The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1898-03-29
GREWSOMECARG
Sealing Schooner Greenland Sails
Into st. Johns With Twenty
five Corrses.
Besides These There Were on
Board Fitty-nine Men Badly
Frozen.
Twcnty.thrce More Were Lost
While on Ice FlOes Hunting
For Seals.

ST. JOINS. N. f., March 29.-The
into the harbor with grewsome car.
90. Twenty-Five corpses were piled
upon the decks and 55 men were moan
ing with terrible sufferinss from the |
pain Of frost-btten limbs and bodies. |
The little sealing steamer, which sailed !
for the hunting grounds three weeks /
ago, returned as an awful charnel
house.
The dead bodies were in tiers on the
deck Of the steamers, distigured and
almost unrecognizable from the effects
of the terrible suffering which they
had endured, presenting one Of the
of the most horrible sights human eyes
ever bcheld The Greenland set sail
from st. Johns, n. f., about the LIST of
March on her fateful voyage. She was
commanded by Captain George Bar
bour. and carried crew of nearly 3oC
hunters The steamer proceeded north
ward with the rest Of the sailing
fleet, but after couple OF
days she diverged on a separate
track, and reached the hunting
grounds not long after. All went well
until Tuesday last, and seals were
quickly encountered and several good
packs were secured. On Tuesday morn.
ing the hunters left the ship about
o'clock, as usual, when the lookout IN
the crows nest reported ice plentiful
around them. The men were cad III
| light clothing, for the slaughtering OF
seals is exhausting work. Scattered
| over the ice fields, they wandered TAR
| from the protection Of the ship. and
| gale and snow storm shut them out OF
view.
! Ice FIoe Drifted Away.
The ice floe parted and drlfted away
from the steamer. Long ere the storm
subsidized many of the unfortunate lei
lows had succum bed TO the terrible cold
and exposure Those who did not Were
terribly frost-bi,ten and suffered excru.
ciating pain
The long night passed but morning
brought no help. for the storm still
ragged, and the atmosphere was thick
with snow driven before the gale.
Snow continued nearly all day, and the
evening brought no cessation to the
high wind Another night. one which
seemed to the helpless. drifting suffer.
ers, who still lived thousand times
longer than the first, was passed In
untold agony. Some Of the victims
had already given up hope, and III
despair lay down and died, and every
hour witnessed at least two deaths on
that awful night on the ice foe. To
ward morning the storm subsidized ane
clear weather enabled the survivors t
see that the Greenland was not fal
away, searching for the missing. The
steamer bore down on the drifting tiele
ice, which had by this time separated
into a number Of sections and begal
the work of picking up the bodies o
the dead, and the lifeless bodies of tn
living. Twenty.tiv corpses were takel
on board that morning, but 23 mel
were still missing, and though tn
search which was continued all day
! no more were recovered.
Thurs day night the Greenland head
f cd for shore. reaching Bay de Verde o
r Saturday, proceeding thence to 81
Johns with her CHASTITY cargo. Most 9
the men who met this awful fate 0
the treacherous ice foe are marie
men with large families, who are thu
denriyed of all visible means of SUP
j, port,