I was looking for information on a man named RWJ Reed of Nome when I found this article. RWJ Reed is mentioned briefly in it, but I didn’t learn much about him. However, the article’s story… my first thought afterward was, “You’ve no manner of luck, my friend,” from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Don’t want to click on the link? Here’s the article with all typos corrected. I wonder what happened to that poor guy.
“REACH ALASKA IN SMALL BOAT
By ALFRED P. RECK
United Press Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON. Jan. 1 [1928] —Vocelia Rrovcrok was born under an unlucky star. First of all, he was reared in the bleak, icy wastes of Siberia. Second, his ambitions were cramped by the soviet rule. Third, his hopes of success in America, the land of promise, were nipped in the bud by the watchfulness of the U. S. Coast Guards at Nome, Alaska.
Vocelia listened to glowing reports of the land to the south. His imagination was stirred and he conferred with eight compatriots. They decided to journey to America. The nine Russians had but little money but they had strength and ambition. Vocetila invested his savings in an open whale boat while the others purchased food and fur clothing. It was a good 300 miles across the Bering Straits and the Bering sea to an Alaskan haven; the water was storm tossed and ice packed, but nature in all its Arctic fierceness could not daunt the nine determined Russians. They embarked from the tip of Siberia in the open whale boat with nothing but oars for the motive power. For 17 days they battled wind, tides and ice. Three by three they took turns at propelling the open boat towards the promised land, two at the oars and one at the rudder. Finally they sighted the rocky coast of Alaska and they steered a course southward along the edge of the Bering sea until the smoke of the city of Nome told them that they were nearing civilization. Vocelia beached his boat about 16 miles north of the city. The nine clambered ashore after one of the most hazardous voyages ever attempted by modern mariners. Eight of the adventurers pushed on by foot to Nome in search of food, friends and consel, leaving Vocelia to guard his boat, which they thought might be needed for another journey further south.
Someone advised the coast guard station at Nome that the nine aliens had smuggled themselves Into the country. Boatswain Thomas Ross, in charge of the station, started out to round them up. He and his crew of guardsmen found the whale boat where It bad been beached but there were no signs of a crew. One of the guardsmen spotted the tall tundra grass waving suspiciously a short distance from the boat and investigation disclosed Vocelia in hiding, frightened by the official looking uniforms.
He was taken to Nome under arrest and turned over to R. W. J. Reed, collector of customs and immigration inspector. Through an interpreter Vocelia said that his companions had started to work their way south, leaving him in charge of the boat. His story of the 300-mile battle with ice and seas to reach Alaska touched the coast guardsmen but Vocelia was sentenced to be shipped back to Siberia in spring when the ice breaks up. A search has been started for his eight companions, but it is believed that they managed to reach shelter among the Russians in fishing villages to the south. Vocelia, who conceived the idea and furnished the boat, must go back to his former dreary existence in Siberia.”
Northern Skies Publishing 
