The Race of Mercy — Winter of 1925
It was a Sunday at the beginning of Spring and I had the day to myself in New York. The glorious weather beckoned me to Central Park for a brisk walk. While within, I was attracted to the sight of children climbing onto a statue of a dog and getting themselves photographed. Moving closer to the statue, I saw the plaque on it. The dog’s name was Balto and the larger plaque below read,
Dedicated to the Indomitable Spirit of The Sled Dogs.
That Relayed Antitoxins Six Hundred Miles over Rough Ice,
Across Treacherous Waters, Through Arctic Blizzards From
Nenana to the Relief of Stricken Nome in the Winter of 1925.
ENDURANCE FIDELITY INTELLIGENCE
I was intrigued; I read more about it and was moved by what must rank as one of the most heroic tales of modern times. Nearly a hundred years ago, a nation’s conscience was aroused and it galvanized teams of men and their dogs to feats of incredible sacrifice when they braved sub-zero temperatures to save the children of an Alaskan town from Diphtheria. This is their tale…..
Nome is a small town on the Western coast of Alaska on the shores of the Bering Sea. The town saw a gold rush during the 1900s when the population of the town went up to 10,000 but slowly depleted as no more gold was found. In 1925, the town itself had a mere 1400 inhabitants and about 10,000 people lived in the surrounding areas, largely native Inupiat Eskimos.
Nome is remote — by flight it is 870 kms away from Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage and 3200 kms from Seattle, the nearest city in the lower 48 states. There are no roads into Nome and no railways. In 1925 there was no regular air service either. Ship and dog sled were the only means to reach this town, just 250 kms south of the Arctic Circle. Even the option of traveling by ship was restricted to 4 months a year (July to October) as the Bering Sea freezes during the winter months of November to June making it impassable. Urgent supplies during winters would come by way of the freeze-free port of Seward (in South Eastern Alaska), then by train from Seward to Nenana (680 kms, a 2-day journey) and the final leg by dog sled from Nenana to Nome, a brutal 25-day journey over 1085 kms of rough terrain and freezing weather.
It was the November of 1924. The last ship of the season, “Alameda”, had left the shores of Nome to return only in June next year. It had left behind supplies that would last for the next few months — meat, food, coal and clothes. The isolation of the town’s folks was compounded by the worst winter they had seen in twenty years. Christmas celebrations around the corner provided the much needed gaiety in this desolate landscape.
Around this time Dr. Curtis Welch, the town’s doctor, examined a sick girl but dismissed her case as one of sore throat and advised her rest. She died the next day. Then between 28th December and 21st January three more children died with similar symptoms of sore throat and fever as well as greyish lesions on the throat. The doctor was now convinced that he was dealing with an epidemic of diphtheria and to his horror realised that the antitoxin he had requested earlier had not been sent from Seattle leaving him with a small quantity of expired serum vials.
Diphtheria is a virulently contagious disease. It affects the mucous membrane of the nose and throat, coating a white leathery substance on the rear of the throat thus constricting breathing. Symptoms include sore throat, a loud barking cough and extreme difficulty in breathing. Lack of immediate treatment could eventually lead to death. The only cure for this is to inject an antitoxin serum on detection. Prevention is by vaccination — doses of DTP given to children from the age of 6 months to 2 years usually builds immunity against the disease.
The catastrophic situation stared vividly at the doctor and the town’s mayor; 20 cases were now confirmed, 50 more were suspect and the entire population of the area was potentially at risk of infection and possible death. A quarantine was imposed and the doctor and his team of four nurses went from house to house treating those infected as best as they could with minimal diagnostic tools and no serum. On 22nd January Dr. Welch sent a desperate telegram to the authorities asking for an immediate supply of 1 million units of antitoxin to the beleaguered town. The telegram had an instant effect; every major newspaper in the country carried the story of distressed Nome within the next few days.
The logistics of sending the antitoxin were formidable. Transport by air was ruled out due to the blizzards. The only option was to send it by the traditional means of dog sled and musher (the driver). The team, consisting of a driver and 8–10 dogs, normally covered a distance of 50 kms a day, in all taking 25 days from the nearest railhead of Nenana to the town of Nome. The governor of the state, Scott Bone, decided that extraordinary measures were now called for. He ordered a relay team of 20 mushers and 150 dogs to transport the serum in the quickest time possible.
Fortunately, 0.3 M units of the serum were located at Anchorage. The serum was packed into a 9 kg parcel and sent by train on 26th January, 1925 to Nenana. The first of the mushers, Bill Shannon was waiting to pick up the serum with his team of 9 dogs at the Nenana rail station at 9 PM on 27th January. Then began a race with all odds stacked against the mushers; icy cold temperatures going down to -40°C (-70°C with wind chill), blizzards, winds of 50 kmph, winter sunlight lasting barely 4 hours a day, frozen rivers covered with thin ice and children battling the disease agonizingly counting every second.
The serum passed from one relay team to another, the handoff happening at roadhouses along the way like Tolovana, Manley Hot Springs, Bishop Mountain, Nulato, Shaktoolik, Golovin and Bluff. The mushers were some of the best in the game — Bill Shannon, Sam Joseph, Edgar Kalland, Charlie Evans, Leonhard Seppala, Charlie Olson and Gunnar Kaasen. The most treacherous part of the route was the 45 kms stretch crossing the Norton Bay, a sea of ice where a sudden wind could break the ice and carry the dog team away towards the Bering Sea. Three of Bill Shannon’s dogs died due to frostbite in the withering cold and Bill himself suffered from a severe frostbite. Charlie Evans had both his lead dogs crippled while running through the blizzard and he had to put them in the sled and run the last few kilometres with the harness hooked onto himself. Both the dogs died soon after he reached the roadhouse. The mushers pushed themselves and their dogs to hitherto untested limits of endurance and danger.
Leonhard Seppala, a Norwegian and the best musher of the times had been selected to cross the Norton Bay with his legendary lead dog Togo. Seppala started from Nome and travelled 270 kms to Shaktoolik, collected the serum and then did a return of 145 kms to Golovin before handing over the serum to the next driver. This was the longest stretch done by any of the drivers and over the most gruelling part of the route. Seppala and Togo were truly the heroes of this mission.
The last stretch of 85 kms was covered by another Norwegian, Gunnar Kaasen with his lead dog Balto. Kaasen, with Balto and the rest of the dogs, arrived in Nome at 5 am on the morning of 2nd February to deliver the serum to the pensive doctor who immediately administered it to the affected patients saving all of them. The death toll had been restricted to seven, all of whom had died before the serum reached Nome.
The mushers and their dogs had covered the distance of 1085 kms in 5 ½ days averaging nearly 200 kms a day against a normal speed of 50 kms a day. A grateful country then erected the statue of Balto in Central Park, New York in December 1925 to honour the valour of the dogs.
The advent of regular air services and the snowmobiles rendered the skill of mushing obsolete. A few traditionalists, determined not to let mushing slip into oblivion, started the “Iditarod Race”. This event, first begun in 1973, has become an annual feature attracting more than 50 teams comprising some of the best mushers and dogs to compete in the most rigorous race in the world covering a distance of 1850 kms from Anchorage to Nome. The race takes place in the first week of March every year and is dedicated to all the mushers and dogs that took part in the “Race of Mercy” of the winter of 1925.
As we enjoy this festive season, let’s spare a thought to those hardy men and animals who made it possible for the children of Nome to celebrate their next Christmas.
