The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-11-15

sheathed below the ice line with green
heart. just before sailing the official in
spectors rated her hull AL. tt is true she
was not very large steamer, but size
doesn't count in combat with the ice.
The cruiser Chicago or the great Majestic
would have Jared quite as badly as the lit
tie Jarl in that terrible pressure of last
Monday
The Stores Saved.
Thanks to the energy and bravery of the
captain and his men, enough stores have
been saved to support the crew for three
or four months. They have also taken
some coal and many timbers out of the
hold and will not want for fuel. It is the
captains belief that the hull will be held
up for some days to come by the ice which
has pierced it, and in that event more coal
and lumber will be taken out, the timbers
to be utilized in the construction of a bet
ter house on the rocky shore of Walden is
land. With great difficulty the men saved
one of the whaleboats that hung on the
davits of the ship, brave Enoch Hovde cut
ting away the lines while the ice was ram
ming the hull, and the boiler underneath
him was Kissing and screaming from con-
tact with the food of icy waters. The 9th
er whaleboat still hangs upon the davits,
and the ice has reached and badly dam
aged it, but there are hopes that it may
yet be taken off and repaired. Without
these boats the crew will have no means Of
escape from Walden island unless per-
chance there should later in the season be
enough open water on the north coast to
permit the hunting sloops to approach the
Seven islands.
Captain Bottelfsen, who has had much
experience in the Spitzbergen sea, takes a
rather gloomy view of the future. 6 1t is
of the most unfavorable seasons have
ever seen here" he said. "The spring has
evidently been very stormy one, and in
stead of the ice lying fixed and solid. as it
usually does, it has been broken up and
drifted to and fro and screwed into the
impossible mass which you see before you.
do not like the looks of this ice 1t may
remain here all summer, SO tightly is it
now rammed upon the shore. Though we
steamed up here in open water fortnight
ago, there may be no more open water for
two months to come In case you decided
to fall back upon the ship had hoped to
push you through the drift ice to the foe
ice or heavy pack to the north, where you
could pursue your sledge journey with a
here the captain smiled grimly, "the Ragn-
valid Jarl will soon drop through hole in
the ice to the bottom of the sea-
It was an important consultation held
between Captain Bottelfsen, Mr.. Dodge
and the writer, sitting about the cook
stove in the ships tent, with the ice un-
derneath us giving warning crack every
few moments as the tide came in. 1t was
consultation on whose outcome life or
death hung, and it may we'll be imagined
that we talked long and earnestly and en-
deavored to consider every possible phase
of the situation.
Our predicament is most unhappy
one. The moro we consider it the more
serious loss to us does the wreck of the
Ragnvald Jarl appear. In the first place,
it cuts off that certain and easy line of re-
treat which we had so carefully arranged
If we 60 on with the sledge journey which
we had SO auspiciously begun, it must be
without the knowledge that ship is wait
ing to give us succor and to carry US
speedily toward civilization. Such ship
may be procured for us, and it may not
There is rather provoking uncertainty
about the matter. If the ice persists in
blocking up the coast all through June
Captain Bottelfsen will not be able to
move west and south with his whaleboat
and the fishing vessels will not be able to
come to the eastward from Danes island.
Usually the fishing vessels, dozen or a
score of them, arrive at the northwest
point of Spitzbergen about July /, coming
from the JanMayen seal fishery. If the
north coast is clear or has favorable ap-