Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Last voyage of the Karluk

Last voyage of the Karluk
This nomination predates the introduction in April 2014 of article-specific subpages for nominations and has been created from the edit history of Today's featured article/requests.


 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the TFAR nomination of the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page unless you are renominating the article at TFAR. For renominations, please add   to the top of the discussion and   at the bottom, then complete a new TFAR nom underneath.

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/March 31, 2013 by BencherliteTalk 09:48, 25 March 2013‎ (UTC)



The last voyage of the Karluk, flagship of the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913–16, ended in a disaster which led to the deaths of almost half the ship's complement. In August 1913 the ship became trapped by ice in the Arctic Ocean. The expedition's leader, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, then left with a hunting party; while he was away the ship began to drift, preventing his return. When after many weeks the ship was crushed by ice and sunk its captain, Robert Bartlett, led the 25 crew and expedition personnel across the sea ice to Wrangel Island, 80 mi away. In the dangerous conditions, eight men were lost on the march. From the island Bartlett and an Inuk companion set out for the Siberian coast to seek help; they eventually reached Alaska, but weather conditions delayed the organisation of a rescue. On Wrangel Island the stranded party were short of food and troubled by internal dissent; before their rescue in September 1914 three more of the party had died. Some of the voyage's survivors were critical of Stefansson for leaving the ship, although he escaped official censure. Bartlett was hailed as a hero by the public and by his former Karluk shipmates.

4 points: the article is 3+ years old, and we haven't had an Arctic/Antarctic TFA for ages. Plus it's a great story. Brianboulton (talk) 20:09, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Supprt + Comment: It's a great choice to run, however, the actual article (Voyage of the Karluk) needs to be named and bolded in the blurb.--Chimino (talk) 02:45, 23 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Harder to do than you'd think, given the descriptive nature of the title. Above, with the help of a pipe, is the best I can do. Any improvement is fine by me. Brianboulton (talk) 10:41, 23 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Support - fine article. A question, though: why is the title not "Last voyage of the HMCS Karluk"? It wasn't any voyage, it was the ship's last, and typical ship naming conventions on Wikipedia have either "the USS Foo" or just "Foo". The latter sounds odd here, so why not follow the format in other similar FAs, like Sinking of the RMS Titanic? Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 15:42, 23 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Sensible idea to change the title, which I have acted upon. Brianboulton (talk) 09:30, 24 March 2013 (UTC)
 * I've added "the" per the other similar FA above, but otherwise that looks good. :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 09:42, 24 March 2013 (UTC)
 * No, "the HMCS Karluk" is incorrect. It renders the title as "Last Voyage of the Her Majesty's Canadian Ship Karluk". This form works for, say, "the Royal Mail Ship Titanic, but not for Her Majesty's ships. Either delete HMCS or revert the added "the", I don't mind which, but both cannot be in the title. Brianboulton (talk) 11:58, 24 March 2013 (UTC)
 * In the absence of action by others, I have dropped "HMCS" to give "Last voyage of the Karluk. This makes sense; it also gets rid of initials that might mystify some. I am amenable to alternatives, but can I ask that before making any further move, anyone suggesting a further change pings my talkpage first, so the matter can be discussed? Otherwise we may have title changes back and forth at infinitum. Brianboulton (talk) 19:04, 24 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Support. High quality article. Educational, encyclopedic, of great use for academics, educators, students, and readers alike. Also, SCIENCE!!! &mdash; Cirt (talk) 16:13, 24 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Support - what Cirt said, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 17:35, 24 March 2013 (UTC)