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Scant reference was made to the diary, most coveted relic of the party's possessions, and the quarry of every newshawk then in Scandinavia. Optimism on that score was dampened by one report quoting Dr. Horn: "It is hoped that the first part of Andree's diary will be found among a parcel of books, not yet examined. The book found on Andree contained only a few pages."
Three agencies loudly claimed the honor of Dr. Horn's "first statement to the press." The Herald Tribune told how its seaplane, with Reporter Daniel Berg of the Tidningen, a pilot, and the Norwegian aviatrix Givsken Jacobsen, had sighted the Brattvaag off Hasvik, landed alongside. The trio were welcomed aboard by Dr. Horn, shown the tarpaulin covering "the two bodies" and allowed to make photographs on deck. Then there was a first-person account "by Dr. Gunnar Horn, as told exclusively to the Universal Service correspondent at Hasvik . . . [his] first statement to the world." And the Associated Press gave the gist of a telephone conversation between its correspondent at Hammerfest and Dr. Horn at Hasvik. Had he met any of the newspaper expeditions out looking for him? "No, you are the first journalist to take a message from us."
In Tromso, a bewildered little group of Norwegian and Swedish scientists with a few relatives of the dead men, awaited with some dread the arrival of the Brattvaag. Theirs would be the task of taking custody of the relics, embalming the bodies (if possible), restoring the diary in the face of the mad skirmishes of reporters, photographers, sound-men.
"Amazing!"
Readers of Publisher Fred G. Bonfils' pink-sheeted Denver Post found on its back page last fortnight the big, bold headline: AMAZING! Below was an editorial well calculated to reassert the Post's undisputed claim to the title of loudest newspaper in the land. First three paragraphs:
"In spite of what is called dull times, a slacking up of business, THE DENVER POST'S circulation moves on like some great majestic ship. Neither storms nor tides nor depressions lessen in any way the circulation of THE DENVER POST.
"The paper is now universally conceded to be one of the very great newspapers of the world, and at least equals in every respect any paper published in the United States.
"It now has a larger paid circulation than any other paper printed in the United States west of Chicago. It is the speaking spirit of the entire Rocky Mountain regions—and THE POST thinks this is the very best section of the entire world; best introspects, best in health, best in sunshine, clear air, pure water and in fact best in all desirable qualities, with a population that is more mentally and physically alert than any other known population and where everything that comes out of the ground is just a little bit sweeter and a little bit better than that produced in any other portion of our country, and you can lay to that. . . ."
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