In northernmost Norway, in Barents Sea between Scandinavia and Spitsbergen, in Stockholm and in Oslo last week there was confusion—the confusion that results when the Press sets its pack upon the trail of a remote and elusive news story. The discovery on White Island. Spitsbergen, of the bodies of the Swedish explorer Salomon August Andree and his companions, lost on their poleward balloon flight of 1897, was the Story (TIME, Sept. 1). Its remoteness was heightened to a degree maddening to the Press by the fact that the bodies, relics and Andree's diary were aboard the little sealer Brattvaag which, equipped with only a flimsy receiving radio, might be plodding diligently about its business in the Arctic sealing grounds, oblivious or indifferent to the furore ashore.
Newspapers, syndicates and picture services sent their men dashing to Tromso, the little port on Norway's northwest tip, where Capt. Gustav Jensen of the Terningen had brought in the news of the find last fortnight, and whither the Brattvaag was supposed to be heading. From there at least four sealers, chartered by newsmen, bucked an angry Arctic sea in the hope of intercepting the Brattvaag and capturing the Story.
On each boat a radioman worked hour after hour, sent into the ether offers to Dr. Gunnar Horn, scientist aboard the Bratt-vaag, for "exclusives" on the story, pictures, diary. Each pleaded with him for a midocean rendezvous at a designated point in the Arctic. Each could only hope and pray that the message would be received, that the Brattvaag would be there, or that they would happen upon her.
The newsmen might well have preferred to trust to luck and hope that the Brattvaag's radio was deaf to all. For at the request of the Swedish Government, Norwegian officials were flashing frantic orders to Dr. Horn and the Brattvaag's crew to permit no "unauthorized person" aboard the sealer, to maintain strict secrecy regarding the story, especially the diary, and to proceed immediately to a point between Tromso and Vardo.
The Brattvaag, already on its way home because sealing had been slack, finally picked up one of the signals, put in unexpectedly at Hasvik, 125 mi. north of Tromso, for Dr. Horn to communicate with his superiors.
Taken completely unawares, the Press unleashed a flock of accounts varying even more wildly than their earlier speculations. The Brattvaag had bodies of all three explorers—Andree, Nils Strindberg & Knut Fraenkel—well preserved (Associated Press). The Brattvaag had the body of Andree, of another not identified, and the scattered bones of a third (New York Herald Tribune}. There were two skeletons, the bones of a third; Andree's head, in many fragments, had been found later (Universal Service). There were two bodies, Andree's and Fraenkel's. Andree "had been found in a sitting posture, reclining a little to the right and facing as if staring from sightless eyes. . . . [one] side of his face was recognizable and life-like.'' (New York Times). Universal Service was accurate.