Dodge City times., 1890-06-27
THE FROZEN WHALEMAN,
4 Deserted. Yankee Ship Wandering In the
Arctic Seas.

Arctic Seas.
A most remarkable story :. spec.
trail frozen ship Graded among the ice
bergs Of the Arctic regions and floating
deser.cc and alone throughout those
frozen seas has been brought to New
London, Conn.,, by Henry Glass, a
young whalcman of Ledyard. who has
returned from a three-years' cruise in
Bchring 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 3S5-ton whaling-ship Young
Phoenix of New Bedford. which was
lost in the pack in the Arctic over q
year ago at the close of the fishing sea-
son.
The incident is said by old whalemen
to bc without parallel in the local an
nails of the fishery, and they also add
that rs the Young PhGnix seems. from
the accounts. to be literally dry-docked
in iccbergs, there is but little doubt
that she will 90 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 Phoenix was stanch ship.
She was crushed and set to leaking by
the ice so that it became necessary to
abandon her hastily, rs 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's
station ut Cape Smith, nine miles to the
southwest of Point Barrow, was astound-
cd TO see ship standing toward the
shore. about mile in the offing,
hcmmed in by towering iccbergs.
Leavitt had spent the winter in the ice,
and the appearance of a ship there at
such an unusual time of the year near.
ly scared him ont OF his wits. Visions
of that fabled 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 a charming picture to his
famished eyes, appearirssas 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, vessel with which he was
familiar. She lay Graded immovably.
with her deck Just above the level OF
the icy valley where she rcclined. Her
three masts lowered aloft with still per-
feet rake, and shrouds. backstays,
braces, and stays covered with ice coat
ings in fantastic shapes. brought out in
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 stiffened tatters idly
in the breeze, while the rest had tho
snug man-o'-war furl of 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-
in crystals by the glass-blOw-
er's art.
Plucking up his courage Leavitt final
ly 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 davits by the ice.
but the great quilt of snow which en-.
Bhrouded the Young Phenix 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.
1t is supposed, in fact, that she was
picked up free from the water by the
Iame 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
would have continued stripping the
vessel, but the ice.foe containing her
irifted off shore on the following day.
It remained in sight several days after
ward and then vanished to the north
ward.
Various theori.s are advanced as to
The probable course the Young Phoenix
will now take and as to how long it
will be before she is seen again. It is
rery likely. old Arctic whalemen say.
hat the island of ice now surrounding
her will be built up by the addition Of
aoating masses, and in time she may
become fixture somewhere around the
north pole. dry-docked in the ice, for it
. said that in those remote fields the
pco may possess an age Oh hun0reds o.
years. and may be continually accumu. |
lating in one quarter while breakingon
.nd dissipating in another.
The discovery of the Young Phoenix !
has been reported to her owners io
New Bedford. who supposed her at the |
bottom of the ocean. They have no
hope Of ever recovering her. She is
laid to have been worth, with her ap-
pliances and cargo. in the neighborhoOd |
Df $50, 900.
ALL IN A SINGLE ROOM.
1 North Carolina Family Of fTwenty.Eigho l