## Stefansson’s Intervention: Self-Protection, Not Justice
Vilhjalmur Stefansson had his own reasons to contain the damage of the Wrangel Island disaster. The expedition had been his initiative. Four men were dead, the territorial claim had come to nothing — raising the Union Jack on Russian territory had caused an international incident without producing any legal claim — and his “friendly Arctic” theory had been tested against reality and found inadequate.
The accusations against Ada were also, in a secondary way, a problem for Stefansson, because they directed public attention toward what had gone wrong on the island in ways that implicated his planning and preparation. An Ada Blackjack who had done everything possible to keep Knight alive, and still couldn’t overcome the consequences of being stranded without adequate supplies on a game-scarce island, was a story about Stefansson’s negligence. An Ada Blackjack who had neglected Knight was a different story.
Stefansson forced Noice to publish a retraction of his accusations against Ada. He included the retraction in his 1925 book, The Adventure of Wrangel Island, which was his own account of the expedition and its aftermath. The retraction was included in the book, the accusations were refuted in Stefansson’s own account.
Whether Stefansson’s intervention was motivated by concern for Ada Blackjack or by concern for Vilhjalmur Stefansson is a question the record does not clearly answer. He had damaged her by sending her on a negligently planned expedition, leaving her stranded for two years, failing to get a relief ship through in 1922, and then not providing meaningful compensation for what she had endured. The retraction he compelled was useful for her reputation but did not compensate her for any of the actual harm.