The Staxrud Expedition’s Journey South with the Saved Rave and Rüdiger

The Staxrud rescue expeditioners began their return journey south from Treurenberg Bay on May 2, 1913, bringing with them the two German Schröder-Stranz expedition members they had found and rescued—Christopher Rave and Hermann Rüdiger—and departing early at 2:00 am in relatively good snow conditions (Aftenposten, 1913, evening: 1–2; Staxrud, 1914, 36). The rescued Rave and Rüdiger were in tow, with the injured Rüdiger being pulled in the specially-made bed sledge constructed just for him. The returning men were Arve Staxrud, Daniel Nøis, Dr. P. W. K. Bøckmann, Per Hansen, Samuel Klemmetsen, and the mining engineer Jakob Ellingsen. The only rescue expeditioner not returning south with Staxrud was the ice pilot August Stenersen—the formerly stranded Schröder-Stranz expeditioner—who now remained behind alone on the Herzog Ernst in order to re-float the iced-in ship for the later departure and to take care of the rescue expedition’s equipment.