The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1867-05-22
Dreadful suferings Of Whalers Crew
The Edinburg Scotsman has the folloWln:

The Edinburg Scotsman has the following
narrative
A correspondent in Lerwick favors US with
an account of the arrival at Shetland of the
whalesbip Diana, of Hull, which got frozen
up in the ice at Davis Straits last season, and
respecting the safety of which vessel grave
fears were entertained. This vessel sailed |
from Lerwick last May, with a crew Of fifty
men all told, of whom about thirty were
Shetlanders, and the rest English, and was
last heard of beset in the ice in the month OF
/ September On the Cd ult. she sailed into
Rona's Voc, in Shetland, with ali her men on
! board-living, dying and dead. Not one was
missing Her captain, with nine of his men
dead by his side, lay on the bridge. Five
men were fit for duty, and of these, two were
able to crawl aloft, and the remainder were
| lying below sick or dying. AS the ship came
into port another man died. The sight which
met the eyes of the people from the shore who
first boarded her cannot well be told in prose.
Dante might have related it in the s'lnferno.'
One of the survivors says: Our beef got
done in January, coffee and sugar about that
time also, and our last tea was served out IN
the beginning of February, 1865. Tobacco
was likewise all gone, and some of us tired to
smoke tea leaves and coffee grounds. The tea
leaves burned the mouth bad, but the coffee
grounds were not so disagreeabie L 40 as
sure you it was precious cold, especially at
night, when your breath froze IN the top Of
your berth Till the ice came to be three or four
inches thick, and we had day each week TO
break it off and scrape it down with the ships
scrapers. The men began to get downhearted,
and some Of them were 50 weak that they
dropped at the pumps. The doctor did every
thing he could for them, and was all a man
should be, taking bis watch regularly and
working as hard as any one; but he couldn't
save them Scurvy began with them, and
then they couldn't eat what little food they
had, owing to their gums being SO bad, and
many of them had dysentery. The first two
! who died-Forbes Smith and Mitchell Aber-
Dethv-we made coffins for and laid up beside
q the captain on the bridge, but we hadn't wood
: for any more The men were very quiet and
! resigned, though, of course, there was dill
ference among them, and some were more
a contentcd than others.
AtIast on the 18th Of March, with clear
!" MOONLIGHT, we drove out between Resolution
Islands into the broken ice. There was {
q GREAT deal of young" ice broken by the
# heavy ice, which protected the ship very much
f. although she struck heavily at times, anC
= DAMAGED her rudder. William Lofley, one-o
If the harpooncrs, acted as navigator. Whe'
IS we GOT into the open sea and the ship began
!. rolling and pitching, the leak got worse, an(
d we had enough to do to keep her afloat, a
l. there were not many able to work. On Sun
to dav, 3lst March, we exchanged longitude
,r with ship, and that very afternoon we slghte(
land, lust two weeks from our leaving the Ice
= But, unluckiIv, we took the land we sa" t
70 be Orkney, and, wanting to 60 to Shetland
70 we stood away to the northward, along tn
IN west side of Shetland, all the time supposln
1t it to be Orkney.
H. We beat about there till Tuesday morning
a. when the mate said he would take the tir*
4 harbor he could find, and we ran her int
II Rona's Voc that day at noon, finding to on
4 SUNRISE that we had been off Shetland all tn
n time. Had we been ont another night non
he of US would have stood it. The night befo'
" three of my watch dropped down at the pump
ev and only four of us were able tor DUTY, an
ot they not much to speak of. On Sunday nigh
he when we were carrying her on with ,doub''
re reefed topsaiIs, the jib haliards gave wa,
Il and out of both watches three were all WI
u could 90 out 10 stow It, HHa tHeJ #efh Il
,al and it tore to ribbons, Only another man ar
at- could 60 aloft to stow the mantopga'!a
he sail when we brought up, and we were ju
he able to crawl and when we came down v
nd were done up. When we came into that pc
III. with nine corpses lying on the bridge, al
nd after we had anchored, one of the sick han
his called out from his berth: 50 Take away IL
NV dead man from me and then we found til
inc he had been dead for some time; so that
nd the tenth. and we laid him on the bridge tt
md -----SS"