Each year, thousands of people visit Bob Bartlett’s boyhood home located in Brigus, Newfoundland and Labrador, to catch a glimpse of this famous sealing captain’s amazing life. Hawthorne Cottage has been designated a National Historic Site. The Log of Bob Bartlett captures details and experiences that are not widely known about his forty years of adventures. His log details his two most historic feats—his journey with Robert Peary to reach the North Pole and his heroic deed aboard the Karluk—yet it also sketches his early life and some of his most memorable ice travels during and after the Great War. Bartlett made twenty-eight excursions into the Arctic, yet one wonders what drove this urge for discovery, especially to the most frigid and unforgiving of places. He has been quoted as saying, “The truth was I could not stop myself in pursuit of adventure. I was committed to the Arctic. I’d got the poison in my veins.”

Captain Robert Abram “Bob” Bartlett was born in Brigus, Newfoundland, on August 15, 1875. He was the son of William Bartlett and the grandson of Abram Bartlett, both prominent sea captains. He was educated at Bishop Feild College and eventually completed his Master certificate at Halifax’s Nautical Academy in 1904. In 1909, Bartlett commanded the Roosevelt on Robert E. Peary’s North Pole Expedition, and in 1913, he was approached by Vilhjamar Stefansson to master the Karluk on his Canadian Arctic Expedition. In 1925, Captain Bob acquired the schooner Ethie M. Morrissey. From 1926 until his death, apart from numerous fishing and hunting trips in his little schooner, Bartlett also made twenty voyages to the Arctic collecting specimens, aiding in archaeological surveys, correcting geographical charts, and collecting animals for zoos. After a life spent doing what he loved, Bartlett died of pneumonia in New York City on April 28, 1946, and was buried at his birthplace. His boyhood residence, Hawthorne Cottage, is a National Historic Site.

Robert A. Bartlett's profile page