Cramp-Hand Cuffers: The Robert Bartlett Explorations

Abstract

Cramp-Hand Cuffers is a collection of semi-biopic prose poems about Captain Robert Bartlett written in a hybrid of Newfoundland dialect and standard English. The narrative begins with Bartlett at home in Newfoundland, anxious to get back out on the sea. He soon joins the ill-fated Karluk expedition which becomes jammed in heavy Arctic Sea ice and sinks in a largely unexplored region north of Siberia in 1914. Bartlett and his crew camped on the thick ice for months, and he was eventually forced to trek 700 miles over the rough, shifting ice and through Siberia to mount a rescue effort from Alaska. Despite his suffering, Bartlett maintains a humorous disposition, reflects on his life back in Brigus, and, when he finally arrives home safe, can’t wait to get back out on the breakers again.