Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-02-12


isfed with his situation; but there being no
wind he could not move one way or the 9TH
er, and he therefore kept a strict watch, know
ing that he would be safe as long as the Ice
bergs continued in their respective places.
About midnight. the wind rose TO a gale I;
accompanied by thick showers of snow, while
a succession of tremendous laundering,
grinding, and crashing noise, gave a fearful
evidence that the lee was in motion. The
vessel received violent shocks every moment,
for the haziness Of the atmosphere prevented
those on board from discovering in what di-
reciion the open water lay, or IT there actu-
ally was any at all on either side of them
The night was spent in lacking as often as
any cause Of danger happened TO present IT,
self, aud in the morning the storm abdted,
and Captain Warrens found, to his great Joy,
that his ship had not sustained any serious
injury. He remarked with surprise that the
accumulated icebergs, which had on the pre-
ceding evening formed an impenetrable bar
rier, had been separated and disarranged by
the wind, and in one place a canal of open
sea wound its course among them as far as
the eye could discern.
1t was two miles bevond the entrance of
this canal that a ship made its appearance
about noon. The sun shone brightly at the
time and a gentle breeze blew from the north.
At first some intervening icebergs prevented
Captain Warrens from distinctly seeing any
thing but her masts; but he WAS struck with
the strange manner in which her sails were
disposed, and with the dismantled aspect Of
her yards and rigging. She continued TO 90
before the wind for a few iurlongs and then
grounding among the low icebergs, remained
motionless.
Captain Warrens' curiosity was so much
excited that he Immediately leaped into his
bout, and with several seamen rowed towards
her. On approaching, he observed that her
hull was miserably weather-beaten, ami not
a soul appeared on the deck which was CO.
vered with snow to a considerable deplh.-
He hailed her crew several times but no an
swer was returned. Previous to stepping on
hoard, an open port hole near the main chains
caught his eye, and on locking into it., he
perceived a man reclining back on a chair,
with writing materials on a table before him,
but the feebleness Of the light made every
thing very indistinct. The party went upon
deck. and having removed the hatchway,
which they found closed, they descended TO
the cabin. They first came to the apartment
which Captain Warrens viewed through the
port hole. A tremor seized him as he enter
ed it. It's inmate retained his ftrncr posi-
ton, and seemed TO be inseusibIe to stran-
gers. He was found TO be a corpse; and a
green damp mould had covered his chepks
and forehead, and yelled his open eye-ballS.
He had a pen in his hand, and a log book lay
before him, the last sentence of whose un-
finished page ran thus November lIth,
1862. We have now been enclosed in the
ice II days. The fire went out Yesterday,
and our master has been trying ever since TO
kindle it again without success. His wife
died this morning. There is no reliel-'
Captain WarrCns and his seamen hurried
from the spot without u%ttering a word. On
entering the principal cabin, the first object
that attracted their attention was the dead
body Of a female reclining on a he'd in an at
titude of deep interest and attention. Her
cOuntenance retained the freshness of life, but
a contraction of the limbs showed that her
form was inanimate. Seated on the floor
was a corpse of an apparently young man,
holding a steel ! one hand and a flint in the
other, as if in the act of striking Ere upon
some tirder which lay beside him. In the
fore part of the vessel several sailors were
found lying dead in the berlhs, and the bod y
of a boy was crouched in tie bottom of the
gangway stairs. Neither provisions nor fuel
could be discovered any where, but Captain
Warrens was prevented by The superslitious
preiudices Of his seamen, from examining the
vessel as infinitely as he wished to do. lie
therefore carried away the log book already
mentioned, and returned to his own ship and
immediately stored to the southwark, duly
impressed with the awful example which he
had just witnessed Of the danger of navigat.
ing the Polar Seas in high northern ATTITUDES.
On returning to England, he made various
inquiries respecting vessels that had disap.
peared in an unknown way, and, by compar-
inc The results of those with information
which was afforded by the written documents
in his possession, he ascertaIned the name
and history of the imprisoned ship aud of heI
unfortunate master, and that she Lad beer
frozen thirteen years previous to the time o
his discovering her among the ice.