Bruce Gordon – 7 years living with a polar bear
Time stranded: 7 years
Distance traveled: Over 300 miles
Terrain types: Arctic, Sea
Deaths: +10
Situation ended: Found by passing ship
Location: North Atlantic ocean, Greenland
Bruce Gordon was a regular guy, just a sailor from Aberdeen trying to make a living working on board any ship that could pay him. One day in 1757 he got the opportunity to become part of the crew on a ship called the Anne Forbes, a whaling ship planning a trip to the waters between Iceland and Greenland.
The ship’s captain was a well-known drunk, which may be why he crashed the ship in between two giant icebergs, creating a huge hole that tossed the vessel upside down. Gordon was on deck when this happened and was thrown off the side of the ship, landing on an ice sheet below.
The icebergs dragged the ship out of Gordon’s view and with night quickly closing in he lost sight of the vessel. The next day he began walking in the direction it was taken and soon caught sight of it sitting upside down in the water with several polar bears feeding nearby on some of his crew mates.
He quickly realized he was the only one to survive the wreck, and since he had nothing on him but a pocket bible he decided to try and sneak on board and gather supplies. There was quite a bit of food left in the ship, as it was stocked to be at sea with a full crew for several months, and since it was set firmly in the ice and not going to sink any further Gordon decided to call it home.
After a few days, a large female polar bear crept in through a hole in the side and attacked Gordon who managed to kill it with a knife he had. Soon after the fight, a small female cub walked through the door looking for its mum, and feeling sorry for it Gordon took it in and looked after it, feeding it whale blubber and fish.
Gordon and his polar bear friend, Nancy managed to survive in the upside-down wreck for just over 6 years, and during this time he taught Nancy to fish for him and fend off other polar bears. Eventually, the giant sheet of ice they were trapped in drifted toward Greenland, and the wreck was spotted by a group of natives.
A very excited Gordon came running out of the wreck upon seeing the natives, followed closely by his fully grown polar bear friend. They lived with the natives for several months but Nancy eventually got bored and returned to the wild. Gordon got bored too and decided to try and make it back to Scotland, but since he was in 18th century Greenland he didn’t exactly have the option of calling for help.
He took a canoe and started to paddle out into the sea, which shows the level of desperation he was in as it would be impossible to stock enough food and water in such a ship to make even a quarter of the journey home. Luckily for him though a ship called the “Briel of Amsterdam” caught sight of him and picked him up, dropping him off in England on the way back to Holland.
He was gone from Scotland for a total of 7 years and 1 month, and upon returning home his story quickly made him a hit across the nation.