The Remaining Expeditioners: Hermann Rüdiger, Christopher Rave, Einar Rotvold, Knut Stave, August Stenersen, and Julius and Jørgen Jensen

Christmas 1912 had seen the reunion of Einar Rotvold and August Stenersen with Hermann Rüdiger, Christopher Rave, Knut Stave, and Julius and Jørgen Jensen on board the iced-in ship Herzog Ernst in Treurenberg Bay. The disappearance of Wilhelm Eberhard as well as Dr. Erwin Detmers and Dr. Walter Moeser on the attempted trek south was confounding and heavy news. And the mystery of whether Herbert Schröder-Stranz, Richard Schmidt, August Sandleben, and Max Mayr, with their team of eight (or 12) dogs, had survived on Northeast Land, was still an unfathomable question. Equally excruciating was the question of whether or not Captain Alfred Ritscher had reached Advent Bay—for the remaining men on the ship had no way of knowing that their captain and his dog Bella had successfully made the trip, at great cost, and had notified the world of their situation.