The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-07-15
THE ARCTIC w HALERS.
The Missing Commander of the
Mt. Wouaston.
HIS RELATIVES DO NOT BELIEVE
THAT HE IS DEAD.

PHILADELPHIA July 14-The nephew eff the
commander OF the whaler Mt. Wollaston,
Capt Ebenezer F. Nye, does not believe he is
lost Mr.. Eaton Che relative) says: "The
Captain has, several times had such remarka-
BILE escapes from death that he has always been
looked upon as very lucky man. He has
made number of Arctic voyages. and been
shipwrecked three times but always came out
right. He has also sailed in the South Pacific,
and on one occasion whale was struck, and
Captain Nye took a crew in small boat to re-
cover him. storm sprung up. and they were
driven away from the ship, aud remained in
the open boat for 81 days. Capt. Nye, with
his jacket-knife, cut pieces of wood from the
steered to the Philippine islands. The boat
only had two days provisions aboard, and the
men suffered terribly. The captain, who usu-
ally weighed about 100 pounds, was reduced to
about sixty pounds When he reached the
islands, he found vessel just about starting
for Liverpool, and shipped on it, and from En-
gland came to America, and started on anoth
mr. cruise before his first ship had returned
from the Indian Ocean, just after the close
OF the rebellion, he was sailing in the Ochotsk
Sea, when he was attacked by the rebel cruis-
or Shenandoah commanded by Commander
Wardell Word had just been brought by an
other whaler that Lee had surrendered and the
war was over, but Wardell persisted in driving
Captain Nye and his crew off their vessel, and
then burned it. Nye was very plucky, and
called Wardell pirate. The plan Of the reb-
ell cruiser was to attack a whaling fleet, and
after driving all the crews together upon one
vessel to burn the rest. Nye knew this, and
he was aware that the rest of the fleet were
only short distance off, and would be de-
stroyed, SO he called for a volunteer crew, and
as soon as night came started to warn the rest
OF the whalers, which he did successfully, and
the vessels all escaped except the Susan and
Mary, which was burned. For this act of
courage, by which large amount of property
was saved, Captain Nye was handsomely re-
munerated by the marine underwriters. In
1876 Capt. Nye purchased a vessel and sent it
around to Honolulu, while he proceeded over
land to San Francisco, on the Helen Mar, hav-
ing saved only the whalebone he had caught.
As soon as the next season opened, he went up
to where the Cleone had been driven ashore,
and found that all his oil had been saved by
the Esquimaux for him. He was ON very
friendly terms with them, and they had
great regard for Cappy Nye, as they called
him, owing to the many acts of kindness he
had shown them, and his efforts to prevent the
unnecessary killing of the walrus, which forms
their principal food. They were very grateful
for this, and would do almost anything for
him, and this leads his family to believe that
he has been sheltered by them either on Her
aid Island or somewhere in that vicinity. On
August l, 1879, he started on the Mount VOL
laston, in company with the Vigilant for the
Arctic Ocean, and on Oct. 10th, in the same
year, they were caught in ice about 80 miles
northeast by east of the spot, fifty miles south
west of Herald Island, where the Jeanette
was last seen. Since then nothing has been
heard of either vessel until to-day. Last year
Captain Nye's family wished to probate his
will, but his wife would not permit it until
seven years had passed, and is in hopes that he
will turn up all safe, and bring with him an
Esquimaux attendant, as he used to when he
returned from voyage to the Arctic Ocean.