The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1890-02-13
THE FROZEN WHALEMAN.
A Deserted Yankee Ship Wandering in the
Arctic Seas.

A most remarkable story of a spec
trail frozen ship Graded among the ice
bergs of the Arctic regions and floating
deserted and alone throughout those
frozen seas has been brought to New
London, Conn, by Henry Glass q
young whaleman of Ledyard who has
returned from a three-years' cruise in
Behring sea waters in the whaling bark
Reindeer of New Bedford, Capt. Baker.
The Reindeer brought full account of
the silent ship, which is none other
than the 335-ton whaling-ship Young
Phoenix of New Bedford, which was
lost in the pack in the Arctic over a
year ago at the close of the fishing sea-
son.
The incident is said by old whalemen
to be without parallel in the local an
nails of the fishery, and they also add
that as the Young Phoenix seems from
the accounts, to be literally dry-docked
in icebergs, there is but little doubt
that she will go swinging around the
Arctic in the intense cold for years,
perhaps for centuries, for the very
elements there will constitute her pro-
lection.
The Young PhWniXWas stanch ship.
She was crushed and set to leaking by
the ice so that it became necessary to
abandon her hastily, as she was
thought to be sinking. This occurred
a long distance to the north of Point
Barrow.
One day in the early part of last May
a man named Leavitt, who has charge
of the Pacific Steam Whaling company
station at Cape Smith, nine miles to the
southwest of Point Barrow, was astound-
ed to see a ship standing toward the
shore, about mile in the offing,
hemmed in by towering icebergs.
Leavitt had spent the winter in the ice,
and the appearance of ship there at
such an unusual time of the year near
~ scared him out of his wits. Visions
of that tabled ship the Flying Dutch
MAJ, darted across his mind, but final
ly he recovered himself, and walked
down toward the beach. AS he did so
the fabric drew nearer to the land. He
says it made charming picture to his
famished eyes, appearing as if formed
of frosted glass
The mass continued to approach him,
and he finally made out the complete
outlines Of the full-rigged ship Young
Phoenix, d vessel with which he was
familiar. She lay Graded immoyably,
with her deck just above the level of
the icy valley where she reclined. Fer
three masts lowered aloft with still per-
feet rake, and shrouds, backstays,
braces, and stays covered with ice coat
g., c+1o 1h
the sunlight in bold and beautiful re-
lief against the blue mountains of ice
behind.
The silent ship lay stern to the sea
about fifty yards from it and slightly
heeled to port. The prismatic effects
of the spectral scene were heightened
by heavy burdens of snow, which cum
bered the decks, the hawser. and the
sails of the vessel. Two of the sails
were shaking their stifened tatters idly
in the breeze, while the rest had the
snug man-o'war furl of a year before,
and were frozen tightly to the yards.
The vessel looked literally ship of ice
for all the world like the toy ship en-
shrouded in crystals by the glass-bloW-
ers art.
11UCh1nS UP Ills COuI aye LGdN1eL uudl-
~ went out to the ice pack and boarded
the ship. He found everything intact
upon the decks as it had been left Not
even the polar bear or the Arctic fox
had paid her visit, and the ropes were
coiled on the Delaying pins as the crew
had placed them. There were no traces
of the boats which had evidently been
torn from the ships dayits by the ice,
but the great quilt of snow which en-
shrouded the Young Phoenix from stem
to stern revealed the figuration of the
matches and paraphernalia, which
showed that she had at no time since
desertion been rolling in seas heavy
enough to disturb any of her fittings.
It is supposed, in fact. that she was
picked up free from the water by the
same ice-pack which crushed her.
Leavitt went down into the ships
cabin and found several articles. which
he dragged over the fields of ice to his
boat and conveyed to the shore. He