These photographs survive.

They show a small woman, gaunt but upright, in the reindeer parka she had sewn for herself, with the bleak tundra and tent structures of the Wrangel Island camp around her.

On the morning of August 20, 1923, Ada was inside her tent when she heard a sound outside.

She thought at first it was a walrus.

When she went outside, she saw a ship through the fog.

She ran to the beach.