. And then they put the skin of one of them animal things around us.

Skin boat. Skin boats, what I call my penis, by the way. Oh, God. You feel better? I'm getting off. See you next week. But they couldn't find a skin boat. So they decided to buy it at the next stop, which is the last stop, East Cape, Siberia.

Now they also needed a new peat seamstress who spoke English and Nome's police chief heard that. And he was like, have you heard of Ada Blackjack? Oh, right. She's still going by Ada Blackjack? Yeah, she's still going by Blackjack for some reason. I think because it's probably pretty cool. Yeah.

So Ada knew Stemis' name because Ada's sister's husband had served under him on a previous expedition. Okay. Okay. So the police chief tells Ada he thought this would be a good job and they're solid wages. It's 50 bucks a month. And then he also thought like the change of scenery would do her good.

It's like, dude, you're the chief. You're the, I don't need the police to tell me like, you should do it. I think it'd be great for you. You could be out there. I think it's like a really, a really amazing change of scenery between Nome, Alaska and an Arctic island. Oh, this is amazing. You got to see the powder they got up there is far different.

Clumps easier. You'll think you're in the goddamn Bahamas. Ada, you got to go see it. It's nothing like Nome. It's the big city. It's the Hollywood of snow, baby. So the, the police chief also tells her that entire and new Piot families are going to be hired on this expedition to hunt trap.

And so, so she wouldn't be alone. She'd be with a bunch of her, her people. Sure. So she's, she's wrestling with it. She wants to go to make the money, but she doesn't want to leave her son. He's still in the orphanage. So she goes and talks to her sisters that night and her brother-in-law overhears it. And he's like, do not take the fucking job.

Do not take the job. So she's super conflicted. So she goes to a respected and new Piot shaman and trades tobacco for advice. She's not supposed to be handling tobacco, David. I know. Well, she's picked up some awesome, awesome things and she left the missionaries. So the shaman tells Ada, she would make it to the island, but their quote was only danger and death ahead and that she must be watched, but she must be watchful of knives and fire.

I like to think that this was a shaman who took a long pause in between advice. I'll be her. Take it from the top. Okay. Well, I, should I go on this journey? Yes. You're going to make it there. All right.

See you later. What? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, there's more, there's more, there's more. Just put these earbuds in, listen to some Tanya Tucker. So she gets, she gets this advice. Now as a new Piot, she, they very much believe in, in shamans and they respect them and, and you know, they believe what they have to say, but she needs money. That's the cool thing, right?

We're back to capitalism. Yeah. So she, she, she, she needs enough to get her son back from the orphanage and then get a medical treatment. That's all she wants. Right. So she agrees to join the expedition. Okay.

On September 9th, 1921, the crew prepared to leave, but none of the hired and new Piot families showed up. Hmm. Okay. Only Ada Blackjack, just Ada. So Ada is now going from like thinking like, I'll be around a bunch of people I know to like, oh no, it's just me. Good.

Four white dudes. Yeah. And only woman. Yeah. A lot of, yeah. That's, by the way, and I think that is, that's the energy that I think a lot of women want just to get the four, four, be trapped around the four white guys. Yeah.

Yeah. On some, you know, just cold, desolate, snow covered. Yeah. Let's see them at their worst. What, what, what would they do? Oh God. So they try to convince the families, they, they go to the families, they try to convince them to join, but each family said it would be too dangerous because now it was too late

in the summer to go. They've waited too long to leave. Okay. It would be too risky. So Ada doesn't want to be the only woman on the trip and, and the only a new Piot on the expedition. And the guys know they probably won't find other and new Piot families in Siberia, but they also couldn't delay leaving.

So they lie to Ada and they promise her they would hire more and new Piot's before they departed Siberia. So they're like, next stop, we're going to get families to come with us and you won't be alone. Dave, you're the history guy. Is this the first time that white people have lied? It is. I went back through all my research.

You can't find it. Yeah. It's the first time I could find a lie from a white guy. Well, because I think the thing is, and I think this is, you know, I think any race would say this, that the white people have shot so straight throughout history that when you hear some like, uh, espousing lies, it's, it's, it's tough to, it's tough to believe. I would, I, well, let's keep going, but I want to kind of circle back on some of the sources after this and just see if you have this right.

Yeah. That's fair. Okay. So on September 10th, the silver wire docs in East Cape Siberia, it's their final stop before heading to Wrangel Island. Summer is ending. When they told Russian passengers on the ship with them where they were going, all the Russians laughed at them.

Wait, wait, wait, which, this is their ship? They're on some sort of passenger ship. Oh, okay. I don't know what happened between the two. Okay. So wait, and they went from like their own expedition to they like bought tickets on a ship. I'm not really sure what happened or, or, or, or other people are just being transported

on this ship. I'm going to like that. It's a different, I would like to think that they just had to get on like a duck boat tour to get to where they want it. It's a different ship for sure. So, um, so, and so the Russian, the Russians are just laughing at me. Okay. Okay.

The Russians are just laughing. They're like you guys are out of your fucking mind. Good luck over there. You'll have a lot of fun. Like most teeth, they said, even if they, even if they said first of all, they're never going to make it to, to Wrangel Island this time of year. And even if they did, they would be caught by the Siberian patrol. So they still keep going forward with it.

They try to recruit more a new Piot families in Siberia. They can't. They're not going to do it. They're all like, it's too fucking late. But now Ada, well, she's fucked, right? Because she's no longer in gnome where she knows everybody has a home and a family. She's literally fucked. She's Dave.

So she's a long way from gnome. That's right. So it's too late for her. She has to go, but she also desperately wants to go home. So the silver wave continues on and up to Wrangel Island, quote, high winds swelling, heaving, rolling waves. Next stop death. Sorry.

Wrangel Island. Whoopsie. Boopsie. I think what I say and I don't say what I think. The crew has to go below deck. The skin boat they have washes overboard. They arrive on September 15th and they proudly plant the British Union jack flag in the ground as Crawford reads an official proclamation for the British Empire.

Here is where we will die. The flag signifies our tombstone. The I also this this the flags like the flag planting stuff is just what meaning does it have? Like if someone's so dumb, if someone sees your flag, are they like, oh, I got to get out of here. They're like, oh, take it out. Fuck these people.

It's just also the fucking flag. It's just also fucking stupid. I mean, it sounds like cleaning land. Yeah. It's like Explorer's version of dibs, essentially. Yeah. It's called shotgun on a seat. Yeah, exactly.

Shotgun ours. But then you have the five minute rule. If you leave your flag alone for five minutes, then someone can take it out and put another flag in there. You didn't call five minute rule. So as all the guys are celebrating, Ada's crying because she's so sad. Celebrating after all that they've heard. I mean, it really does speak to the delusion of and the ego of a white to be like, to hear

all this, to see how all this is the trajectory of this and to be like, Ada, what's the matter? Why aren't you coming to the party? We're celebrating. We're going to meet God in a week. So the first few days, pretty smooth. They pitch their tents, the unpack supplies, starting to routine during the day. They would explore, collect scientific materials, take notes about floor and fauna, et cetera. Ada's selling and cooking.

The guys at first doubted her ability, but now they feel a lot better. They brought her along. But Ada is super homesick. Again, she's with four dudes and none of her own people. Every time they tried to comfort her, she'd burst into tears. That's always, I think that is, is there a, is there a position a white man feels more comfortable in? But still somehow the group, they form a sense of camaraderie.

So at some point Ada becomes infatuated with Crawford. And Crawford is the stunningly handsome man we addressed earlier. No, there's like, there's two of them that are stunningly handsome. Crawford is the smart student. Oh, the young, right, the young, right, okay, right. But the, so she likes him, so she likes a brain on a fella. I guess so. So of the four, Fred is standoffish.

Knight reminded her of a polar bear, loud and frightening. Okay. Gail, Gail was good looking also. And he was the only one who didn't refer to her as the woman or the new Piat. But he was too much like a boy because he's like 19. So Ada thought the only Crawford had the temperament and sophistication to be a partner and a father. And she was pretty obvious about how much she dug him and all the other guys would tease

Crawford about it. Crawford, look, woman wants you. Woman like you Crawford. Look at woman. She don't know how to handle herself. Woman stopped talking to him. So little disasters started happening. Those are the good kinds.

Setbacks, problems. Sure. Ada. Ada started having really depressive episodes and she was sullen and then she so much so she couldn't work. Okay. The guys tried to get her to be consistent, quote, sweet talk to her, denied her supper, made this list made her sleep.

This list is already insane. Keep going. Made her sleep outside in the cold. Night and coke and coaxed her, but nothing worked. That list, that order, that is, that is the list of men with no tactics. I don't know. Why don't we put her... Look, she's sad, right?

Why don't we throw her outside for the night? Just out on the snow. As terrible as that sounds. She said she's sad. Look, hold on. Now let's be rational. As terrible as that sounds and it does sound awful to put someone out in the snow right now.

We did try being nice to her. Yes. And that didn't work. Yeah. And then we said, no food for a night. Yes. Then we said, we'll starve her. We've coaxed her.

We coaxed her all day. All day. I think, and by the way, I think that we did those, gives us some sort of legal coverage if she does perish. Yes. And let me just say this. I read a psychological book once and this makes sense. Yes.

Great. Okay. I have not read anything of the sort, but you have. So if you're co-signing, yeah, let's get her outside. Yes. And fast too. Let's. That'll snap her back into place.

Before the depression. That's right. We have a rare moment right now to freeze her depression inside of her. So let's get it out there. This is what Sigmund Freud said. He said, if someone is depressed, freeze it out. Well, I don't know who the hell he is, but this guy sounds like a straight shooter. So nothing works.

You mean nothing out of their, nothing out of their list of four terrible concepts. That's right. Crawford has a seizure, but he has no history of medical problems. So now they're all worried it's going to happen to him again and they don't know what to do. The guys all also, when they got there, they all realized that they're all very bad hunters. Great. What a great, how the hell did we not stumble on this topic before we all came out here? I'm terrible too.

I'm awful. Out of my group, I'm always the one where they say, don't let, don't let him shoot. That's amazing. Yeah. I'm not good either. I've never actually touched a gun. Oh, shut up. Okay.

So wait a, wait a gut. All, none of us know how to, I just, I hate to say it, but I've got a feeling we're going to die out here or, or eat, or eat each other or eat each other or eat each other. Either one is fine with either. I would eat Fred. I also, I'm not going to lie, I have sort of been thinking in my head that Fred seems to be the one who, who, who would have the most meat. But let's, let's, he's very young and they're very tender too.

I'd like, I like the way his, his body shape, but again, you know, I call, I call him McNuggets. Well, I'll tell you that's not making me not salivate, but let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, before we eat Fred, let's get ourselves to the position where we need to eat Fred. I don't want to be someone who's sitting here just deciding Fred's for sure the one. But I'm going to eat the ass. All right. So no fighting over that. I actually, I don't know if you saw, I actually put the Canadian flag in his butthole the

other day, claiming it for myself. So, and I wrote. Yeah, I didn't know what it was. That is me saying the butt's mine. So eat whatever I think he's got a lot of great parts. I think he's got nice pecky titties. I think those might be. Yeah, those look good.

But I really want the breasts, but I'm going to eat the bud. What can I say? I like to eat butt. So they, they would kill an occasional bear owl here and there, but it wasn't enough to get through the winter. Only one had shooting experience and none of them, including Ada knew how to work a trap. So they don't know how to hunt.

They don't know how to trap. Hey Dave, to be fair, it sounds like nobody knows how to work a trap better than Stevenson. So they even ran out of feed for their best dog, snowball and snowball died. But I do. I even need to ask what happened to the kitten. I mean, I'm assuming that thing just, it's still fine. The kitten is still fine. Kitten's fine.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. So on October 22nd, the temperature dips below freezing. They start losing track of days and time. Good. She's a great feeling. I'm sure that's a great feeling.

I'm sure that is very. Yes. For sure. Not, not further maddening. Ada started to believe that night was going to kill her. He was sharpening his knife one morning, which the shaman had warned her about. So she ran off. Okay.

So the shaman put her in like a, not a, I mean, first of all, I mean, the shaman just without reading anything should have just been like, what are you crazy? You'll die. Okay. Sorry. I'll read the leaves in a second. But like instead of that, you actually don't need, you actually don't need a shaman right now.

You just need like anybody to go, what the fuck are you doing? Any good shaman would say, I don't need to charge you for this. Do not go. But he's, but because he's planted this in her head, so it's almost like he's made it wrong every way because this night trying to kill her. No, he's just sharpening a knife. Right. Yeah.

He's just sharpening a knife. He's not trying to kill her. Also, you're being sexist cause the shaman's a lady. Oh, damn it. Well then how about a shaman, shaman, shaman mother fucker, you're being sexist. You're being sexist. Can women be doctors? Of course they could be doctors.

Why is it called shaman, mother fucker? Huh? Come at me with that. All right. So as she runs off, she's missing for several hours, they go out and search for her. They find her. They decide her madness was because she was in love with Crawford. Good.

It's always good to have the men diagnosed. She's got, look guys, she's so horny. The problem is she's all boned up. Good Lord. She's looking to bang. Don't listen to what she says. She doesn't know. She's horny.

Trust me. So they split the camp into two groups, Gail and Knight and Ada are in one camp and Fred and Crawford are now like 10 miles away in another camp. Okay. And they did this because they felt that her lust for him was driving her to the brink of insanity. That's right. Her lust for him is making her crazy.

Sure. Right. And they understand that they're in the middle of nowhere dying, right? I don't think they put that together yet. Okay. That's a big component, I think. So they hope this distance would calm Ada down and dissipate some of the tension that is actually happening between the guys.

So Knight writes in his journal, quote, this may all sound funny for the reader, but I can assume him or her that it is not funny for the four of us to have a foolish female howling and refusing to work and eating all our good grub. It just, it feels like journal entering was kind of like passion tweets. Just sit on it. Yeah. Also, how about you fucking kill something, big guy? Yeah.

You know, you're actually supposed to be, you know, providing food for everybody. Yeah. And I think honestly, if you've misdiagnosed someone as having, you know, lust, you would think that's insane. You would be like, boy, calm down, but she's just in hell. She's not like, so that's where I like, boy, nothing will solve it. I mean, that's correct. She's basically in hell.

So she's, she's, as much as they try to control her, they can't. She starts walking the 10 miles or whatever it's 50 miles to see Crawford all the time. Knight and Gail would have to go fetch her and drag her back to their camp by strapping her to a sled. What in the hell? But she keeps running away. This is happening over and over. But is she running away because she's just, she likes Crawford or she just doesn't want

to be with these guys? I think it's a combination of everything. I think she doesn't want to be near Knight. She's scared of Knight, you know, the knife thing. There's a lot going on. So she keeps running away. The guy's keeping him to search for her. She's refusing to work.

Knight at one point ties her to a flagpole and she just screamed enchanted for hours. What did he think was going to happen? I don't know. That she's going to become a flag? I don't know what the thought process is behind. I'm going to tie someone to a flagpole. Just goes to his journal. I'm not sure what it was, but her disposition seemed to worsen.

Once I tied her to a frozen pole, she got more angry. I swear, I will never understand a woman. And his journal is called Knight Rider, writer. That's right. So, Winter sets in, and now the guys regret that they brought her. They're totally regretting that they brought her. Winter setting in sounds like a good statement for them. It's good.

It's perfect. It's good. Now they think that Ada is being difficult on a purpose, but Ada is homesick. She's horrified and she's experiencing symptoms of what is called arctic hysteria, which is probably brought on by endless night. It's night. It's never day. It's just night.

Right. So... Night, the time of day, not the man who writes in the journal in Sharpen's Nines. Yeah, it turns out it's not because she's just into some guy. It turns out that it's an actual fucking mental condition that can happen because you're... So, she's been completely misled as to what this would be. So that's hard to negotiate mentally. And there's no...

Look, she's an indigenous person, and these guys are all from somewhere else. How much can you relate to that? It's just like, what's the conversations you're having? Yes. And they also don't... I mean, yes, yes, for 100%. So I mean, between November and January, there's zero sun. So this is when it's happening.

There's like literally no sun. So... So in the U.S., word of Stephenson's crew raising a flag on Wrangel Island spreads. And the U.S. State Department is worried. Alaskans protest in Washington, D.C. and American newspapers are furious saying Stephenson secretly planned to claim land that was America's. Boy, you can... Look, not the hero you need, but the hero you're gonna get.

That's right. Oh, you came to save us. Bullshit. We're gonna kill you. This is ours. USA, baby! Canadian papers thought he was crazy for doing it without the government backing him. And British papers were now worried what this would do to British-American relations.

So everybody's heart is in the right place. Man's new prime minister eventually backed Stephenson's claims to Wrangel Island while the U.S. insisted the island belonged to Russia. The State Department said the land was, quote, of no real value to any country. Man, that is how you know we're talking about a time far away when the State Department was like, we don't need to go. That's fine, we'll just stay here. It just sounds like we might lose some money in lives.

Am I crazy? So meanwhile on the island, weather has gotten so bad by December that the crew didn't leave their tents for weeks. They just can't go outside. It's dark, it's cold, it's just like, what's the fucking point? And then Ada, her arctic hysteria just lifts and she starts working diligently. They had a Christmas celebration together, they had a feast, they had, quote, bread, butter, potatoes, cake, hot coffee, and played a game of poker for smokes.

Everyone's spirits are lifted. On January 25th, 1922, the sun rose for the first time in months. And on February 1st, Crawford turned 21. He can finally drink. Yeah, it's a big day. Can really turn it loose. By the way, amazing to be able to track your birthday after months of darkness. He was probably just lying, he was probably just out of his mind and like the second day

the sun rose, he was like, it's my birthday. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I'm 5,000 today. Yeah, yeah, I'm 5,000 today. So blizzards came in February, it was minus 46 degrees. Good, good, good, good, yes, good, a little hot coffee will kick that out of you.

On March 6th, Gale turned 20. Okay. Then the weather became more mild and temperatures reached 20 degrees. So the release ship is coming in a few months. Okay. That's what they think. This is the Stephenson relief ship. Yeah, Stephenson's relief that he's supposed to be on, remember he's supposed to come.

Dave, he wanted to be here for the first part, it was just a logistical issue. That's right. But in June 1922, the worst hit, large drifts of snow on top of the ice. They could not see the sea. The boys could only kill a few birds, other game was just scarce. It was bad, but they stayed optimistic knowing Stephenson and his relief ship were on there on their way. Oh, the sad, the sad, sad, I mean, just like a child whose father left looking at the window

every night waiting for him to come back. He'll be here, Stephenson said he'd come. And then when he comes, you know what's going to happen? Oh, boy, we're going to eat so much food, you guys, we're going to be so full. It's going to be so good. When he gets here, I'm going to call him Uncle Stephenson. I'm so excited to see him and the ship. And then it'll be over.

And then the nightmare will be over and we'll have so much food. Did I mention that? Oh, boy. Oh, boy. I pretty brings oysters. Do you think he'll bring oysters? I bet he's got them. He rips his teeth out.

Stephenson is in New York. He has no money and no ship. No one will lend him money and he's broke. He asks the Canadian government now he wants a humanitarian rescue ship to save the crew. I got it. I mean, it is quite a downfall from where we started with him. But I've got to say, I'm even shocked that he went that far. Yeah.

But I mean, it's quite a, if only they could be updated. How close is Stephenson? Well, he can't make it. He's begging the government to save you, but our mission, he's freaked out. Well, the Canadian government gives him a little bit of money and his friend Orville Wright gave him a little bit of money. Got those plain bucks. He can send a small relief crew, which left on the ship Teddy Bear on August 20th, 1922.

But by the way, if you're going to ask Orville Wright to help you, you're probably not asking for like a financial stake. You're probably like, hey, dude, let's use your fucking plane. I can give you five bucks. Yeah, you give me five bucks or yeah, I mean, I'm just trying to, I'm trying to get there fast. But you're 10 bucks. Yeah.

What? Wow. Look at all those wings. Yeah, we're close. All right. Well, here's 10 bucks. All right. Great.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Great. If only there was a faster way. All right. Back on the island with each day conditions are getting worse. Game is becoming more scarce. Crawford hurts his hand.

Fred becomes incredibly lethargic. Oh no. That now has a bad back and then an ulcer grew on Gale's jaw. By the way, real quick, when Fred, when Fred is lethargic, does everyone just assume he's in love with Crawford? Yes, that's correct. Okay. Okay, good.

And then night, he is in a mysterious pain. He doesn't know what it is. He has to stay camp. He can't go out. The guys' families are all concerned because Stevenson is not responding to any of their letters. Crawford's father wrote, quote, fear mishap has befallen a teddy bear. Would it be advisable to send another boat?

Is relief by airship possible? Since you know Orville right, is that a possibility? But the teddy bear reaches Siberia. Between them and Rangel Island, however, was now a massive impenetrable wall of ice. Well, maybe sending a ship called Teddy Bear to fight a grizzly's battle is not the right idea. It's not great. It's really not great.

What do you think we should call it? The polar bear? No, teddy. So there's no way around this ice. On September 22, 1922, the captain wrote to Stevenson, quote, teddy bear unsuccessful and countered Arctic pack propeller damaged. All navigators here predicted failure due to unusual ice conditions. Now let me guess, Stevenson replied, do what I do.

Get off the ship and leave him to die. Just go home, my friend. Well, actually, Stevenson isn't concerned at all because he thought the guys would be fine until next summer. And said, quote, the worst malady to expect was homesickness. Wow. I mean, he, like, I think Charlie from Charlie's Angels was more hands on. He believed the men's skills could meet the situation.

Stevenson was so sure they could survive a year that he wrote to the Gale family, quote, the failed relief mission means merely that the men on the island are cut off from communication for a year. They are just as safe on their island as Robinson Crusoe was on his, a little more so because there are no cannibals in that vicinity. When your good news involves the word cannibals, don't worry. They won't be eaten by others. So and he's probably, I mean, he's probably in his own mental state of lunacy at this

point, right? Like he wants to believe that. I don't know. I don't know if he wants to believe it or if he's just a man without empathy or understanding. Like he really. Yeah, he's probably, I mean, yeah, actually, honestly, it sounds like he probably, there's a part of his brain that just doesn't process properly. Yeah.

So the experienced captain of the teddy bear does not agree. And he tells the Denver post, quote, if a native could live there, I'd say those fellows could hang on, but no native has ever lived there. Okay. So on Wrangle, the crew are now eating scraps. They're eating walrus flippers, small birds, fried stale breadcrumbs, and bits and pieces of seal meat. Wow.

Okay. So things are good. So that's, to me, it sounds like they have enough rations for the year. Yeah, they're good. They rationed what little they had left and worried the relief ship would arrive late or not at all. They worked to dry meat. They collected skins for thicker coats and they boiled blubber.

One night, the ulcer on Gale's jaw ruptured. Oh, God. At that point, I just say, well, just go ahead and kill me. I mean, if I'm ever in a place where the ulcer on my jaw ruptures, just take me out. I'm done. Wrap it up. Let's wrap it up. God.

Yeah. I mean, just, I can only imagine what that even means. Oh, God. I mean rupture. Yeah, no. It's rupture. Yeah. Just.

So he's in total agony and no one had any medical experience, so they just gave him aspirin. There you go, buddy. Take two of these. It should be fine. Well, technically, it's a headache, right? Yep. It's in your head.

It aches. This will do it. So summer ends. A lot has to be done if they're to survive another winter. Had they known the relief ship wasn't coming, they could have started preparing earlier and now it's too late. That's not a great statement. So they have to move.

They rebuild the camp, they collect wood, and they pack the remaining supplies. Night's condition gets worse. Now night had been diagnosed with scurvy during his last expedition with Stevenson, and this felt the same. Oh, boy. His entire body was shooting with pain. His teeth were so loose, they could have just been pulled from his gums. He could barely move without losing his breath.

Now the cure for scurvy, fresh meat, fruits, and vegetables. So the scarcity on Rango was far worse than where he was the first time he contracted scurvy. So night started to worry. He wouldn't make it out alive, and he tried to keep his fear and his bad health to himself. No one noticed except Ada. Hiding scurvy. Pretty tough.

That's actually the name of the sitcom I'm pitching to FX. Hiding scurvy. That's good. Now in their new camp they knew they had to do something about the lack of food and supplies. Night and Crawford decided to head for Gnome by sled to make it there by January. But the dogs were malnourished, starving, and too weak to sled anywhere. When night was also very thin, Ada heard him tell Crawford he might have, quote, a touch of scurvy.

I might have what they call a touch of scurvy. But not a lot of it. This happened last time. I just have a very small amount of it. I think I've got a bit of a... It's not full-blown scurvy. No. No.

God, no. No. It's just, I think, I'm just, probably one of those 24-hour scurvies where I just need to take a, I'll be fine. I don't see this lasting too. You know how scurvy is. In and out they say about scurvy. No, I haven't heard that.

Usually scurvy is like a long drawn-out sort of thing. No. No, that's... Look at me. I'm getting better, 100% getting better. Have you ever seen the movie The Mechanic with Christian Bale? No, but I have seen three of my teeth fall out since I started talking. I was going to ask you about that because they're just rolling out of your head.

Yes, but again, but if I... Look, because I have a touch. If I had a lot of it, I'd be toothless. Okay. You see? I'm clearly fairly fine. Okay. Let's just say this.

Hop on this lead. Let's get out of here. It's tiny swords in my lungs. I'm on the mend. Oh, God, fucking shit. I feel fine. So they didn't tell the rest of the crew Christmas came, their second Christmas. They ate seal meat and hard bread.

And then with clear... Not like last Christmas. Last Christmas, they were like leaving out little snacks for Santa. And in the clear skies, the two men left on a sled with 700 pounds of supplies. Wow. What? Yeah, that part I didn't get, but that's what it said. That sounds like too much.

Do we need the piano? Let's take it, fuck it. We'll want it when we're there. And then remember, the dogs are super weak. They could barely move. Yeah. Obviously, they're going super slow. So they leave on January 7th.

The dogs are slow. They keep running into broken ice. The sled keeps tipping over. Oh, my God. Just imagine. Imagine what's happening. Every tip when snow goes down your back. It's hell.

It's hell. Death. Some mornings, they didn't have enough energy to get up. Rations are running low. The tips of Crawford's fingers froze. And then Knight wrote in his journal that the scurvy was back. So he must eat in some stuff, and now it's coming back. So they decided to go back to camp, so they decided to turn around, and the plan is to

go back and have Gail go instead of Knight and then start the trip again. She's in much betters, yeah. So on January 20th, the two frostbitten black and blistered men stumble back into camp. Good news. We're dead. So they have a discussion, and then they decide the three healthiest men, Crawford, Gail, and Fred, would go, and A, they would care for Knight. Fred and Gail are super against this idea, but they agree to do it out of desperation.

It's now negative 56 degrees. Oh my God. And when two people come back, almost dead, you know, we were spitballing, and we thought you guys should go. It's fine, though. Like you're like, wait, no, what? You know how you came back black and blistered? That's not great.

Uh-huh. No. Because the dogs will be good on their second run of this. And guess what? They'll eat your hand if it turns black. That's what's cool about them. Oh yeah. Yeah, they think it's biscuits.

So these three guys leave on January 29th after they swear to Aida that they would come back for her, and then after they leave, a massive storm hits, and they are never seen again. Okie-dokie. Feels like we lost some of the crew on this one, Dave. So now it's just Aida and Knight? Yeah. Oh my God. Boy.

How many talk about it? I wonder what... I mean, imagine it... Yeah, the crew... I don't think it's a good idea. You should go. And then they're all dead. This is...

This is the odd couple, right? Now I got the odd couple. Yeah, that's right. On a Sunday Times in London headline, read, quote, Stevenson quits, gives up exploring will devote his future to telling of possibilities in the friendly Arctic. What an asshole. He quits. He can't quit.

He's not done anything. How are you retiring? In this article, he announces his retirement as an explorer. I'm done. I've seen it all. I've done it all. I've killed them all. I'm out.

I haven't found the continent yet, but I know it's up there. He declares, quote, the North Pole is by no means the most difficult point on the face of the globe to reach and drops the mic. That's a pen drop. Now back at camp, night collapses and he finally tells Ada just how sick he is. I think it's bad scurvy. She chops firewood. She checks the traps.

She collects snow for drinking water, keeps a warm bag of sand on his feet, and rotates a sacks of oatmeal to prevent bed sores. Good God. Night stays in bed and he studies the encyclopedia for scurvy. So he's doing like, he's doing like a WebMD thing where you go to see how sick you are. So right. So he's, he, and now he's getting terrified because he's reading about scurvy and how well, that's WebMD.

It is exactly WebMD. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You go there to feel worse. He knows he needs fresh meat, but he's way too weak to hunt. And Ada is too scared to go alone, but she eventually does it to get food for night. But she's not a hunter.

After a lot of failed attempts, she caught a fox and she feeds it to him, but his condition does not improve. And as a matter of fact, he's rapidly declining. He can't sit up. His gums are bleeding, his teeth are falling out, and the purple and black coloring on the back of his legs darkened. I'll say this, Ada. Don't get scurvy.

I don't know who gave it to me. If I find the scent of a bitch you gave me, I'll be so miffed. Yeah. Here's what I said when we got here. Social distancing. I said it. So she keep, keep your distance. So he becomes annoyed that Ada couldn't hunt and he tries to teach her how to use a gun,

but it's too heavy for her and it scares her. And then they start snapping at each other a lot. Now she starts, she starts watching foxes and she notices that they're super curious and then they just kind of lurk near the traps checking them out. So she decides to hide near a trap and wait for the foxes to come up. And then when they weren't looking, when they were focused on the trap, she jumps out and hits them with a big stick and then snaps their neck. Whoa.

What? She, she actively did that? Wow. Those foxes, they didn't know about the second trap. That's right. Welcome to crazy like a fox. Yeah. So now she's bringing fox after fox home with her crazy snap the neck trick.

But he's, he's not getting better. He's worse off than worse off than. I don't eat fox. I told you that's the, I don't, the meat is too tough. This might be why you're getting scurvy. I would love a bird, some sort of foul. What do you, what else do you, what else do you see out there besides foxes? That's all there is.

There's foxes. It's foxes. It's foxes. Maybe I look, I thank you. Thank you so much for getting the fox. Maybe you could use the fox to entice a bear or something. You know what I would love? I would kill for some shrimp.

I would just slaughter for some shrimp. I can't do this. I can't do this. Mash potatoes possible? Maybe with, to go with the fox? No. Artichokes? I'm now, I'm now actively rooting for scurvy.

Like I'm on scurvy team, team scurvy. Did you see any broccolini? It's like longer broccoli. It looks like if broccoli were a tree. I know what it is. Have you had that? It's a little bit more bitter. I understand what it is.

It's very good. I'll tell you that. It's not out there. Oh. I'll call you broccolini because you seem to be a little more bitter. I'm just simply stating some of the side dishes I would like. I can't wait to all your teeth fall out. That's right.

Is there a horseradish sauce? Something to dip the fox into potentially? So Knight's throat is totally raw. A lot of his teeth are gone. He could barely swallow blubber let alone fox meat. So Ada makes him soup and she's bringing home foxes almost every single day. So he actually slowly starts to improve. They rarely speak.

Wow. They're rarely speaking. But when he... So what? They're like pissed off roommates and she's just saving his life fox by fox? I don't know. It's just because he's too sick. Well when he's in a good mood, he would tell her fairy tales and Jack in the Beast stock

is her favorite fairy tale. Oh, I thought the fairy tale was going to be getting off. I'm sorry? Leaving. Getting to leave. Oh, I thought you meant like... Someday. Like him telling dirty stories.

No. Well, so the bean stock is actually in Jack's pants and... And it grows. Oh. Boy, would it go high. There's two beans. There's two beans and there's a big pole above it. So when spring is approaching, night starts getting sick again.

So he got better and then now he's getting sicker. So she starts keeping... She starts keeping a journal. Ada herself got swelling in her face, which grew over days and soon grew so much she couldn't open an eye. Jesus Christ. Yeah, it's just a shit show. I think these people are having an allergic reaction to death, Dave.

Yeah. But she knows that night is relying on her, so she made snow goggles, chopped wood, checked the traps, tended the fire. When she examined night, she would hide her reaction as best she could, but he was really first. Oh, that's amazing. Just insanely frail and getting weaker each day. How's my bag?

Is it starting to look like regular color again? Well, it's open. I mean, it's an open bag. It's a... Okay. But that, would you say, bad or am I looking a little... It's a... Am I looking a little bit better?

My face doesn't look weird, does it? No. And I still have a good amount of... I still have a good amount of... All two. All two. I... Because when I feel...

Exactly. I feel... Oh, there are two. Yeah. Yeah. And they're not in the best spots. No. It would be great if they combined.

Yeah. Yeah. But all right. Well, I just... I feel pretty good. Do I feel pretty good? So Ada starts documenting how he's getting sicker in her journal. Why are you writing?

What are you writing and looking at me? It's nothing. I just... Why do you... Taking notes about roast beef. About what? Roast beef, back, stuff like that. You seem to be studying me and then writing.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm... There's a... You're just coming apart in front of me. So I'm just kind of writing about that. Well, if the two could play this game, Ada. Two could play this game.

Here. All right. A little something down about you. My fingers fell off. Oh, boy. Oh, sugar puffs. That's not good. They fell deep into the snow, too.

Maybe they'll help find my teeth. So May comes, the skies and snow clear, birds come back, Ada again tries to use a gun, but it's just too heavy, too loud, and it's got too big of a kickback, and Knight's just furious with this and he berates her, and then Ada comes up with this idea to improvise a gun rest that could be propped on her shoulder. So she basically created some sort of a contraption that allowed her to rest the gun on her shoulder and shoot instead of holding it and naming it. So it wouldn't...

Right. By the way, quick solution. Shoot Knight. Right there. Way better. Just pop him. He will... He will...

He would explode like a watermelon that gets hit with an AM8. Like, I mean, at this point, he is just juice and skin. It would be amazing. So she practices on empty tins, and then May 10th comes and she turns 25 and shoots her first bird on the same day. She's been there for so long. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So she shoots her first bird. It's the little things. Yep. So Knight is incredibly weak now. Birds are not doing it. So she decides she wants to kill a walrus, but to get near a walrus, she needs a skin boat because they're too far out.

So she decides to make one, which is something she's never done in her life. She only had memories of being a kid and watching men in her village do it. That's what's amazing about Knight's frustration. Like, she's not here to do any of this, and he's like, what do you mean you can't get more birds? Oh, God, oh, God, right. She's just supposed to cook and sew. Like that's why they brought her.

And now they're like, go kill a walrus. And he's just like, she comes back and he's like, Fox again. So Knight turns 30 on June 6th. He's now bleeding all over from his nose, lips, gums, skin, and he's just got open wounds everywhere. He's just laying in bed. It's my big birthday. I'm 30.

How old do I look? Be honest. It's not old or really young like a day, like a not human thing. Well, compliments will get you everywhere in this tent. Oh, my nose. So back in America, Stephenson has still not secured the funds he needs, but he believed all of his men in Aida were doing fine. They're all fine.

I've got a good feeling. His expedition was being described as a disaster by the press, one of many reasons the British were keeping their distance. Stephenson tried anyone he knew with money, and then an ex-crew member, 27-year-old Harold Noyce, who also knew Knight from a previous expedition, decided to help. Now he hated Knight, but he thought a rescue mission was noble, so he didn't care who it was. So Noyce is going to front the rescue ship.

Why Stephenson isn't? I don't know, but Noyce is. Sure, whatever. So on Wrengle, the seals came back in mid-June, and Aida spends hours a day hunting with her rifle and handmade stand. Knight one day faints, and when he woke up, Aida was crying, and he encouraged her to stay strong and thanked her for keeping him comfortable and alive, and then he died that night.

Wow. That's got to be so weird to, like, know that you're going to, like, having a clock, like, this is my last day. Yeah. Yeah. Like, very strange. So Aida put a paper into Gale's typewriter and wrote, quote, Wrengle Island, June 23rd, 1923.

Mr. Knight died on June 23rd. I don't know what time he died, though. Anyway, I write the date just so, just to let Mr. Stephenson know. Anyway. Fuck you, Aida. I mean, but it's amazing that out of all of these guys, she's the only one who has, like, the, I'm going to do it. I'm just going to do it.

Yeah. So. Yes. Yes, because she's outlasted everybody, but also, you know, she's been asked to do all these things that she's not known to do. She's been asked to do everything. It's like what you keep hearing that during the pan, during the pandemic, guys are doing less than their wives are like doing more cooking and cleaning in it.

Oh, is that right? Oh, yeah. It's a big thing. That's not surprising at all. But that's, yeah, you, before a year before you get married, you should have to go through a pandemic and just be like, are you sure? Like I know you love each other. I know you guys say you're meant for each other.

Have you lived in your place without seeing anyone else? No fun going out activities. Just the two of you. Now do you want to still get married? So Ada is too weak and just way too upset to bury night. So she leaves him in his bed and she's sort of comforted by the existence of his body. She. Yeah.

She builds a barricade of boxes around his body. So it didn't attract animals. And when the smell of decay set in, she moved into the storage tent. So she's okay. Well, I mean, it's her will. Well, look, I mean, we're literally talking about, you know, she was already homesick and now she's literally alone. So, you know, she's, whatever's going on her head is fucking bad.

So I mean, yeah. Stephenson finally gets a ship to Donaldson and he has a small crew. It's noise and five others. None of the indigenous people are willing to go on the journey because once again, summer is coming to an end again, another fucking boat. They're at the exact same wrong time again. It's the third fucking time. Wrong time.

Why? Why? Stephenson is a fucking idiot. Why not? He's a fucking idiot. Oh, I don't think that's fair. I think it's fair. Hold on a second.

Oh, come on. Why am I getting the wheel? There it is. Why is this freezing? Okay. Right, so none of the Anupyats are, they're just not going to go on the journey, right? It's the end of the summer, same thing. The crew is buying supplies and then they run out of money.

So Stephenson gave them a certain amount of money, but it's not enough to get all the supplies they need. And then they start writing and sending messages to Stephenson, but he's not responding to any, any of their desperate letters. He's not advancing any credit. It's just nothing. Great. What a great guy.

And the AP reports the Russians are sending a ship to capture the explorers and take possession of Wrangel Island. I'm sure Ada was like, please, I will be Russian, yes. The British said the capture of the men would be an act of war. So now this fucking idiot is basically almost starting a war. But in truth, there are no men, all that's on the island is Ada. Her skills are improving. She now could kill, carry, skin and preserve a seal.

She's a fucking badass. She's a fucking badass. She scares off polar bears by shooting blanks into the sky. All the while night is decaying in the main shelter. So she rebuilds a kitchen in the storage tent. She fortifies the walls with driftwood and Kansas and makes herself a new parka, gloves and boots with reindeer fur. Wow.

So she killed a reindeer. Yeah. She's fucking, she's on top of all this shit now that she's on fire. She teaches herself. Blitzen. Blitzen. What the hell is Blitzen? Blitzen, good lord.

This is unbelievable. I was very unlike Blitzen of all of them. Donner, yes. But not Blitzen. That'd be amazing if the rescuer showed up to the camp and she was just drying out Santa Claus. How are you? Who's that?

That's the head of Santa. I've been eating him. Oh. Oh. Who's that lump of clay over there? Last night. Oh. Bleh.

Bleh. Bleh. Bleh. Ada also taught herself how to take selfies with the camera to document. Yeah. Okay. So. She's got a journal.

She's keeping track of everything. She's taking selfies. She's taking selfies. She's like a pure fucking, I was going to call him Hugh Grant. She's pure Hugh Glass. Hugh Glass. Hugh Glass. Not Hugh Grant.

But she's a pure Hugh Grant in this situation. She's quite a... Oop. Dropped all my... Yes, it's impossible. I can't find my knife in the snow anyway. But I'll probably figure that out. I'll figure that out at some point, I suppose.

Oh, gosh. Look at that. Fingers, fingers fallen right off. Yes. So she... Yeah, she's pure Hugh Glass at this point, right? Okay. She's horribly lonely and the only little friend she has is the cat, Thicke.

Oh, I can't believe the cat... What the cat is like? What the hell? I mean, what? The cat is out? Yeah. This is great. This is a story about a cat to me.

Yeah. She spent several days crying before she grew tired of an exhausted of crying and then she decided she was going to build a boat. Using driftwood, she made a base and then she stretched canvas across the frame and sewed it along the shell of the boat. She carved pieces of driftwood into oars and then it was ready. Stephenson, meanwhile, had collected... I mean, he...

Stephenson... Stephenson has left... He has forced her to build a boat. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. Stephenson, meanwhile, has collected enough money again to send noise so an Englishman decided to help just because the men needed to be rescued.

The Donaldson departs on August 2nd. They had recruited one Anupiat family and two hunters. Noise had almost no navigational experience, but he sailed for Rengle Island. And the ship reached Rengle Island at the spot where the expedition originally camped. They saw nothing was there and they headed up shore. Ten miles up, they saw an abandoned campsite. They searched it, found nothing, and moved on. On August 20th, Anupiat on the ship saw someone on a beach.

It was Ada. She was waving her hands. So when they got to her, the first thing she asked was how Gale, Fred, and Crawford were. So she thought that Gale, Fred, and Crawford had gotten back and had sent help. And noise was like, we thought they'd be with you. Yeah. How are they?

How's Gale? Tell me everything. You tell me. How is Gale? That's what I'm asking you. Where's Gale? Where is she? Oh, boy.

This is... It feels like if neither of us have seen them in a while. It's not great. It's not great. No, it's not. Yeah. Anyway, where's Knight? I'd love to see that old SOB.

How's he holding up? He is... Do you know what Clay is? Yes. Yes. He loves... He is. Clay?

I don't know where you're going with this. Let me... I'd love to see him. He is Clay. He's Clay. He's Clay. Oh, he changed his name. No.

You guys have been up here for a while. He's just a blob. He's not... Oh. There are no eyes. I'll wait here. I'll... He's barely...

It's him. That's... He's barely in the shape of a human. He's a... He's... He's... Because he's so bundled up? No, he's...

Because he's got so many layers on? He's been rotting for a while. My dad ate bad meat when I was a kid. And he's a lot like that bad meat was. He's just rotted. Is he okay? No. He's dead.

No, I did not mention that. He's dead. He's not... No, it's the first time you've said the d-word. I should have said that. That is huge in this miscommunication. Oh, yeah. No, he's not.

Great. Well, by not great, I mean very dead. Right. For a while. For a while. Good. I moved the kitchen. You remember where you...

You remember where you buried him? I didn't. I left him... I put him behind boxes in his cot. So... So he died recently? A couple months, maybe four. Months?

Yeah. A lot of months. That's more than a couple, by the way. Yeah. That's a few. No, it was a lot. That's one. Yeah.

Okay. And you're... Right. Okay. Well, let's get you some water and then we'll talk about that decision because it's prudent. Good. It's a good one. Yeah.

It's a good call, for sure. So when they told her that the guys had not arrived, she collapsed into Noyce's arms and begged him to take her home. We got no room. We got no room. This is not the rescue ship. Then they all buried Lorne Knight and she sold Noyce 16 furs she had collected for $28 each.

Oh. They were... It's great that... I mean, so she was raised in a household of Americans. They were... So you find out the status of the other people you made the trip with and then commerce. Well, they were worth over $100 each, but Noyce offered her $28. Okay.

So that's... That was not very nice. So the $28 would be $6,600 today, but if you paid her what they were worth, she would have $23,000. Wow. Okay. I mean, at this point, though, it's like, who gives a shit if you're her? I mean...

No. She's someone who has just spent two years on a fucking island and learned how to survive. I mean, honestly, honestly, seriously, what a jerk off. The crew noted Ada had, quote, mastered her environment so far that it seems likely she could have lived there another year, although the isolation would have been a dreadful experience. Now Noyce read Knight's journal. He was, quote, startled by what he saw to be the incompetence of the crew, but the most shocking part of it all was Ada and the fact that she had been taken along as the only

female with four young men seemed disturbingly suspicious. So to protect all their reputations, Noyce decided to keep the journals hidden from the public and especially Stephenson. He didn't want Stephenson to figure out a way to shift the blame away from himself or profit from the publication of the diaries. Wow. Ada comes back. She finds out that Jack Blackjack had drowned.

Her sister had a baby girl named Ada, which she named after her sister who was lost and brave. Now Stephenson did not want to be blamed for the death of more explorers or involved in another scandal about starvation, hunger and frostbite. Oh no. He doesn't contact the guy's families. The first thing he does is he telegraphs U.S. business associates to stop the families if they tried selling movie rights.

So basically his reaction was like that of Ted Kent. And then he moves just to get the rights to their diaries. So they all had diaries. He also sends a notice to Ada to keep her from talking to interviewers so he would have her personal story just for his own book. He's sending a past expedition NDA? Yeah, basically. Okay.

He tells Noyce to, quote, minimize the starvation theory. The theory. Come on. That's just the theory. It's a gobbledygook. Come on. It's hearsay. It's made up.

It's invented. It's not true. It's rumors. Bunch of gossip. And to tell the news to the families in a way that could help, quote, raise money to pay the bills. I don't know. Why don't you walk me through that dial-up?

Now Stephenson did manage to send one telegram to Crawford's family. It read, quote, deepest sympathy over terrible news. He did not explain how or when Crawford had died. He gave Knight, Fred, and Gale's families zero information. They learned their sons were dead by reading it in a newspaper. Wow. Wow. What a jerk-off.

So when Knight reads a description of how his son died, he said of Ada, quote, how I wish I could make some suitable reward for Ada Blackjack. She is the heroine of the whole expedition. If it is ever in my power to suitably reward her, I hope I may not overlook the opportunity. On September 23, 1923, the Montreal Standard published an article blaming Stephenson, quote, while they were starving to death on a frozen island to prove the Stephenson theory that an explorer could live off the country, Mr. Stephenson himself was prancing about from one luxurious spot of civilization to another, lecturing and telling what a hero he was.

But meanwhile, the three young men on the island died. Britain, Canada, and the U.S. publicly condemned Stephenson. Britain responded that Crawford had crossed into Siberia, but he was bored, not starving. Of course. People sound crazy. This is clearly a man who's looking for some fun, not food. He was full. He just got bored.

What's more fun than dying, people? And then he said they had made bad decisions that caused their death. Yes, they listened to me. And what the fuck were they thinking? I left a bunch of guys on a ship. Who would listen to me? It's a death march. But then Noyce told the press the truth.

As far as Ada was concerned, she was called a hero. Media started following her wherever she went, but she hated the attention and she withdrew. She was paid for the journey, but much less than was promised. She was paid 50 bucks a week or whatever it was, or a month, she was paid much less. But with the money she got from the skins, and now this, she had enough money to get her son out of the orphanage and take him to Seattle to get treatment for tuberculosis. She's only 25 years old. And she's journaled all of it extensively.

The World magazine read the journal and called it, quote, the real epic of the North. Now Noyce, remember, Noyce is the guy who like hates night, but he wants to do the rescue mission because of honor. But at the same time, he thinks that she might have been being used for sex, whatever. He steals the seal skins from her, essentially, or pays her a quarter of what they're worth. So at some point, Noyce comes out and says, Ada hadn't actually done enough to save night. What? God damn, did his pants explode with his balls that large?

And then a little while later, it's discovered that he has torn pages from night's diary that prove the opposite. How do you get caught with the torn? How are you like? Just the fucking asshole-ishness is just relentless. It is relentless. Yeah. It's, yes, it's a feature, not a bug.

So he has to publicly apologize. Now, Stephenson is fighting a legal battle for years to have control over the rights to the journals and the expedition story because it was being done in his name, right? So it's his- Wow. So- Dave, I want to go back in time and stab this. So he wrote a book, The Adventure of Rangel Island, because he ends up winning the rights

to all of it. Wow. Of course. And he profits tons from Ada's telling of the expedition. She doesn't receive a single penny from those earnings. And then at the same time, there is a campaign being waged against her in the media, saying that she starved night to death, that she was a sex worker, that when she was found, she was well and fat, that she had murdered the guys.

So clearly, I mean, you can't say for certain, but if a campaign has been waged against her, who's doing it? Yeah, right, I mean, yeah, for sure, yeah, makes him look better. So her final years were one of, her final years are ones of sadness and poverty. She marries again, she has another son, and then she divorced. She's poor, she has to put both of her children in the orphanage again for nine years. No. What?

She moves back to Nome and gets work as a reindeer herder. She would feed her kids by hunting and trapping. Ada died on May 29, 1983. She was 85 years old. Billy, her son, quote, I consider my mother Ada Blackjack to be one of the most loving mothers in this world, and one of the greatest heroines in the history of arctic exploration. She survived against all odds. Now Wilhelmer Stephenson just went on and won tons of awards, joined honor societies,

was heralded, and he died in 1962. Hill Island is a Russian wildlife refuge, and it turns out legally, it is and has been under Russian ownership since 1916. So the whole time, all of that stuff they were doing. So the whole was useless. Pointless. Wow. So the Russians hacked our expo.

Man, that is some bullshit. Yeah. That is some real bullshit. I think it's a great example of white man's history, right? So this has obviously come up a ton, but in a just society, Ada's story is the one that gets out there, and her version is told, and Stephenson is ruined and shunned. But the opposite happens. Because why?

Well, because he's a white dude, and everyone believes him, and she's not white, and she's a native to some area that... Well, and is she... I mean, it seems to be... Our society rewards the aggressive too much. The people who are dicks push and get what they want, and the people who are reserved and don't want to cause issues get fucked. And that happens in this society constantly.

Failure takes you upwards, character is a deficiency. And that just keeps happening. I don't know if people have noticed this, but American society rewards psychopaths more than anybody else. Because it's the same thing as when you're at the airport, and there's a system. It's maybe not the best system, but there's a system. They're going to call groups, and there's a system. And there's always a prick who just wants to get on there first, and will be annoying,

and will complain, and will be the worst, and it's a squeaky wheel, so it gets the grease. Because it's like, just you're the worst, you're being an asshole. And this continues, it permeates our culture constantly, that the worst get ahead, and the good are unknown because the worst do everything they can to keep it silent. And with misinformation, with whatever tactic. And that is the story of this country. Pretty much. Research does done by Sharon Sajapur, some sources Peggy Cavantes, Marooned in the Arctic,

the true story of Ada Blackjack, the female Robinson Crusoe, Jennifer Niven, Ada Blackjack, the true story of survival in the Arctic. Stephanie Buck, Stephanie Buck does a lot of really great writing, stranded for two years on an Arctic island. This woman miraculously survived by shooting seals on medium. Tessa Hulls, Ada Blackjack, the forgotten soul survivor of an odd Arctic expedition in Atlas Obscura. The single mama became an Arctic Robinson Crusoe by Jeff Mogue in Adventure Journal.

And then there's other ones you can check out on our sources page. All right, well. We thank cats. We sure, especially living ones.