The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1880-05-04


thick with ice hummocks which had
formed high rs Der rails. Her boats
had broken from the davits 10 some
instances entirely. aud in Others saill
hangin' BY Que tackle. As nigh ~ we
could make out she had half poop
cabin with the entrance aft through
. companion way. Ahaft this again
Wa sprung sort Of hurricane deck.
which covered the wheel and
pinnacle, and in either side of which
we're q bo.en's locker.
''Stan lin by the wheel. and evi-
IDENTIFY held up BY it. were . man.
He were stone dead, but preserved 20
we'll that it were difficult to believe
it ill you come close tn him. The
sou'wester Of bis head had rotted %
that it crumbled to dust At the touch.
and all of his clothes WAS the same.
but here were the man completely
petri6ed, Q solid statue of ice. Pullin'
open the doors of the companion. way
they dropped from their hinges. and
tell a masa Of rot upon the icy deck.
The steps leadin' down below was
equally decsyed, but at the table
were another man with paper afore
him and pen in his hand. Evidently
he had been tryin' for to write some
thin when overlook BY death. What
it were our mate couldn't make out.
10 O bunk on the star-board side Of
the cabin were another man, dead for
years and years. Movin' the psper
from under the arm of the man 1t
:he table, our mate soon come to
date.
Great Cesar. boys I" Gays be. do
you know when this here we're
written? This here date are 1880.
and they'd then been froze up for ten
years. We looked for'ard to see il
there were any more of the crew to
be found. but there weren't. These
three were all that remained Of the
whole ships company. Our mate
finally found the log. book of the
ship. by which it appeared that in
1868 the vessel had left New Bedford
with four bats and . crew of thirty
men all told. Shed passed up
through DAVIS Straits and inio
BAffin's Bav. The summer of 1863
found EN- inside of the Arctic Circle
and in q open sea, with whales n
thick as P.'ssiLIe. 81 that they almost
always had one fast on each side
The further n"rth they went the
more open water they found. the
temperature being but . tri1e below
zero. They arrived At the north pole
IN the 2Olh Of August. 1863. and
beiu' then about two thirds full of lie
the captain. which his name we're
Baker, SO our mate said. concluded
tor to return to the south'ard af,re
the winter snt in. They didn'I
hurry. hut ii>t fished away as they
sent. KILN aud curtin' in AMI trying
out continual. On the 9th of Sep
,e,nbrr they made n ice barrier &"
the southland at EN-, AMI for month
they made all .orts of traverses fur a.
find a hole Tor to git through. On
the 18th of Novembsr. 1869, the
ice closed in around EN- ani held
'em fast. THEY'D still kept on a
takin' whales and had got a couple
alongside the afternoon afore they was
froze 10. They made good Tenders
for the ship. and perhaps kept her
from bein' cut through with the ice ;
but the ice formed 90 rapidly oil
over the ship and whale that they
never tried to cut EN- in. The sails
was cled up and furled. and every.
thin Was made as comfortable a.
possible for the winter. 1t passed
at last, and spring came aud summer.
but the ice remained fast. The
reg'lar log hooks was all filled, and
our mate skinned hasty through EN-
list glancin' from winter to winter and
from summer to summer and seein'
that there we're no change to note.
After two years they begun to die
Of. Almoet all their stores was
eaten. but in the summers game vas
plenty. and they had the two whales
to tall bark on. it bein' Away.
possible for to chop out Q block OF
that, and arter thawin' of it out il
nade passable eatin'. The galley
we're on the main deck. They kept
a fire goin' constantly, and with
plenty Of lie in the hold they was
never out Of lights. When the fifth
year went BY there was but ten Of
the thirty left. They laid out Q
buryin'-ground short distance from
the ship. and there they carried
their dead. When eight years had
gone there vas but FIVE remainin' !,
the only officer alive bein' the
captain. who seemed for to keep up
his courage to the last. and Who
tried from time to time to keep q
record OF their suf1erings. Some-
times q month would elsp.e atvixt
the eotries. The last one q we're
legible were: There are now hut
three of u left. and it docs not
seem possible that We can survive
much longer. John Williams has
just taken u bis berth. aud says he
.hsll never rise again. Joseph
Pinkhsm is scarcely any better. and
| d" not think l can last anoth. =
We, e."
He had tried FIR to write some-
thin art~r this. hut it were illegible.
There was fur ri the 10y bn,ks aud
then q wh"ie raft If these l.n,se
sheets "f paper. all d which our
mate gathered Together. and armin'
Us zach with . I"2-hmk api-ce. we
left the c"Iaes aud the ship % re
fund EN- and started on our hume
ward journey Fer sixty wears the
ic.. had held the chin and her seesets