Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1882-01-11
Frozen at Their Post.
[From the New York Times

One of the most thrilling tales of his
tory is that of Sir Hugh Willoughby and
his ice bound crew. Who that has read
the record and learned how, when the
unknown seas of the Polar regions were
as the inevitable jaws of death, in the
early days of navigation and enterprise,
somewhere in 1900 or 400, he, with 9TH
ers, went out in search of the northwest
passage; how, parting from his consorts
in stress of weather off the Danish coast,
he proceeded on his search alone; how,
finding his passage blocked by ice, he
hesitated, called his crew together, and
told them the truth-that honor demand
ed their perseverance, safety claimed
from them return before the terrors of q
northern winter should bereave them
alike of hope and life;-who that has
read this record can fail to imagine the
answer of that stalwart crew. One can
hear the ready response from those gal
liant men. Onward onward in answer
to the call of duty. "This," they may
have said, this is our undertaking; we
are sworn to find the passage or perish
in the attempt. Shall we falter? Shall
winter snow or ice turn us from our pur-
pose? Shall we, led by the most gallant
seamen of the age, hesitate, show the
white feather and return? Nay Let us
wait, and when the ice gives, as give it
must, let us go forward, pioneers of dis
covery, harbingers of future glory. On
ward onward" So, too, one can
imagine, scanty as the records are, the
result. The increasing frost, the grow
ing impossibility of escape, the short
twilight days, the long nights, the hun
ger, as provisions grew scarce; the sleep
mess and drowsiness to be hourly over
come, the hesitancy settling into grim
despair, as day by day, night by night,
the cruel heavens looked down cloud
less on the ship and her devoted crew.
Oh what tale of woe those frozen
mariners could have unfolded what
history of endurance what an example
of duty And how, after the expiration
of long year of suspense to the loving
hearts at home, how were they found
Thirteen months later Russian fishermen,
steering their craft amid the ice bound
seas of the northern polar region, came
upon sight that thrilled their hearts.
There, in the solitude of utter stiffness,
in the unbroken silence of the dread ice
kingdom, lay ship. Upon her crew
entire-nct man missing. The cap
tain at his post, frozen-the men at
theirs, frozen. Upon the deck (the pen
Gil still at hand) the last record, the log,
the seanty details of these heroic lives,
the last entry made in the early days of
a new year, which broke upon them as,
a gallant crew, they stood and faced,
each man at his post, death in its grim
NEST form What can romance give us
like this ? What is there in fiction that
can equal such tale? Many and many
a man has died for dnty, many hero
has persisted III the battlefield, has laid
down life at the call Of duty, but, among
them all, were any greater than the
silent crew-ice bound, frozen at their
post, dying, not in the rush and tide of
excitement, not in the blaze of the
worlds expectation, but away from
all knowledge, with scare a possibility
of their fate becoming known, alone in
the unbroken stiffness of polar winter,
dying for duty? What was their re-
ward?