The morning call., 1890-11-21
SPINNING CUTTERS .
The Story Told by an Old Salt
at Meiggs Wharf.
How the Crews of Two Well-Kncwn Whaling
Banks Abandoned ana Exchanged YES
sells in the Arctic Ocean.

nave returned clean, anu LHelI CTeWS
have been paid eff with ST.
The few that are yet out are hourly ex-
pected and there is great anxiety among the
owners, Those who have friends on board,
sailor clearinghouse men, dealers in bone
and oil, city front clothiers and other inter-
ested parties, to find out at the first Oppor-
tunity the catch of those yet out when they
are first reported off the Heads.
For this purpose they gather daily and
nightly at Meisgs Wharf, where the first
news is brought ashore by the Merchants
Exchange boat. Last night there was the
usual molly crowd gathered at the wharf.
anxionsly awaiting the arrival OF the
whaling steamer Belvedere, which. as before
reported, has on bnarl the crew of the ship
wrecked whaling bark Eliza.
A though little hay, the weather was
soft and balmy, and when reporter visited
the dock the soft light OF the new moon fell
on as picturesque crowd as ever gathered
there There they were sitting on the
stringer singing sailors "shanties" and
spinning cutters"
TOLD OF PERHS ENCOUNTERED.
Nearly all had been to sea some time or
another. many of them as whalers. and the
yarns they told of perils encountered on
trips to the Southern Hemisphere, to the
okhotsk and the Arctic seas and to Baffins
Bay would have made dime novelist turn
green with envy.
The boys had great, old time. They
kept perfectly quiet during the recital OF
the yarns, only once in a while chipping IN
with, that's So. 1--WE been there myself,
You bet your blubber.'
After George Gumpertz had told tough
story about a winter that he had spent in
the whaling bark Ellsworth E. ShOtwell
near the mouth Of the Mackenzie, and how
all hands were nearly dead from starvation,
when the ice broke up and the steam wEaler
Henry Cottrell came TO their rescue, just as
the crew had cooked and eaten his pet dog.
with the stub tail, a silence fell on the crowd,
seated as it was with legs hanging over the
stringer.
After while Captain Blethen started up
"Ranzo. Boys, Ranzo," and everybody chip
ped in with vim. Then sailors songs
were the order of the hour and BLOW,
Boys Blow" Rise Up Jack, Let John Sit
Boots, "To My High-low Ranzo Away"
"All on the Plains Of Mexico" Its Time
for Us to Leave Her. 80 Handy, My
Boys, so Handy" Haul Away Joe" were
sung with full, ii not harmonious, chorus,
when someone said, Jim Ham0n, spin us
that cuffer about that time you were ND in
the Arctic in the f. +. HERMAN with Cap
tain Battles" After considerable pressing
Hamon consented to tell the yarn. which
runs as follows. and was taken verbatim by
the reporter. unknown TO him:
JIM HAMoN's YARN.
"Well, you see," said Jim, II was boat
steerer on the old bark Z. F. HERMAN,
Captain Ward Battles, which left here on
December IS, 1886, on a whaling cruise.
We stood away down south waiting until
tie season opened up north. and we had
terrible poor luck, l tell you. We pnt into
Honolulu in February of the next year and
got some fresh grub and then we started for
the Arctic. Our bad luck still followed us
after we got there. We sighted whale now
and then, but they were as wild as deer, and
twice when we had made last we had our
boats stove.
I'VE lost one fore and aft mizzen top
mast during gale, had our galley washed
overheard by heavy sea and had a hard
time generally. Finally, late in the season.
when we ought to have been thinking of
starting for the south, we got among the
whales. We got the boats out and made for
'em, and got four big fellows without any
accident. We all felt good cause we knew
we would have good lay to take when we
got home.
IF we could have had two weeks more of
fine weather we could have filed all our bar
rels with oil and had as much bone as we
could carry. But fate was against us. The
ice set in and we drifted south with the cur
rent, cutting in as we went. One afternoon,
W
Il heavy gale sprang up, accompanied by
heavy snOw-st0rm, and we had 10 let g o our
prize and look after the bark. The wind
was from the south and we drifted to the
north to wear out the gale. Tho gale lasted
for thirty-six hours and we had to shovel
snow over the rails. tell you 1t was tough.
TwENTY-FoUR DEGREES BELOW ZERO.
"Just as the gale broke up we got among
| the field-ice and the thermometer went
down 10 240 below zero. Many of our crew
we're badly frost-bitlen and the frost made
the seams in the old bark crack with
port like muskets going off. That night the
cold was terrible, the temperature being
down to 800 below, and we all knew 1t was
dollars to doughnutS that we would not get
out that winter.
Next day the sea was covered with field
ice as far as we could see from the crows
nest with a glass and we could see great
change in the ice. 1t was rugged and brok, n,
the swell Of the sea having piled cakes on
top of each other aud the field was at least
six feet thick.
Captain Battles himself went up in the
crows nest with Jerry Daily, the chief
mate, aud when he came down he said,
BOYS, it looks serious and guess we won't
see Frisco this winter
Then we set TO work to calk and batten
every thing down to keep the cold out and
prepare for a long winter siege. In few
days ice formed to the thickness of nine
feet alongside the bark. AT daylight on the
morning of November 9th the ice broke up
with a gale from the north, and wilder
night / never saw. Tie was covered
with great blocks of ice, tossing and crash
ing and grinding against each other A stiff
gale was blowing, and all the sail we cou Id
show was our main topsail, goose-winged.
Every heav3 of the sea the bark smashed in-
10 the ice, until it seemed that she would
break every timber in her bows.
Next day the wind went down and we
could see hills and hummoeks of ice in sight
As big as the ship. The captain told us we
were 175 north-northwest of Point Barrow,
and as the foe was not drifting the northern
edge OF 1t rested against the shore ice, and
we we're bound to stay there all winter,
unless some good streak Of luck came along
to aid us.
ALL HANDS MADE FOR SHORE.
"We housed in the bark and established
winter quarters. The Arctic night had come
ana the temperature ranged from "A to SO
BILE storm set in; the ice around us broke
up, and the bark heayed right up out of the
solid field. She canted over TO port until
! her decks were at an angle OF as. When
the gale went down, the captain was afraid
that when the bark settled down, she would
sink as she was badly strained. her top
side seams being opened. tell you he was
ratified and gave orders for all hands to
make for the shore.
''We were divided into three gangs. Each
gang had boat, into which they put cloth
ing, provisions, bedding, a compass, ETC.,
and then we started for the land. We had u
hard time Fortunately there was no wind,
but the thermometer was down to 20o
below zero. 1t was terrible hard work
crossing those ice-fields, climbing and pull
ing the boats over those hummocks, and we
all got pretty well worn out.
The night We left we slept under cur
boats and next morning started early again
on our journeys Toward nightfall we had
made nearly fifty miles on our journey
when myself and a man named Abe Monks,
who had gone on ahead to pick out the
route, turned around a large hummock of
ice, and there before us, to our surprise, was
a large bark standing upright in the ice. We
went back and told the rest of the party, and
when the captain came up he could hardly
believe his eyes. He hailed her, but got no
response. The captain and mate climbed
aboard over the stern and reported that the
bark was abandoned.
"We all then went on board, and found
her TO he the whaling bark Edward Rock nf