[4] Comer spent two winters, 1910–1912, frozen in the ice at Cape Fullerton, during which time he made phonograph records of the local Inuit, and collected folklore and legends of the Iluilirmiut of Adelaide Peninsula (Iluilik), Hudson Bay.

Wing had recently left his post as master of the steam bark Gay Head of San Francisco, and was well-acquainted with arctic navigation.

After two seasons on river steamers between Stockton and San Francisco, he became captain of the Gay Head, a post he held from 1909 to 1912.

George Cleveland of Martha's Vineyard, his partner Mr. Bumpus, and their supplies at Cape Fullerton to establish a trading post for the F. N. Monjo Company of furriers.

After dropping off supplies and picking up a two years' catch of furs from Captain Cleveland at Cape Fullerton in September 1915, she was never heard from again.

[2][7] In 1917, George Fred Tilton of Martha's Vineyard was hired by the Monjo company to investigate the disappearance of the schooner.

He sailed to Hudson Bay on the schooner Pythian and determined that it had burned and sank in flames on its homeward journey.

The men were thought to have been trying to reach the nearest Hudson Bay trading post, some 70 miles (110 km) from where the dory was found, when winter storms set in.