Santa Fe daily New Mexican., 1897-11-30


have seen the light had she been only
i quarter of a mile away.
Twenty minutes after the berg split
log settled down, and with it came
breeze. l did not know what to do, am
, so laid in my oar, wrapped myself in
blanket and sat down on the bottom O
the boat. You will think it queer that
fell asleep under the circumstances, bu
that is exactly what happened, nor did
= awake until daylight came again Then
found myself in an ice foe extended to tn
east and south as far as could see, bu
only mile to the north.
Beyond that was clear water, but th
Talisman was not in sight. 1t was not t.
be expected that she would leave the 10
cality without making daylight scarcl
for the boat, and during that long day
which was full of sunshine and with bu
moderate breeze, l constantly hoped an,
expected to sight her. 1t was three year
before learned what happened aboard o
her that night after we pulled away
| When the berg was rent in twain she wa
almost swampeds by the heavy seas, an,
| when the breeze came she ran to the nortl
to get out of the ice. Next day she re
turned to search the foe, but hit it too fal
! TO the east to sight me.
If she passed me, which may have beer
the case, the mist rising from the ice
which is called the "ice blink" shut hel
from my view. In the edge of the foe She
found an oar from my boat and somt
boards, which were believed to be par
of the frail craft, and, judging from these
relics that the boat had been crushed anc
the crew lost, she gave over further search
AS to the two men on tho ledge, no one ha,
ever ascertained to what craft they belong
ed or how they came there.
am not at all sure how long drifted,
but the general direction was south, and
the time was at least four days and nights.
Had we left the ship without food should
have starved to death. Had we left ID
without the blankets I should have frozen
to death within the first IL hours As ii
was Imade myself fairly comfortable, and,
being helpless to better my position passed
much of the time in sleep. On the morn.
Ing OF what was probably the fifth day
awoke to find that the foe had ceased
drifting, and quarter Of q mile to tho
east of the boat was mass uf ice of singL,
lar creation.
1t was d mile or more in length and not
over 30 feet high, and looked more like "a
wall resting on the water. The ice was
yellow and dirty, with rocks imbedded in
it here and there, and l have no doubt
that good portion of it was the lower
part of an iceberg which had turned turtle.
Between me and the wall was jumblc Of
ice over which it seemed impossible to
make my way, but as soon as had broken
fnCf T Te,ot, %.,I ~ T..
full hour to make that quarter of mile,
but at length | reached the wall and found
that could easily get up its rough side.
When | reached the top, it was to discov-
er that the mass Of ice was almost cube.
with great hollow in its surface to re-
mind one of the crater of a volcano.
In the center Of this hollow lay mass
OF wrcckagc, and after long stare, half
believing that my eyes deceived me, slid
down and began an investigation. No ono
Will ever see more curious sight A
space several hundred feet square was GOV.
cred with broken masts, yards, beams
planks, boards, ropes, blocks and sails
Amid this heap were thousand belongings
to the interior of a ship. There were ta
bles, chairs, sofas, crockery, clothing, car
pets, rugs and what not. A few articles
had not been damaged, but the greater
number had been broken and splintercd
as il a madman had used an AK to destroy.
There was a sort of mildew covering
everything, and such articles of clothing
as l pulled at were quite rotten A large
ship had here suffered destruction. Just
how could not determine but it seemed
to me as If great body of ice had fallen
llIl hn1sa cExAv to<l s,x
other force, unless gunpowder, could have
SO wrecked and scattered her about.
Sailorlike, my first thought was to iden,
tify the wreck. This l did by finding a
life preserver with the name Princess |
painted on it, had not then heard of tho
loss OF the Australian packet, but knew
that this must have been passenger ship
from her fittings There were no bodies
under or about the wreckage, and during
my search of five hours | did not find any
money or jewelry. OF her cargo only a
small portion was at hand and did not
see q single bale of wool The life pre-,
server and three pieces of silver plate |
carried to the boat, but found nothing else
worth taking away. l could find nothing
in the wreckage to account for the ships
boats, and all her crew and passengers had
certainly left her before she met her fate.
The theory of whalers who have cruised
in the icy seas is that the Princess was
driven down on the ice by gale from the
north, which perhaps dismastcd her AT
some time--perhaps before she got into the
iccfields-she was abandoned, and one aft
er another her boats were lost in that great
ocean; if after she had got wedged among
the ice then they floated away from her.
to perish of cold and starvation. One can
only guess how the big ship came to be
lying where I found her. She may have
been lifted bodily on to the solid ice dur.
ing "nip, or have run upon shelf OF
ledge as she drove before gale.
The shape and size of icebergs are con.
stantly changing. This one had probably
been much larger and higher at some
time. There might have been and prob
ably was high portion which fell upon
and shattered the vessel to fragments. As
she had no gunpowder aboard, there could
have been so explosion. In whatever way
her doom came about there she was, or all
that was left of her.
Late in the afternoon the foe began to
break up, and got back to my boat BY
night there were lanes of water in every
direction, and a strong breeze set in from :
lhe south. drifted to the north all that
night and all the next day, but as the sec.
ond night came down l was picked up by
-he Scotch whaler Jeanette, which had
captured and was cutting whale, and
months later was landed at her home port.
For three years I believed the Talisman
,ad been cast away in the ice, but it turned
'ut that she escaped without much dam.
IQe and finally reached Boston with a full | .