Bob Bartlett(1875-1946)
- Actor
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.