British explorer William Speirs Bruce, and Bjarne Mamen (1893–1914), a 20-year-old skiing champion from Christiania, Norway, who was taken on as a forester, despite lacking scientific experience. Stefansson had wanted American whaling skipper Christian Theodore Pedersen to captain Karluk, the ship designated for the Northern Party. When Pedersen withdrew, the captaincy was offered to 36-year-old Newfoundland-born Robert Bartlett, an experienced polar navigator who had commanded Robert Peary's ship, , on the Peary's 1906 and 1909 polar expeditions. Bartlett did not have time, however, to select Karluk's crew, which was hurriedly assembled from around the Royal Navy Dockyard at Esquimalt in British Columbia. McKinlay later wrote of the crew that "one was a confirmed drug addict ... another suffered from venereal disease; and in spite of orders that no liquor was to be carried, at least two smuggled supplies on board". McKinlay worried that this crew might lack the qualities and character necessary in the arduous months ahead, concerns shared by Bartlett, whose first act on arrival in Esquimalt was to fire the first officer for incompetence. In his place he appointed the 22-year-old Alexander "Sandy" Anderson. Ships Karluk had been chosen by Pedersen and bought by Stefansson for the bargain price of US$10,000. Stefansson was advised by Pedersen that, of four ships that were available, Karluk was "the soundest and best adapted for our purpose", but Bartlett had deep reservations about her fitness for prolonged Arctic service. The ship, a 29-year-old brigantine, was in length with a beam of . She had been built for the Aleutian fishing industry (karluk is the Aleut word for "fish") and later converted for whaling, when her bows and sides had been sheathed with Australian ironwood. Despite 14 arctic whaling voyages, including six overwinterings, she had not been built to withstand sustained ice pressure, and lacked the engine power to force a passage through the ice. She did not match the expectations of Bartlett, or of many of the more experienced crew. The ship spent most of April and May 1913 undergoing repairs and refitting at the dockyard in Esquimalt. When Bartlett arrived in early June he immediately ordered further repair work. In addition to Karluk, Stefansson had purchased sight unseen a small gasoline-driven schooner, Alaska, to act as a supply ship for the Southern Party. He later added a second schooner, Mary Sachs, when the hold space in Alaska proved inadequate. In the