The record-union., 1897-08-20

| search for the boat, and during the long
| day, which was full Of sunshine and
with but a moderate breeze, / con-
/ stantly hoped and expected to sight
/ her. It was three years before l learn
/ ed what happened aboard of her that
nigh3 after We pulled away. When the
/ berg was rent in twain she was almost
swamped by the heavy seas, and when
! the breeze came she ran to the north
! to get out of the ice. Next day she
raturned to search the foe, but hit it
! too far to the east to sight me.
If she passed me. which may have
been the case, the mist rising from the
! ice. which is called the "iee blink, Z"
! shut her from my view In the edge
/ of the foe she found an oar from my
| boat and some boards, which were be-
I lieved to be a part Of the frah craft,
1 and judging from these relics that the
! boat had been crushed and the crew
, lost she gave over further search. AS
! ever ascertained to what craft they be-
! lCnged or how they came there.
I am not at all sure how long 1 drift
! ed, but the general direction was south
and the time was at least four days
/ c1IA0 I1d0 We KIT LlfC olllP Will
out food l should have starved to death.
Had We left it without the blankets, l
should have frozen TO death within
| the first twelve hours. AS it was, l
made myself fairly comfortable, and
| being helpless to better my position
passed much of the time in sleep. On
the morning Of what was probably the
fifth day 1 awoke TO find that the foe
had ceased drifting, and a quarter of
a mile to the east of the boat was a
mass of ice OF singular creation
1t was d mile or more in length and
not over thirty feet high, and looked
more like a wall resting on the water.
| The ice was yellow and dirty with
rocks embedded in it here and there,
| and I have no doubt that a good pOr-
ton of it was the lower part of an ice
berg which had turned turtle. Between
| me and the wall was a tumble of ice
over which it seemed impossible to
make my way, but as soon as l had
broken my fast set out to try it. 1t
took me ful hour to make that quar-
ter of a mile, but at length l reached
the wall and found that I could easily
get up it's rough side. When 1 reached
| the top 1t was to discover that the
| mass Of ice was almost a cube, with
a great hollow in it's surface to remind
one of the crater of a volcano.
In the center of this hollow lay a mass
OF wreckage, and after a long stare, half
believing that my eyes deceived me, l
slid down and began an investigation.
No one win ever see a more curious
sight A space of several hundred feet
square was covered with broken masts,
yards, beams. blanks, boards, ropes,
blocks, and sails. Amid this heap were
a thousand belongings to the interior of
a ship. There were tables chairs, sofas,
crOckery, clothing, carpets, rugs an
what not A few articles had not been
damaged, but the greater number had
been broken and sDlintered as If mad
man he'd used an ak to destroy.
There was a sort of mildew covering
Everything and such articles of clothing
as I pulled at were rotten. A large ship
had here suffered destruction. Just
how | could not determine. but it seemed
to me as if a great body of ice had fallen
on her as she rested in the crater. No
Iother force unless gunpowder could have
So wrecked and scattered her about
Sailorlilxe, my first thought was to
identify the wreck. This I did by find
ing a life Dreserver with the name
princess" painted on it.
I had not then heard of the loss of the
Australian packet, but knew that this
must have been a passenger ship from
her fittings There We're no bodies unGer
or about the wreckage, and during MY
search of five hours l did not find any
money or jeWelry. OF her cargo only
a. small portion was at hand, and l did
not see a single bale of wool. The life
preserver and three pieces Ot silver Plate
II carried to the boat, but found nothing
else worth taking away. / could 1nd
nothing in the wreckage to account
for the ships boats, and all her craW
and passengers had certainly left her
before she met her fate
The theory of whalers who have
tcruised in the icy seas is that the
Princess was driven down on the ice by
a gale from the north. which perhaps
Idismasted her At some tlme-perhaps
before she got into the ice fields-she
was abandoned and, one after another,
her boats were lost in that great ocean.
If after she had got wedged among the
ice then they fioated away from her 10
perish of cold and starvation. One can
only guess how the big ship came to be
living where 1 found her She may have
been lifted bodily onto the solid ice dur
ing a nip or have run upon Shelf or
ledge as she drove before a gale.
The shape and size of icebergs is con-
stantly changing. This one had prob
ably been much larger and higher at
some time There might have been,
and probably was, a high portion, which
fell upon and shattered the vessel to
fragments. AS she had no gunpowder
aboard there could have been no ex-
plosion. In whatever way her doom
came about, there she was, or all that
vas left of her.
Late in the afternon the foe began
to break up and 1 got back to my boat.
BY night there We're lanes of water in
every direction and a strong breeze set
in from the south. I drifted to the
north all that night and all the next
dav. but as the second night came down
I was picked up by the Scotch whaler
Jeanette, which had captured and was
cutting a whale, and months later was
landed at her home port.
For three years I believed the Tails
man had been cast away in the ice,
but it turned out that she escaped with
out much damage and finally reached
Roston with full cargo.
His Point of View.
After all, bloomers serve d very use
81 fs,~yS, = aat,