The Oskaloosa herald., 1892-09-01

masses heaVlng ana grinding IN the ocean
swell her navigators made the ship fast to
foe, expecting to be towed by it to clear
water. Instead, vast fields and mountains
of ice closed in about the foe until the sur.
pounding sea was everywhere buried from
sight. For fifty-three weeks, or q year
and ten days, the voyagers were prisoners
in ship which was itself prisoner in the
ice, yet the journey went on to conclu.
sion as remarkable as any the most skillful
mariner of arctic seas ever attained. The
imprisoned sailors were explorers in search
OF passage to the polar sea. Their YES
sci drifted steadily and almost directly to-
ward the pole until it reached latitude 7g
degs. 43 min, about the limit of ali arctic
voyages before or since
Perilous journeys by the score of Eng
lish, American and German explorers in
the western arctic sea from 1920 to 1870
left worlds still unconquered since they
extended only the width of 80 degs. of
longitude and the remaining three-fourths
of the circle slept in the unbroken solitude
Of past eternity. The existence of an open
polar sea was yet unverified, and one
theory about it was as good as another; SO
few European scientists took up the no
tiOn that the equatorial currents must send
their warm streams around the shore of
the eastern continent to unite and modify
the temperature of the waters at the pole.
In order to test this theory two Austrian
oticers-Lieut. Carl Weyprecht, of the
navy, and Lieut.. Julius Payer, of the
army-sailed from Norway in June, 1871, in
the small Norwegian vessel IsbiOrn and
penetrated to latitude 79 degs. Al min,
where they found an open ocean coated
with thin and scattered ice
OverjOyed at the discovery they returned
to Europe and quickly formed an expedi-
tion for thorough trial of the possibilities
of arctic navigation. 1t seemed not to have
occurred to them that 1871 was an off year
for Jack Frost in that locality, and they
laid things out for good long picnic
among the bears and icebergs thither-the
sole mOnarChs of the circle that sweeps
around the pole. Both Weyprecht and
Payer were just the men for daring deeds.
Both had served in the wars in Italy and
won decorations in battle. Weyprecht was
a navigator, and Payer went through a
course of training on the precipitious sides
of the snowy Alps and among the treach-
erous glaciers that flow like slothful sea
at their bases. He had also made three
trips in the arctic regions.
Their vessel was the screw steamer Te-
getthoff, of 220 tons burden, fitted out with
three sail masts and a 1O0-hOrsepower en-
gine. She was built expressly for arctic
vOyaging, but was not an iceboat, since she
was intended to plow the open polar sea.
She was provisioned for 2119 years, and was
manned by German, Hungarian, Slavonic
and Italian sailors. Italian was the Ian
guage of the ship.
The Tegetthoff sailed from Lapland in
June, 1872 in company with the Isbjorn,
that went out to establish relief depot on
the Nova Zembla coast for the expedition.
The vessels separated about the middle of
August, the lsbjOrn returning home. The
course of the Tegetthoff was to have been
due north between Nova Tembla and
SpitzbeTgen, the region where the Isbjorn
found navigable ocean the previous year.
When the explorers found the ship fast
in the ice they set to work to break up the
foe and open channel into the sea. But
the assures made by blasting Immediately
frOze, and CreviCeS made by saving also
closed at once. A trench made around the
ship one day would be frozen solid the
next. The autumn of 1872 passed in these
vain efforts to get to sea. Then came the
bleak air of an arctic winter; the sun sell
dom shone; the ship and rigging were en-
cased in Icy armOr, and the highlands of
Nova Zembla still in view became white
with freshly fallen snow. Then followed
the long reign of night, and the explorers
knew no more of their fate nor of the
world than they could divine from the
narrow outlook from the masts of the Te,
getthoff. Outside was the view of the
ship, like a spectcr in white" wrote
Lieut.. Payer, stretching out her arms as
If in silent complaint toward the heavens
and resting in cruel mOckery of her destiny
on a mountain not of water, but of ice-a
wall of ice and snow surrounding her hull,
snow lying thick upon her deck and her
rigging stitfened in icy lines"
Inside the ship as early as November.
frost appeared on the bulkheads of the
sleeping berths and the bedclothes froze to
the sides of the ship. The iron knees of
the deck beams CLEANED like stalactites,
small glaciers formed under the berths and
the skylights were frosted over inches thick
with CONCEALED breath and vapor.
The outfit of the ship assured comfort to
all on board, the only anxiety being the fu-
ture. When the long night ended in the
spring of 1873 the coast of Nova Zembla had
disappeared and the prisoners knew they
were journeying northward. Again they set
to work to break up the foe and free their
ship, but their saws became fast in the ice,