Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-10-22
RETURN OF THE coRwrN.
The Fate OF the Missing WhaleIs still
Unsettled,

Unsettled.
The Corwin has arrived at San Francisco
from her trip to the Arctic region. She was
sixteen days from Ouc alaska. and had q
stormy passage down the coast. She brought
home nine men Of the lost whaling bark
Daniel Webster. and nine from the wrecked
schooner w. f. March. The Gorwin left
the Arctic on September il h, after raaking
an attempt to land on Wrangell Land a
second time. From August S0,h TIL Septem-
her Sd was constant BATHS with the el-
ements. A furious gale from the northeast
was encountered on August 3lst, September
1st aud 2d. Says the account Of one 0f the
persons on the ship: "A driving snow
storm gave additional terror TO cur critical
situation, abandoned as we were with dis.
abled rudder, the oak sheathing gone, the
ce-breaker cast away, having been cut adrift
in order to save the ship, and the crew IN
creased by the addition of the wrecked
whalemen, who would have Diminished our
provisions considerably had the Captain de.
cided to stay during Che winter. In view Of
these facts Captain Hooper thought that
nothing more could be done by him during
the season. much as it was desired to fall in
with the Rodgers, and TO obtain if possible
some tidings of the Jeannette, so he decided
to withdraw from further prosecution of his
quest, and accordingly headed for Kotzebus
Sound. a series of furious gales and snow
storms seemed to have made up the Arctic
weather programme during the last summer.
Near the head Of Kotzebue Sound and al
most under the Arctic circle, we found on
| Charnisso Island, about two hundred feet
above the sea level, an astronomical station
composed Of a mound of stones surmounted
by two wooden shafts the taller one being
about twenty feet ana bearing Inscriptions of
several English ships and the broad arrow
Among them were H. B. NJ. S. Blossom,
September, 1926; II. 3. M. S. Herald, 1S4S
H B. III. S. PI1ver, July, 1919. A later
addition was She Corwin's name On the
lower shaft was an inscription in Russian re-
ferring to the Russian-Ameriean Company
Expedition, 1888, also scarcely legible
notice OF bottle buried twenty feet to the
magnetic north, which we were unable tc
find"
Regarding the missing whelels, about which
80 much has been writer ii may safely be
said tdat the information obtained by the
Corwin during the past summer, though moi
settling definitely the time and manner oi
their loss, has done much TO dispel the un'
certainty Of their fate. Taking all obtain
|. able circumstances of the case into considera
ton, il issupposed that they were not lost near
the place where they were last seen IN the
ice, but on getting free and attempting &c
reach the straits by going around the ice &c
the westward. in the vicinity OF Wrangel
Land, they succeeded in getting probably 9
little south Of Cape Serdz there meeting with
their doom. Being outside the influence o
the northerly set, they drifted about Long.
Strait at ths mercy Of the winds and current
and, if yet sfoat, are still somewhere to the
south or west of Wrangell Land This by
potbesis seems the more plausible one, since
the finding of dismasted whaler by the ma
lives of Wankaren, and ths drifting spal
picked up by the Corwin to the south o
Wrangell Land.
AS to the Jeannette, concerning which W.
have no tidings, all is conjecture A surrnist
by the most uniformed person as to he,
whereabouts is just as wise as the wisest sur
mise of the wisest navigator. We do no
know that any disasters have overtaksn her
so it is nothing more than fair to both tn,
| people aboard her and their relatives at HON,
that we should suspend Judgment or at leas
infer that she is safe till something is know
/ TO the contrary.