The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1890-07-24
Abandoned in the Ice.

On my first voyage across the Atlantic,
being then an apprentice in the ship
Dixon, of Boston, we sighted wreck in
nidocean and boat was lowered and Il
sailor taken from the derelict, He had
been alone only five days, and the
weather had been reasonably fair, and yet
the loneliness Of his situation had driven
him mad, and he gave our men a good
tusSle to get him into the boat. If this
situation, in summer weather, right in the
track of vessels, with the sun showing
thirteen hours per day, was enough to
drive sailor mad, what must be the sur
roundings of one abandoned in the Arctic
circle? I shall tell you my story and
leave you to judge.
Twas hale and hearty young fellow
oftwenty-three when made the harpooner
of boat No. 3 on board the English
whaler Search. She was Il stout-bult
and wcll-manDed ship, and this was her
second voyage to the north after whales.
Our luck, as we proceeded up the Green
land coast, was all that could be hoped
for, and there seemed no doubt that we
would fill the ship and be out of those
seas before sailors car was frostbitten
On the day that the cooper announced us
two-thirds full we had two dead whales
lashed alongside, and large school of
living ones were playing within a mile of
US. In one hour our luck changed CON-
pletely about. First, and seemingly
without reason, the lashings of the big
whale on the port side suddenly gave way,
end the fish sank like stone. There was
considerable sea at the time, and as this
fellow let go the weight of the other
rolled the ship almost on her beam ends,
and the lashings had to be cast off to
right her. The rattle on deck fetched
away as she rolled, and one man was
killed and two badly hurt. We were
laboring to secure the whale again when
squall came up and popped at us as you
might fire gun. No one had noticed its
coming, and though it was over in ten
minutes, it damaged us more than three
days gale might have done. We had to
let 60 the whale, and it took us fully q
day to make repairs.
That day was the turning point in the
history of the voyage. 1t seemed as if
the whales had fled from those waters in
terror, for we did not see another until
the ninth day. Then it would have been
better had we given him wide berth.
Two boats were lowered to give him
chase, and after leading them long dis
tance and finally being struck, he turned
and smashed one of them and killed two
of her crew outright.
On this same day we met a Yankee
whaler coming down from the north.
She was chock full and running over
with oil and bone, and reported whales
as plenty hundred miles further up.
Her Captain cautioned Us, however, that
the short Arctic summer was on its last
legs, and that we must hurry our bust
ness to get out before the ice began to
make. AS for the old ice, drifting down
with the currents into the Atlantic,
there was never an hour that bergs or
foes were not in sight. Captain Lord
was neither conceited nor pig-headed.
Every man aboard was pecuniarily inter-
ested in the voyage, and he called us aft
and put it to vote whether we should go
further north and take our chances or
cruise to the southwark and hope for
luck, while sure to be clear of the ice.
The crew voted to go north. We only
wanted four or five big fish to fill our
last barrel and square away for home, and
it was now only the first days OF Septem-
Der.
In the succeeding ten days we captured