The San Francisco call., 1897-11-04

There is no hope OF the imprisoned
until next July. Four of them are in
most dangerous position and the others
are not very much better off. Each of the
eight vessels has only three months
supplies aboard, snd IS 1t will be at least
zen months before help can reach them
me situation is a desperate one.
The steam whaler Alexan nder arrived
here from Point Barrow, via UnaIaska,
yesterday. II was only with the greatest
difficulty that Captain Tlltou got his yes
sci through The ice, and had the Alex
ander not been an unusually stout vessel
and Captain Tilton an able and deter
mined master she would now be frozen in
with the others of the feet.
There are bound 10 be great many
deaths on the whalers this winter" said
Chief Engineer NJ. McKinnon of he Alex
ander yesterday. The steamers Orca.
Jessie h. Freeman and Belvedere and the
schooner Rosario are n very bad place.
When we left them they were anchored
off Point Barrow and the chances are that
they will become wrecks next spring
They can get neither to the eastward nor
westward OF the point and the vessels will
be exposed to every wind that blows
There were no provisions at Point Bar
Iow. Captain Cogan of the Thrasher had
to take men away from there because of
that fact. There is very little game at the
point and the Indian villages are miles
away, so one can see that the $50 or 200
on those four vessels are in tight box
A fa bar 10 oF
provisions belonging 10 the North Pacific
Trading Company. but 1t Will go a very
short way among the i'm prisoned men.
Fortune favored Us or we would have
been caught in the ice also We had TO
discharge some trade at Cape Smith and
lett Point Barrow before the Orca, Free
nan, Belvedere ana Rosario. Not one of
us thought that The ice was closing in
and the result was that We had 10 fight
our way inch by inch to safety. For
eighteen hours it was 'iul speed astern. >
then stop her and then full speed
ahead followed by the crash as we
struck the icefeld. Back and forth we
went and every succeeding crash seemed
TO US down IN the engine-room as though
1T would be our last. 1t did not seem pos
sible that wood and iron could stand the
strain N uch longer. After getting through
the pack we bad to fight our way through
$50 miles of young ice an inch and half
thick. l can tell you when we reached
Sea Horse Island and saw open water be-
fore US we were a happy set of men.
''The steamer Jeanie, steam whalers
Fearless and Newport and the bark
Wanderer were all frozen In between Point
Barrow and Herschel Island. When we
left the latter place the only vessel left
there was the Mary D. Hume. The
Narwhal, Balaena, Beluga and Grampus
have gone to Copper Mine River TO winter
There would therefore be very little succor
for the i'm prisoned fleet from that source.
The four vessels to the eastward OF Point
Barrow are in better position than those
az Point Barrow, that is if there is any
better in a case that is bad at the best.
They will have a chance OF getting deer,
grouse and rabbits by hunting, and they
are not far from an Indian village.
The Alexander sailed from HerscheI
IBand on August 20. In his report Cap
tain TiIton saws:
On August 80 we left Flaxmans Island for
tie west pack and passed along the pack until
: September l by Midway Island, the ice
rounding III two fathoms 10 Harrlsons Day.
there was heavy ground ice on the west SIDE
the hsrbor and the same off Cape Hackett,
Which was passed on the same day. The Jack
ice was grounded very heavily here, also at
Smiths Bay, where we passed close inside OF
tie grounded foe.
At 10 P. NJ, after hard afternoons work,
We tiet up 10 the pack and found we had run
up with the Orca, Belvedere and Jessie Free
an. northeast wind sprang up when we
got under way, and for two days were in COM
Yany with the steamers, fighting toward the
open. September fresh westerly breezes
E.iTeng up accompanied by snow squalls.
Point Barrow was reached, and on Sep.