History is often written by the victors, or in this case, a guy who made a living in a name for himself by using other people's money to put unsuspecting explorers in peril.

Wilhelmsteadenson, born William Stephenson, changed his name to better suit his Icelandic roots, and changed

his name, let's be honest, to sound more explorer-like.

He attended Harvard, studying anthropology, and in the early autumn of 1913, set out as head

of the disastrous last voyage of the Karloch, where half the crew was lost. The Karloak marooned

in the ice, soon abandoned by Wilhelm, whom claimed to be setting off to hunt Karibu

with a small crew of the strongest and most competent of the ship. Once it was clear the

Karloak had run out of luck, Vilhelmur survived to tell the tale.

His way.

Much like how he tried to tell this tale, the one of Ada Blackjack.

Even though he wasn't even there.

Welcome to Maroon, stories of the catastrophically lost.

I'm Jack Luna.

This is Aaron Hable.

Ada Delatuck was just eight years old when the sudden death of her father leaves her mother unable to care for her.

Ada was sent from her remote settlement of Spruce Creek, Alaska, to the gold mining town of Nome to live with a Methodist missionary in his family.

The missionaries taught Ada how to speak

English and to read and write. They provided Ada with lessons they deemed appropriate for a young

lady, like sewing and cooking. Being removed from her Inuit culture, Ada was never exposed to

the traditional hunting and survival skills she would have been taught had she

remained with her family. Instead, she would study the Bible and recite hymns while becoming

an expert seamstress. At the age of 16, Ada would marry a local dog musher, Jack Blackjack,

...