St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-09
A STRANGE CRAFT
That Poached Upon Denmarl1,s
Preserves in Greenland,

New York Sun.
The mystery of the unknown vessel
that spent the winter of 1884 on the
! east coast of Greenland is at last
solved. A while ago she turned up
at the Norwegian port from which
she hailed, and then the incident that
had somewhat excited Denmark was
explained.
Holm, of the royal Danish navy, sue
ceeded in pushing his little steamer
through the ice that usually lies
masscd along the east coast. After a
(! good deal of trouble he attained the
ford of Angmagsalik, where a num-
! Der of years before he revealed to the
world the natives of East Greenland,
, whom civilized people had never heard
| OF before. Last year Denmark decided
to found a colony among these newly
discovered people, try to civilize them,
| and, incidentally, do a little business
, in oil and skins So Holm landed his
handful of colonists, put up their two
houses and started the settlement in
; good shape, assisted by the natives,
| Commander Holm was greatly sur
prised at what the natives told him.
They said that few days before his
arrival a sailing. vessel which had
spent the winter with them had sailed
from their shores. Their description
did not give the slightest clew as to
the identity of the craft. All they
knew was that the vessel, in the sum-
mer of 1893, had pushed through the
ice to their shores, and that the white
men on board were good enough to
give them trade goods for their small
accumulation of skins. Then the yes
sci started to go away, but just as it
was about to regain the open sea it
was arrested by an ice barrier that
could not be forced. So the crew
were compelled to winter among the
natives, and upon theis departure in
the following summer they barely
missed the incoming Danes.
Perhaps it was just as well for them
that they did not see Commander
Holm, for he was much exercised over
the intrusion of the strangers upon
Danish territory. 1t is well known
that Denmark monopolizes the trade
of her Greenland possessions; and
these unknown visitors had sailed
away with the skins that Holm would
gladly have taken home for the bene-
fit Of the Danish treasury.
When he arrived at Copenhagen last
fall he told the little he had learned
about the mysterious stranger, where
upon the Danish government promul-
gated an edict forbidding all foreign
vessels to visit the east coast of Green
land without special permit, and de-
claring the trade of that coast to be
monopoly of the government of Den
mark.
Late last fall the bark Ino, a Nor
wegian craft of the district of Tons
berg, returned to it's home port after
a year and a half in Arctic waters
No alarm had been felt because it
had wintered away from home, for YES
sells are every now and then detained
in the north and turn up all right the
following season. Captain Mikkelsen,
of the mo, said that he and his seven
comrades had wintered at Angmag-
salik, on the east coast of Greenland.
Among the fruits of his sojourn in
these forbidden waters were a con-
siderable quantity of blue fox skins,
besides a part of the 600 seal and fifty
two bear skins that with lot of oil,
formed his cargo.
1t is safe to wager that Capt. Mix
kelsen and his little vessel will not
have a chance to poach upon Den
marks preserves again in a hurry.