The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-10-11
WAITING IN AN
ICE LOCKED SEA.
Wellnans Ship In Frozen
Bonds.

Bonds.
RELEASE CONES A LITTLE LATER.
But the Weather Was So Bad and the Ice
to the North So Forbidding That 1t Was
Found Impossible to Go Forward-Shoot-
ing and Eating Bear-Disagreeable Ex-
periences.
Copyright. 1894, by Walter Wellman. All
rights reserved.]
SUNDAY, May 1a.-Oficer of the day,
DR.. Mohun.
This has been our first unlucky day.
Not that anything very terrible has hap
pened, but we are not in as good position
as we were this morning. In fact, the Ragn-
valid Jarl is frozen in, and there is no tell
ing when she will get loose. 1t is great
consolation to us to know that If we must
be frozen in we have been caught as far
north as we had ever dared hope to 60
with the ship.
Our experiences of the day show the un-
certainties of arctic navigation in a most
striking manner. Last night we arrived
here and were surrounded by many miles
of open water. Though the pack was to
be seen to the north, we were not without
hopes of being able to find an opening in
it through which the ship could he pushed
some distance farther north. This morn
ing change came upon the scene. Before
we were out of bed Captain Bottelfsen had
found it necessary to move the ship, as
the ice threatened from the northward, a
fresh wind having sprung up from that
quarter. The sky was overcast, and snow
was falling. Where the night before had
been bright arctic scene, with flood of
glorious sunlight, it was now thick and
dark, and we found it impossible to see
the Table island, distant about two miles.
Two or three times during the forenoon
Captain Bottelfsen moved the Jarl to q
place of greater safety nearer the bit of
open water About in the afternoon an
incident occurred which came near getting
us into serious trouble. An iceberg came
within trice of costing us the destruc-
ton, or at least the serious injury, of the
Ragnvald Jarl.
Captain Petersen, who has a nose for
bear, was sitting in the forecastle telling
sailors yarns when he happened to spy
two bears on the ice near the ship. eau
tioning every one to keep quiet, the cap
tain seized his winchester and generously
gave the other cunning men the tip. Such
a scrambling for guns and cartridges as
there was for a couple of minutes! Cap
tain Petersen, Mr.. Dodge, Mr.. Franklin
and Mr.. Wastfalt rushed on deck, guns in
hand, and saw two ice bears-one large one
and one smaller, a mother and her cub
about 100 yards from the ship. Six or eight
shots were fired, and the cub fell to the
ice the blood flowing from two wounds
The mother bear was hit, too for great
red blotch appeared upon her side, and at
the wound she bit savagely, imagining in
her vain rage that her tormentor was near
at hand. Reluctantly and slowly she moved
away, turning about every few moments
to look at her poor cub, kicking his last in
the snow. Though Mr.. Wastfalt fired sew
eral more shots with his long range kreg
jorgenson rifle, he was not able to hit the
mark, and the dam dragged herself into
some heavy ice and out of view, leaving a
bloody trail after her.
Some of our Norwegians put the small
aluminium boat overheard, fastened skis
to their feet and went over the thin,
spongy ice after their prey. Two or three
of them narrowly escaped falling through
into the water, but there is no ice so thin or
weak that q Norwegian is,afraid to go over
with a pair of skis under him.
While we were all busy with this bear
hunt large foe of pack ice and pressed
up shore ice had been stealing in behind
us. Captain Bottelfsen was the first to
notice the danger and at once began efforts
to move the ship. But she had been so
tightly wedged in by the pressure of the
heavy ice behind that it was next to i'm
possible to move her. After a two hours
struggle, in which the column of heavy
ice came closer and closer, in time COM
pletely cutting off the egress Captain B.
changed his tactics and ran the Jarl away
from the pack column into an area of the
thin ice, but toward open water. Another
hour of hard work, with all hands out
breaking the ice and trying to help the
ship through, Captain B. came into the
cabin and announced that he was unable
to go any farther. The streams of pack ice
had closed in around the ship, completely
cutting off escape to large bay Of open
water lying to the southwest.
We were not wholly grieved by this an
nouncement, for the only avenue Of escape
was toward the south, and at this season
of the year we are radically and constitu-
tionally opposed to going in that direction.
We did not at all like the idea of giving up
even the few miles of the handsome north
ern advance which we have made and were
therefore quite reconciled to the imminent
freezing in when Captain B. gave it as his
opinion that the ship was in no danger
whatever, now that she was in the midst
of a lot OF soft young ice. In few mo-
ments the pressure Of the heavy masses
driving down with the northwest wind be-
gan pressing the thin ice about the ship.
We could hear the grinding and sliding,
and now and then the Jarl quivered and
ereaked as she felt the force of the pres
sure. In an incredibly short time the
ship was completely imbedded in this soft
ice with ice under her keel as well as all
about her hull, and both Captain B. and
Captain P. said this would protect her
from injury
There was nothing for us to do but to
sit down and await developments. We
might be frozen in for a day or for
month. No one could tell. 1t all depend