Bob Bartlett

Biography

Born in Brigus Newfoundland in 1875, Captain Bartlett followed his family's profession of fishing and seal hunting. In 1905 he was appointed to command Robert E. Perry's ship Roosevelt for the explorer's expedition to find the North Pole. He again commanded the Roosevelt in Perry's successful 1908 expedition. During this expedition Bartlett went as far north as 87 degrees North while bringing supplies to the final expedition party made up of Perry, Matthew Henson and a group of natives who accompanied them. For this Perry and Bartlett won the National Geographic Society's Gold Medal (Henson, who was Black, received the Hubbard Medal posthumously in 2000). In 1913 Bartlett commanded the Karluk, for Steffanson's Arctic Expedition. The Karluk was crushed in the ice and Bartlett led the survivors to safety on Wrangel Island. He then set out with a single Eskimo companion to reach civilization and arrange their rescue. The official history of the Canadian Coast Guard states that "Bob Bartlett turned disaster into triumph in the finest feat of leadership in Canadian marine history." During World War I Bartlett commanded transports for the US Navy. Between 1925 and 1946 he participated in a 20 arctic expeditions in his schooner the Effie M. Morissey. Bartlett played the sealing ship captain in the movie "The Viking" however was not part of the group that went to film additional footage and was lost when their ship blew up. Bartlett, who loved poetry and classical music, never married. He died in New York of pneumonia in 1946.