The Story of Robert Abram Bartlett, Arctic Explorer (1875-1946)
		Robert Abram Bartlett in 1938

Family Background

            The Bartletts settled in Brigus (Conception Bay), Newfoundland, Canada between 1725[1] and 1750,[2] from Bridport in Dorset, England.[3] The family claims partial descent from sailors and soldiers from the Spanish Armada who washed up on the western coast of Britain when blown off course on the naval retreat back to Spain. “These ancestors were probably Basque sailors.…”[4] Captain Bob Bartlett explains in an autobiography that:

In 1588 the Spanish Armada…cruised north to make all England Spanish…a great storm arose and the proud fleet was dashed to pieces on the rock-ribbed coast of England and Scotland, from Land’s End to John o’ Groats. From these ships hundreds of Spanish soldiers and sailors were washed ashore, dead and alive. Many were so well treated by the coast folk that there they stayed. Thus came to the Nordic Bartletts a strain of somber Spanish blood, accounting not only for their complexion and their hair but…for the independence and the airs still found among them.[5]

Robert Abram Bartlett was born August 15, 1875.[6] The son of William J. Bartlett and Mary Jamima (Leamon[7]) Bartlett, he was born at his grandparents’ house, the Abram Bartletts[8] in Brigus. “Bob’s father was a stern, strict man.  Few addressed him other than as ‘Captain.’[9]  His siblings were Beatrice Bartlett (1873?-?); Emma Bartlett (1875?-?); William Bartlett (1877?-?); Hilda N. Bartlett (1879-1905); Elizabeth Bartlett (1881?-?); Rupert Bartlett (1883?-1917[10]); Lewis Bartlett (1890?-1916); Eleanor Bartlett (1892?-?); and Stewart Bartlett (1894?-1894?).  Mary Leamon Bartlett lost a daughter in childbirth and three children died young.  Lewis was a member of the Newfoundland Regiment which went to the Middle East in WWI. He contracted anthrax in Mesopotamia in 1916 but survived (quite a miracle in those days) into the late 1960s.[11]  Capt. Rupert Bartlett, Bob’s brother, was killed on the front in France during World War I. 

Bob’s mother, a Wesleyan Methodist, dreamed that he would become a minister.  He was sent to St. John’s, the capital of Newfoundland, where he enrolled at the Methodist College.[12]  Bob Bartlett was fifteen years old.  After two years he left and went back to sealing off the Labrador coast with his father.  From that time on, Bob Bartlett had a life on the sea.  He would captain many vessels in his lifetime.  Captain Bob is most remembered for his work with Commodore Peary in Arctic exploration.  Bartlett served as captain on the Roosevelt, Boethic, Karluk, and first served as Captain of the Effie M. Morrissey in 1925.  Several of the expeditions that Bartlett took part in was in the service of the United States military.  Bartlett voyaged with scientists, photographers, and students to Greenland, Ellsmere Island, Baffin Island, the Siberian Arctic, and other northern localities during his storied career of exploration.[13]

Robert Abram Bartlett passed away on April 28, 1946[14] in a New York hospital.  Bartlett was struck by pneumonia and could not recover.  He was seventy years old.  He was never married and left no children.  He is buried in Brigus, Newfoundland.  

Bob Bartlett’s grandparents were Abram Bartlett (1819-1888) and Elizabeth (Wilmont) Bartlett (1823?-?). Their four children were John Bartlett (1845?-?); William James Bartlett (1847?-?); Samuel Bartlett (1849?-?); and Henry Bellamy Bartlett (1851?-1894), who drowned. Captain Bob’s sister, Mrs. Beatrice (Bartlett) Dove, explained the drowning of her uncle, Henry, as such:

Uncle Harry had been north with Peary on the Falcon…In 1894 he brought to Philadelphia Commander Peary, Mrs. Peary, and little Marie Ahnighito…Uncle Harry started back home…with a cargo of anthracite coal. The vessel was carrying a very heavy load and many…think the coal shifted, and the Falcon sank taking all her crew with her. The mystery of this tragedy was never solved…Uncle Harry was lost with the rest of them, and so far as I know, though so many Bartletts followed the sea, he was the only one to meet death by drowning.[15]

Bob’s grandfather, Abram, had several siblings. These included, John Bartlett (1816-?); Elizabeth Bartlett (1816?-?); Isaac Bartlett (1818?-?); Emma Selina Bartlett (1826-?); William Bartlett (1826-?); Amy Bartlett (1828?-?); Moses Bartlett (1828?-?); Susannah Bartlett (1829-?); and Mary Ann Bartlett (1814-1898).

Abram Bartlett was the son of Abram Bartlett (1796-1864) and Ann Richard (1796?-?). The elder Abram Bartlett had two siblings. They were William Bartlett (1794?-?) and Joseph Bartlett (1798?-1871). The elder Abram Bartlett’s parents were William Bartlett (1780-1829) and Ann (1784?-?).

Bartlett Chronology

Capt. Robert A. Bartlett Chronology