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Robert Bartlett

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For other uses, see Robert Bartlett (disambiguation).

Capt. Robert Bartlett

Born	15 August, 1875 Brigus, Newfoundland
Died	28 April, 1946 New York City
Occupation	maritime explorer

Captain Robert Abram Bartlett (August 15, 1875 - April 28, 1946) was a notable ice navigator and Arctic explorer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Brigus, Newfoundland, Bartlett was the eldest of 10 children born to William James Bartlett and Mary J. Leamon, and heir to a family tradition of seafaring men. By the age of 17, he mastered his first ship and began a life-long love affair with the Arctic. Bartlett spent more than 50 years mapping and exploring the waters of the Far North and led over 40 expeditions to the Arctic, more than anyone before or since. Author Eric Walters documented some of the aspects of his journey to find Artic Islands in the historical-fiction novel, "Trapped in Ice". Bartlett was captain of the USS Roosevelt and accompanied Commander Robert Peary on his attempts to reach the North Pole. Bartlett was awarded the Hubbard Medal of the National Geographic Society for breaking the trail through the frozen Arctic Sea to within 130 miles of the pole; yet he was excluded from the final exploring party possibly due to a rivalry between the two men.^[1] Bartlett had taken a ship further north than anyone before him and was the first person to sail north of 88° N latitude. In 1914, Bartlett’s leadership in the doomed Karluk Expedition helped save the lives of most of its stranded participants after leader Vilhjalmur Stefansson abandoned the expedition. After being stranded on Wrangel Island for several months, Captain Bartlett walked 700 miles over the ice of the Chukchi Sea and across Siberia and then mounted an expedition from Alaska to rescue his surviving companions from Wrangel Island. He received the highest award from the Royal Geographical Society for his outstanding heroism. From 1925-1945, at the command of his own schooner, the Effie M. Morrissey, Bartlett led many important scientific expeditions to the Arctic sponsored by American museums, the Explorers Club and the National Geographic Society, and he also helped to survey the Arctic for the United States Government during World War II. In 1927, the Boy Scouts of America made Bartlett an Honorary Scout, a new category of Scout created that same year. This distinction was give to "American citizens whose achievements in outdoor activity, exploration and worthwhile adventure are of such an exceptional character as to capture the imagination of boys...". The other eighteen men who were awarded this distinction were: Roy Chapman Andrews; Frederick Russell Burnham; Richard E. Byrd; George Kruck Cherrie; James L. Clark; Merian C. Cooper; Lincoln Ellsworth; Louis Agassiz Fuertes; George Bird Grinnell; Charles A. Lindbergh; Donald Baxter MacMillan; Clifford H. Pope; George Palmer Putnam; Kermit Roosevelt; Carl Rungius; Stewart Edward White; Orville Wright. ^[2]

Captain Robert Bartlett

Bartlett died in a New York hospital, struck by pneumonia from which he was unable to recover. He is buried in Brigus, Newfoundland. Hawthorne Cottage, Bartlett's place of residence in Brigus, is a National Historic Site. The Canadian Coast Guard vessel, CCGS Bartlett is named for Robert Bartlett.

References

^ West, James E. (1931). The Boy Scouts Book of True Adventure. New York: Putnam. OCLC 8484128.
^ (August 29 1927) "Around the World". Time (magazine). Retrieved on 2007-10-24.