Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-02-24
WAHN0!
The Northern Polar Continent.
A Thrilling Narrative Of Adventure and BiscOV-
cry Among Lnliputian Race.


A Thrilling Narrative Of Adventure and BiseOT-
cry Among Lilliputian Race.
The following thrilling narrative of
an accidental voyage of discovery un-
der the North Pole will be read with
I a great deal of scientific interest and
excited curiosity. Karl Frossman' IS
narrative of adventure and experience
under the North Pole has been given
to the public by Professor AdOlph
Bertfried, connected with the Uni
versity of Bon, Germany, and first
published in the Springfield Mass. }
Republican. Prof. Bertfried was for
some years engaged in survey and
scientific expedition in the new Ter
ritory of Alaska, where he fortunately
came into possession of the narrative
in the spring of 1868. The Professor
saws:
While at Kodiak Island, off the
south coast of the pronlOntory of
Alaska, whence EWrote you, L made
the acquaintance of the widow of a
Gefman hunter named Zockler, who,
after she came to understand my char
acter and business in the country, con-
fided to me that she had come into
possession Of Ms. that she believed
10 be important, written i'll language
unknown to her, and which had been
entrusted to her by n stranger when
at the point OF death, under solemn
promise that she would keep it until
she could find some man of education
who would undertake to deeipher and
publish it TO the world. The
widow Zockler's account, which L
have no reason to discredit, is that
the man who gave her the Ms. drifted
ashore in boat much battered by ice,
some three years before. He was
nearly famished when she took him
from the boat, with the assistance of
neighbor, and carried him to her
hut, and was only so far recovered by
the stimulants she administered as to
utter the injunction in regard to the
Ms, when he sank back and expired.
Prof. Bertfried did not examine the
manuscript till he reached New York,
in December last, when, upon open
ing it, he found note in German, eX-
planning the cipher. He says:
The MS. was written in crude but
compact and comprehensive stenog-
raphy, devised by the author. The
German note also gave me the as
founding information that the writer
was sailor, lost from a ship in the
Northern ocean near Spitzbergen, and
that he had drifted to an arctic con-
tinent or island, which he found in
habited by peculiar race of men, ard
had remained there some ten years,
until, weary of a meager and monot-
onous life, and pining for home, he
had boldly put out upon the Northern
sea again, in the same small boat in
which he had reached the polar coun-
try. How long he had drifted, or by
what currents and winds his frail YES
sci had been brought around through
the narrow straits which separate the
eastern and western continents, un-
fortunately he did not live TO tell
FRossMAN's NARRATIVE.
Karl Frossman was born in Germany
i'm 1914. He served with his father,
Otto Frossman, as a fisherman, till
three years after he reached manhood.
Longing for greater adventures, Karl
became q sailor, and in that capacity
visited many portions of the wide
world. In 1912 he married beauti-
ful German girl named Gertrude
Spluyt, to whom he was devotedly at
Iached. In the spring of 1854 he went
on whaling voyage to the North
Seas. Here follows the material por-
tions of his exciting adventure:
1.-THE voyage was unlike any other
former experience to me, and when
we reached the waters where the
whale abounds, below SpitZbergen,
the chase of these sea monsters be
came very exciting, especially as /
had q personal interest in the number
taken. We had excellent luck, and
were likely to get our full cargo of oil
in less than the usual time, when /
was accidentally separated from my
messmates and ship, and sent alone
I upon a strange voyage, from which l
/ fear there will be no return. We had
gone in the small boat to Epges Island,
On a bright Sunday morning, as was
our custom, to hunt the eggs OF the
elder duck, which were abundant
among the rocks. Having filled my
| pouch with eggs, l returned first TO
| the boat, and while awaiting the ar
rival of my comrades, laid down in
the boat and fell asleep. When /
awoke, found that | was adrift upon
the ocean, alone. The rope had evil
IDENTIFY slipped from under the large
stone put upon it TO hold it, and the
boat had already drifted so far that in
the dim light I could just see the
island in the distance, and could dis
cover no vessel. A great horror then
came over me. / cannot tell the ag-
ony of that moment. As soon as /
could in some measure control myself,
1 tried to make out the direction the
boat was taking. As near as L could
Judge it was little east of north, and
high wind conspired with the cur
rent to make my course rapid. This
suggested the only thought in which
[ could find comfort, that, if L must
perish of cold, the sooner 1 should
reach the region of perpetual ice the
Griefer my sufferings would be.
l had no sail in the boat, and but
one oar. 1 was utterly at the mercy
of winds and waves, and | lay down
in the bottom of the boat in a stupOr,
which was less like sleep than the
lethargy of despair. did not invoke
the saints, for hau been taught that
the great God does not entrust the
government of His universe to finite
beings; and did not pray for mIrac-
ulous deliveTanee at His hand, for my
mother, a devOut follower of Luther,
had told me that the age of miracles
closed long ago, and that now infieX-
ible law controls all things and if it
were not so, could not feel that l
was of sufficient consequence to be
made the subject of miraculous inter-
position. No doubt l might have
-. found reason enough for praying, in
spite of the intlexibility of natural law,
if | had been III the mood, but 1 was
not. My only thoughts were of home,
and the friends whose expostIIlatiOns
had disregarded. / lOnged to make
known to them my terrible fate, for i
did not think escape from death pos
. sible.