At My Table: Ada Blackjack

The seamstress who survived alone in the Arctic wilderness

You’ve probably been asked before: “if you could have dinner with five humans, alive or not, who would you invite?” At My Table, a series on extraordinary women, is a response to this question. You’ll find links to other At My Table essays here and other travel-focussed stories here.

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Dear NE-One

Way back in a different life, and most definitely BSM (Before Social Media), I slept on reindeer skin 200km north of the Arctic Circle. It was far from arduous – I was on assignment in Sweden, a trip that had me dog-sledding in search of the Northern Lights, zooming across the ice on a snowmobile and sleeping a night in the famous Ice Hotel. Hence the reindeer skin: back in that early spring of 2001 (or was it 2002?), the only things in the entire hotel not made of ice were the luxurious mattresses and the plush reindeer skins that covered them. Perhaps it’s still the same today.

Despite the incredible natural beauty that surrounded me, that trip – with all its comforts and the security of modern conveniences – failed to spark a desire to see more of this icy region. The cold tormented me, and wrapping up in multiple thick layers left me feeling strangely disconnected from my limbs. The isolation of that vast white world intimidated me, and I was terrified by the thought of being stranded in a place so hostile, so alien to me.

And so it was with an overwhelming sense of awe and respect that I read last week (for the very first time) about Ada Blackjack (1898–1983) who, in the early 1920s, survived two years on an uninhabited island north of Siberia. The Inuit woman was the seamstress and cook on an expedition to Wrangel Island – and for the last two months, Ada was completely alone in an Arctic wilderness that is almost always surrounded by ice, and that has the highest concentration of polar bear dens in the world.

Ada Blackjack, the sole survivor of the Wrangel Expedition. In the centre: Ada with her son Bennett.

Ada Blackjack’s story is one of remarkable courage, perseverance and true grit. By the age of 23 when Ada, the only woman on the five-person expedition, left Alaska for Wrangel Island, she was a destitute single mother lured by the promise of a $50-a-month wage. She was divorced from an abusive husband, two of her children had died in infancy and her surviving son, six-year-old Bennett, suffered from tuberculosis. Unable to cover his medical costs through the cleaning and sewing work she did, Ada had had to place him in an orphanage – and the money she’d earn from the expedition would, she’d hoped, enable her to finally take care of Bennett herself.

If you could sit down to a meal with five people – alive or not – who would you invite? Read more on my (growing) list of remarkable women, here:

One year into what was supposed to be a relatively easy two-year expedition to claim Wrangel Island for either Canada or England, things took a catastrophic turn. The resupply ship didn’t arrive so in January 1923, three of the four men set off in search of help, leaving Ada to care for the fourth man, Lorne Knight, who was dying of scurvy. The three men never returned (and were never heard from again); Knight died six months later and Ada was left alone, enduring terror and loneliness as she fought to survive in that severe Arctic climate.

Ada was rescued in August 1923 when a ship arrived to take the expedition team back to Alaska, as had been arranged when they’d left two years earlier. Ada returned to a flurry of media attention and although was never paid all that was owed to her, she did manage to take Bennett to Seattle to receive the medical attention he needed. Ada returned eventually to Alaska, living a simple life (plagued by ill health) until she died at age 85.

Ada Blackjack’s quiet heroism was largely forgotten for decades – and although there’s recently been a resurgence in the telling of her story, nothing, I’m sure, could ever match sitting down to dinner with this remarkable woman and listening to Ada tell her own story. (What comes a close second, though, is reading Ada’s diary from the expedition, which has been digitised by Dartmouth Libraries and is available here).

Until next time
Narina x

For more on Ada Blackjack:

• You can read the diary Ada kept during the Wrangel Expedition online here.

• The book Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic by Jennifer Niven is available in paperback, hardcover and as an audiobook here.

• The story of Ada Blackjack and the Wrangel Expedition is told on History.com, here.

• The Wrangel Expedition has been documented on Wiley Digital Archives, here.

• Ada Blackjack Rising is a short documentary, available on Vimeo here.

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