The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-14
LOST IN THE POLAR SEA
DETAILS OF WRECK OF THE WHAL-
Err NAVARICHE LAST JULY.
Twenty-Five of the Crew of Thirty
Five Drowned or Starved-Scheme
to Bridge the Atlantic.

SEATTLE, Wash, Sept. 1.-TWO of the
crew of the whaler Navariche, lost in the
Arctic, together with thirty-five of her
crew, came down on the steamer Hum
boldt, which arrived from St. MichaeFs to-
day. They are Captain JOS. Whtesldes the
commander of the vessel, and his wife The
Navariche left San Francisco March last
and entered the Arctic ocean in July. She
soon got caught in the ice at point 100
miles northeast of Point Barrow. At first
the captain thought the ship could be eX-
treated from its position, but on July 20
they realized that there was no hope of
such an event. They hoisted signals of dis
tress, trusting that the revenue cutter Bear
or some of the other whalerS of the fleet
would see them and come to their assist
ance But the fog came and obscured them
for days. They drifted rapidly northward
with the icebergs. Finally they decided to
leave the ship. On Aug. IA the whole crew
took the small boats and started across the
ice. After dragging them for five miles they
came to open water and embarked. The
current caught them at once and before
they had gone ten miles they were in an
other ice pack. They then discovered that
they only had five days provisions and they
abandoned the boats and started across the
then commenced preparations for a second
attempt to save themselves. All but eight
men decided to push across the ice fields
on foot. The weather was not bitterly cold
but it was foggy and disagreeable and ne
cesstated more clothing than was con-
duoive to rapid travel. For this reason a
limited amount of food was carried for they
thought they would surely reach the Bear
or one of the whalers within two or three
days The eight left in the boat thought
they were better off there than on the ice
and were left to their fate.
Away across the treacherous ice went the
thirty-seven men and the gritty woman.
But one day out, the captain and his wife
and seven of the others changed their minds
about the likelihood Of saving themselves
by the method they had undertaken. They
would come to open water now and then,
they would find it necessary to go far
around the massive icebergs. Nine of the
party went back to the ship, leaving twenty
nine on the ice. Nothing mas been heard or
seen of the tWenty-nine men since that day.
Aug. II. The party got back to the ship
safely and on Aug. IL made another start,
his wife First Mate Blaine, Fourth Mate
Read and Seamen Scott, LechOw, Mclean
and Peters. They took a small canvas boat,
into which they put weeks provisions.
1t was a heavy load for the little craft but
this was the last hope they had, and they
had to take desperate chances. Only the
fact that the sea was comparatively quiet
accounts for the marvellous escape, for any
rough weather would have instantly
swamped them They got into clear water
in few hours, and, padding through the
fog and darkness, avoided as best they
could the drifting ice. They pushed on for
hours Finally they could go no further,
and they got out and walked over the ice.
For sixty hours they kept on, first walking
and now and then taking to the small boat.
A r We
to be Copper island, a barren, desolate ISL
and, from which position they were rescued
the following day by the Rear. Captain
Whitesides thinks the twenty-nine men left
the ice are surely lost.