The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1879-12-19

lace the trials OF an Arct1C winter. In |
the evening strong wind rose out of
the northwest, bringing with it snow
squalls, and our hearts were happy, for
we thought gale was coming on. All
hands worked with a will, and we were
not long in getting up the anchors and
again setting full sail. But, alas, we
were again doomed to disappointment.
The Mercury moved about two ships
lengths and then was stopped. We
moved not an inch The night closed in
preached us. Few slept that night. The
23d came calm and cold, with ice so
thick that we crossed from the one vessel
to the other. We then decided that We
were doomed to winter in this desolate
spot, and in order to make the provisions
last, we resolved to live in one ship and
use the other for fuel. The Helen Mar,
being the strongest and best ship, was
selected as the one to live in, and all
hands went to work to bring in the pro-
visions from the Mercury on sledges,
carrying ton at each load, and which
we dragged over the ice.
The Mercury had lot of blubber,
and we commenced to remove that, as it
would be good to burn and eat. Hard
did we work from morning until night
fall, when it blew fresh from the north
with snow, but still no signs of the ice
breaking up. At night Captain Hick-
usch, of the Mercury, his wife and chill
dren, came on board. On the next day,
the Oath, it blew a strong gale from the
north. 1t was freezing, and there were
no signs of break in the ice. At four
o'clock, after tremendous efforts by the
crew, the bread and -four of the Mercury
o11
to blow so hard and the ship rolled so
heavily, that we had to cut adrift from
the Mercury If the ships had come to-
gether they would have torn each other
to pieces through the strain upon them.
ALI being on board the Helen Mar, we
set "a close-reefed fore topsail, to try and
force the ship through the ice as it broke
up. The ship pounded very hard, but
we worked slowly to the southeast and
tried the pumps every fifteen minutes,
expecting that the ice would stave the
vessel in, but she stood it nobly. On the
25th we worked through the ice all night
and all day, every moment fearing that
the frozen waters would cut our brave
ship through, as there was heavy strain
upon her and terrible gale blowing;
but it was case of life or death, and we
thought we might as we'll go that way as
stop there and perish. At four P. NJ. we
got through into quite clear water, but it
was freezing hard and bitterly cold, and
the ship was covered with ice and snow.
The next day heavy gale blew from
the N. n. W., we steering to the D.. f..
At 2P. NJ, we reached more new ice,
packed closely with a heavy swell run
ming, so far as we could see, to the n. E.
and S. W., and as We could not get
around it, we set all sail and worked
through it, and got into quite clear wa
ter three hours afterward. For day and
half we worked through ice, and again
we experienced another long and anxious
night-dark, thick fog, the thermome-
ice, the rudder frozen, the ship unman-
ageable, and a heavy gale blowing. The
captain was in the foretop all night, and
had no-sleep for three days or nights; in
fact, for week few of us had any sleep.
We remained in the ice till the 28th,
when it cleared, and we made East Cape
and the islands. The strait was blocked
with ice. We worked through and came
out of it off Cape Prince of Wales. On
the 28th, during thick snowstorm, the
bark ran aground on the shoals off the
cape. She lay on the bottom and pound
ed hard for about an hour. It was pref
ty bad, and we thought things had come
to climax. We were compelled to
throw lots of stuff overheard to get her
off, From the time we left Cape Prince
of Wales till we had passed the Fox is
lands, the weather was very bad and
dirty, from the Islands to San Francis
co the weather was pleasant with light
contrary winds. The probable fate of
the Vigilant and Mount Wollaston. can
only be conjectured. IF they persisted
in making their way north, as the cap
tains intended, they were undoubtedly
caught In the ice-an event which leads
to the conclusion that the will never be
seen again. None of the vessels had seen
the Jeanette, although it was reported
that the Sea Breeze had sighted her.
The winter the whalers all admit, is
very severe one, and the impression is
that the Jeanette has sought some shell
tered spot in which to winter.