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Thoughts through Space – Sir Hubert Wilkins and Harold M Sherman

On the evening of the 29th, I was able to keep my "appointment" with Sherman, and he recorded:

"You have received my letter forwarded from Edmonton-are answering."

(I had answered it, and sent my letter with the Canadian Airways plane.)

“Had flight feeling-can't feel it search flight yet but some plane activity. Storm area – cold and snow – wind – weather biting - commotion of some sort-motors turning over-crew busy--flight over water and little islands or delta-like strips of land-you come back from flight and remove instrument from plane for adjustment. Padre or priest calls on you. I see you some place where there is an oil lamp- it is carried about and casts a shadow as you move behind or along with the person who holds it. Spirits of men good-though one man-can't sense whether ill or unable be active due his work being temporarily done-he idle, sits around or looks on."

Sherman could not have known by any commercial or mechanical means that I had received or answered his letter, and he had no grounds for guessing about it. It was not expected that the Canadian plane would arrive with the mail; the trip was a special unscheduled one. He seemed to have got the impression (which I was trying to give) of the difficulties in starting the plane, and setting out on a flight in "biting" weather which froze my cheeks and the noses of the men. He had practically and accurately described the conditions over which we had flown: water and little islands or delta-strips of land. And, perhaps, he had also received an impression about the removal of the instrument.

I am not sure of that. A priest, a man who had recently arrived from a long sledge journey along the coast, had come to see me.

One of the incidents of nearly every evening which impressed me was that Mrs. Kost-the proprietor of the "hotel"- would be ready when I came in with an oil lamp which she insisted upon carrying upstairs herself, as she lighted me to my room. It was kindness, attention, and courtesy to the n'th degree. On this night, however, Mrs. Kost had succeeded in obtaining for me a gasoline vapour lamp which gave a white light, and was much more satisfactory to me than an oil lamp.

It is my custom on expeditions to have my chief pilot do nothing but fly the machine. He gets into the plane after the engineer has warmed up the engines, then gets out and leaves the machine as soon as he lands. This practice was being followed at Aklavik, and there were times when others of the staff were much annoyed by the obtrusive idleness of the pilot. In considering the amount of work to be done the next day, I was thinking of changing my regulations.