Inscribed Call of the Wild – 1906

Inscribed to: Eugene Fenelon: Snark Engineer and a boyhood friend of George Sterling.

“Dear Gene: — “For I am Canim, the Canoe, and my trail is all the world. Jack London Oakland, Calif, Dec. 14 1906”

The quotation is from a short story London wrote 4 years earlier called “Li Wan, The Fair,” published in Children of the Frost, 1902. Canim was a “large Indian fully six feet in height, deep-chested and heavy-muscled….” who proclaimed, “My trail is like the world; it never ends,” and later boasts, “….for I am Canim, the Canoe, made to go here and there to journey and quest up and down the length and breadth of the world.” 

The Snark was something of a wreck when it arrived in Hawaii. Yet Jack was determined to sail on and spared no expense in repairing it. During the five months the London’s remained in Hawaii, the Snark was refurbished and given a thorough overhaul. It was not only the ship that had been stretched to the limit by the journey out, but some of the crew as well. Tochigi, who had been severely afflicted by sea¬sickness most of the time, voluntarily resigned and returned to California, where he eventually became a minister. Roscoe and Bert also left. Their departures became grist for the newspapers, which claimed that they had been badly bullied by Jack. On returning to San Francisco, neither Roscoe nor Bert said anything to dispel these rumors. In fact, they gave credence to them through press interviews in which their anger and disappointment were apparent. Roscoe was dismissed by Jack on the obvious grounds that he was incompetent and insubordinate. The parting with Bert seems to have been mutually agreeable, but more so on the side of the Londons.

Thus, of the original crew, only Martin remained. That he had survived the rigors of the trip and was willing to go on speaks for his determination and courage. He stood high in the Londons’ esteem— despite his poor cooking—because he was loyal, conscientious, and personable, adept with machines and cameras, and held up well under stress. Jack promoted him to engineer and placed him in charge of film developing. He then hired new crew members, some of whom were fired before the Snark left Hawaii. Among these was Gene Fenelon, a circus-manager friend of George Sterling’s, and Captain Andy Rose.

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