The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-04-08
A TERRIBLE STORY OF THE SEA.

men on the Icy Floes of the Atlantic.
The steamship Nurnberg, Capt. Jaeger,
which arrived at Baltimore on Sunday
week, from Bremen and Southampton,
brought ten men who were rescued from
the jaws of death. Of thirty-four men
belonging to the fishing village Of st.
Mary's, coast of Newfoundland, who en-
gagged In an adventure to rescue ali aban-
doned vessel in the ice, thirteen were
frozen to death, ten reached Baltimore,
three are on a schooner bound to Bermu-
da, and the other eight were taken on g
vessel bound to Newfoundland.
Andrew Mooney, a man of Sc years,
with an intelligent, honest countenance,
who is among those on the Nurnberg,
said that all were neighbors to each other,
and nearly all were born in St Mary's.
He and a number of others have large
families, which they supported by fish
ing in the summer. The ice had been
firm all winter, and some Of the villagers
had gone out upon it frequently to hunt
sea birds. It had shown no signs of
moving before that fatal day. Reports
had been received for week from the
headlands that vessel was seen drifting
about, and on the I'd of March the brig
was discovered two and a half miles from
their shore, fast in the ice. The party
OF thirty-four Gall men but James Grace
was quickly gathered, and they started
out on the ice to her and spent the day
on board.
Toward evening they started home
ward, but had not proceeded far when
the terrible fact was presented to them
that the ice had parted between them
and the shore, and the opening was in
creasing every moment. CONSERVATION
seized upon them as they fastened for
ward, and each threw away his heavy
outer clothing as he ran, to be encum-
bered as little as possible. When the
brink of the ice was reached, the space OF
water between them and the shore was
half mile wide, the ice having broken
one mile out from the land, and the i'm
mense field upon which they stood float
ing steadily further out to sea. It was
now quite dark, the party were exhausted
and but half clad, and they prepared for
the terrible cold which soon set in. At
first it rained until they were all wet to
the skin. The rain then turned to sleet
and snow, the wind veered to the north
ward, and the cold became intense, the
fierce blasts of wind cutting them to the
bone. Then began the efforts for life,
the men stamping their feet, running
madly about, and the more sturdy en-
couraging the weak and faltering. The
cold still increased, until, rs Mooney
says, it had reached degree of intensity
not eQualed before in that latitude this
winter.
At midnight the cold and exhaustion
began to tell upon the doomed ones in
the little party. First one and then an
other of them would lie down, saying
that he could go no further The others
would pick them up and try to keep them
on their feet, but after reeling for short
distance like drunken men they would
fall senseless upon the ice and die with
out struggle. Those able to keep their
feet had enough to do to keep themselves.
from falling into the fatal lethargy, and
with sad hearts each victim was left to
his fate. Father or son Or brother saw
each other fall, and were powerless to
help. When morning dawned, seven
cOrpses were counted at intervals upon
the ice, and of the remainder none could
tell who was to be the next victim.
A field of ice twenty feet square float
ed near the brink of the ice in the open
water, upon which nine Of them got,
hoping that it would float toward the
shore ice and they could thus save them
selves. When it had foated three hun
dred yards from the ice upon which their
comrades stood, it grounded, and the
unfortunates remained upon it for three
days and nights, during which time six
of them died, the other three being those
picked up by the schooner George S.
Fogg on the 9Th of March. When it is
remembered that seven persisted the
first night, it is wonderful that even
three OF the nine on the small ice field
escaped alive, they having endured hun
ger as we'll as the cold. All the food
they had in all that time was a small
white fish, which was frozen in the ice.
This they divided between them. Of
the three men, two are on the Nurnberg.
The eighteen men remaining after the
nine foated off on the small ice-feld
made their way back to the abandoned
brig, which was tightly jammed in the
ice, and was carried with it. All expect
ed to die in her, and some of them had
lost their senses before reaching her the
second time. There were no stores on
the brig, and they subsisted ON molasses,
q few oranges and edible scraps that
could be found. The fishermen, who
admit they are unlettered, could not read
her name, but knew she was not En-
glish. The crew had left on the ice for
Hollowroad, village near St. Mary's,
the LIST Of March. The brig moved with
the ice for a week in sight of the land,
and the fishermen were on her ten days.
At length one evening at sunset
schooner was seen four miles away,
which had been caught in the same field
that imprisoned the brig. That night
the half-famished men held council,
and determined to reach the schooner