HMCS Karluk
Karluk, leaving harbour during her career as a whaler
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| History | |
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 Canada
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| Name: | Karluk |
| Builder: | Matthew Turner's shipyard, Benicia, California |
| Launched: | 1884 |
| Acquired: | (by Canadian government) 1913 |
| Out of service: | 1912 |
| Fate: | Crushed by pack ice in the Arctic Ocean, January 1914 |
| Notes: | US registry New York (1913 prior to Canadian service), San Francisco |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Brigantine |
| Tonnage: |
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| Length: | 129 ft (39 m) |
| Beam: | 23 ft (7.0 m) |
| Draught: | 16.5 ft (5.0 m) |
| Depth: | 14.2 ft (4.3 m) |
| Decks: | 2 |
| Ice class: | sheathed |
| Installed power: | 150 ihp (110 kW) |
| Propulsion: | Coal fired steam and sail |
| Sail plan: | brigantine |
| Speed: | 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) |
Karluk was an American-built brigantine which, after many years' service as a whaler, was acquired by the Canadian government in 1913 to act as flagship to the Canadian Arctic Expedition. While on her way to the expedition's rendezvous at Herschel Island, Karluk became trapped in the Arctic pack ice and, after drifting for several months, was crushed and sank in January 1914. Of the 25 aboard (crew and expedition staff), eleven died, either during the attempts to reach land by marching over the ice, or after arrival at the temporary refuge of Wrangel Island.
Karluk was built in 1884, at Matthew Turner's shipyard,Benicia, California, as a tender for the Aleutian fishing industry (karluk is the Aleut word for "fish"). She was 129 ft (39 m) in length with a beam of 23 ft (7.0 m), and 321 gross register tonnage, 247 net register tonnage powered by sail and a 150 hp auxiliary coal-fired compound steam engine. In 1892 Karluk was converted for use as a whaler, when her bows and sides were sheathed with 2-inch (51 mm) Australian ironwood. She completed 14 whaling trips, the last of which was in 1911.
For her role in the Canadian Arctic Expedition, Karluk had been acquired by expedition leader Vilhjalmur Stefansson in 1913 for the bargain price of $10,000, and sold at cost to the Canadian government when it assumed overall responsibility for the expedition.Robert Bartlett, appointed Karluk's captain for the expedition, was concerned about the ship's fitness for the task, believing that she had not been built to withstand sustained ice pressure, and that she lacked the engine power to force a passage through the ice. Even after refitting, the engine had a habit of breaking down. Karluk's chief engineer, John Munro, described it as a "coffee pot of an engine...never [i]ntended to run more than two days at a time."
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