The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-12-19
SAILS FOR THEI(Y POLE
ALL By HERSELF.
Remarkable Voyages for Over Decade Of lie
Abandoned Whdier Young Phoenix in
Northern Seas.

the folklore Of the polar ATTITUDES the legend of
u a Flying Dutchnan is of very late origin.
Who shall say this strange story well known
to the pelt and blubber hunters of the North, but
told here in print for the first time, did not reach
the ears Of Nansen and embolden him IN the the
DRY of the trans polar current?
The apparition of a strange vessel many years
ago. off Cape sivernoi, inspired among the ST.
berian Tuskis elaborate fable which the amphibi
travellers of the kayaks spread among the Eskimo
hamlets the shores of the north
When the vessel was first observed by the natives
It was standing shore, south of Wrangel Island,
in a May gale if punging through south bound
ice pack ghostly hull and raksh rigging doomed
up ndstincy through the seet and mist of the polar
hurricane and vanished in the gloom She came from
the bound North, where no human being lived and
flight before the storm the fanciful Tuskis
in her mysterious messenger from the tabled beings
their fathers told of that lived In ice locked
land Now a vessel that halls from that region and
carries no sign of distress that does not trade
that gives no sign familiar life is something be
talked by curious natives to whom the arrival
of vessel is a tremendous advent AS the story trav
eed from mouth to mouth the mysterious vessel was
given all sorts of fantastcal embellishments and
crew of weird beings from far away continent. In
their simple the Tuslis declared that these be-
ings did not to trade explore but to lure
foolish hunters and fishers to their doom. In the
mysterious vessel they bait to tempt the fool
hardy white of the warm south to more reckless
daring in search of the mysterious northern land in
habited by these wonderful beings
Though the theory Of myth and the fancy of the
Toreei was preserved, fable changed in form and
substance it Travelled eastward on the Arctic circle
The strange craft there took hercuean dimensions
as a monster uniak with balloon sails, and manned
hv giant ice gods. Sometimes it appeared ethereal
ICED with wings. At last it was said the strange
craft was seen in reality off the east coast of Boring
seaa feeting thing of thousand sails and the elon-
cation of sea serpent in the far away huorescence
of an aurora Hanging over it in the polar heavens
was crown Of tremendous The stars futtered,
the dazzling prisms dissolved into phosphorescent
Wilderness and then the specter sped into the
abysnaaI blackness of the horizon.
once the marvel reported to have been OBJ
served off Herschel Island like speck on the remote
fringe of the winter pack flying before sou-wester
for the pole Another time the natives OF Prince OF
Wales Island testified to having caught sight Oh this
tabled FLYING Eskimo, Swimming into the south They
watched diligently its temperance but In vain
1t disappeared again in the direction OF the pole'
whence it came.
The hard headed, incredulous old whalers mao
hard time making anything tangible out OF these
fables of a Flying Eskimo ghost ship, or Whatever
phenomenon ordinary thing the ssmpfe-Imnoeo IN
6ians had seen Even those among the superstitious
sailors who prone to believe almost any tale OF
mystery concerning the could hardly accept the