The Meeker herald., 1896-09-19


old skipper. who has spent almost
lifetime in the Arctic regions This
vessel was less fortunate than her sister
ship. the Iodine, which reached Phila-
delphia on Sunday, and was. for q
period of thirty days. held captive In
tremendous ice foes which are swiftly
sweeping southwark from the northern
regions. Those forty days of impris-
onment were times of most intense
anxiety for Captain Jansen and his
crew. They knew not at what moment
their vessel would be crushed to
atoms and nothing would then have
been left for them to do but lie down
on the ice and await death. No enorm
could have been made to reach land.
The vessel was miles from the coast
and the Ice obstruction that surrounded
them was of such formation as would
have rendered their travelling over 1t
impossible.
The Fluorine brings no tidings OF
any of other ships Of the fleet except
the Salina, and the impression among
many shipping men Is that they have
become inextricably fast in the north
ern ice and may perhaps have to spend
the coming winter In that perilous 20"
siton. The Argenta. Captain Smith.
left Cadix May rs: the Silicon, Captain
Andersen, left Havana April 20, and
the Serene, Captain Houghton, made
sail from Stockholm June 5, all for
.Ivigtut, Greenland, but none had
reached there up to June 26. Nor
had any tidinss from them been had.
The Argenta and Serene were hardly
due at that time, but the whereabouts
of the Silicon is the cause of much
alarm. The Fluorine left Exmo.h.
England, April 5 for Greenland. When
twenty days out the first ice was met
and from then until the time 1vigtut
was reached. June IA, her struggle was
q desperate one and many times the
attempt to reach the northern port
seemed impossible. The cold was in
tense and the spray which was being
dashed on board the vessel by the
cold. bleak winds froze fast where 1t
struck until the craft was incased IN
. thick coating OF ice. The sails were
frozen as stin as sheet iron and before
they could be bent 1t was necessary to
hammer them for hours with the cap
stan bars. Many Of the sailors were
severely frost-bitten, but they stuck
manfully to the task.
The F1uorine worked north among
tho Ice along the coast to latitude "a
north and when about abreast OF Good
hope she got around the corner Of the
north point Of the obstruction and
steered down for her destination. For
days she was brought to a complete
standstill in the ice. The entire coast
of Greenland was found to be walled
up with tremendous foes and bergs,
and the noise of these huge monsters
coming in contact one with the other
resounded for miles and miles. Upon
nearly every one of fifty bergs there
were in sight on one day there were
innumerable seals playing about and
hasking in the warm rays OF the sun.
From the time the entrance to lvigtut
was first sighted until the port was
reached it consumed period OF ten
days to get over a distance Of not more
than twenty miles. When the Fluorine
left Ivigtut there were no other ves-
sells in the harbor excepting the Dan
tsh steamship Fox, which could not
venture out on account of the ice.
Coming as 1t did from such high lat
ftudes, the crew of the Fluorine were
almost prostrated by the past weeks
intense heat.