The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-10-23
IN THE NORTH.
Some Experiences IA Trip On {.
whaler,

The Portland friends OF Captain George
B. Leavltt, who for the past fifteen years
or more has been interested in whaling
In the Arctic regions, viii be pleased to
learn Of his present whereabouts and suo-
cess. Capt Leavitt is a SON of Mrs. 8.
y Knight. corner Of Lincoln street and
Forest avenue, Woodforda. During the
years that he has been engaged in whal-
ing Capt Leavitt has found time to visit
his home on only three occasions, his last
visit being about year ago. Capt.
Leavitt remained at home until February
9th, when he started for San Francisco,
where he prepared to embark for the Arc
tic regions.
The steam whaling vessel, the 6rampus
and her crew were made ready, and started
from San Francisco, March 25th. The
first letters received from him were dated
April 9th, from Dutch Harbor, Unal-
aska. Capt. Leavitt in these letters stated
that be left San Francisco at Q D. M,
March Goth, passing out through the COL
den Gate at 2 80 O'Clock. At p. m. the
steamer passed the light on Faralone Is.
land, the last point of land to bs seen for
many days. "At 0 O'clock" says Capt.
Leayitt,''I had all the sail conld handle
and the engine In USE. March 3ist we
experienced hsavy swell, the forerunner
OF gale from the southeast The gale
struck In all Its fury April LIST, at about .
p. IN. 1t howleu from the southwest and
then backed to southeast aud let loose
Didn't 1t blow though had an awful
time. 1t was so rough at IL o'clock that
night that succumhed and was seasick
for four hours, and prstty sick, too.
had my doubts about keeping the Gram
pus right side up We loaded pretty deep
In San Francisco, consequently we were
under water more than was comfortable.
For about six,hours we had all the storm
we wanted; rough was no name for It,"
ROUGH TRIP NORTH.
"The Grampus is splendid sea boat,
and will stand anything. The next two
days we did not experience much wind,
but did have some tremendous seas A
part Of the day, April 4th, we experienced
another heavy gale accompanied by q
severe snow storm. None of us were abls
to sleep all night.
"One OF the men aboard the steamer
died April 9TH, of pneumonia. The 9th of
ingly mild day. We passed a large ship
bound to Vancouver from Puget Souni.
The sun shone on US during the alter
neon Of April It'll, and we enjoyed fine
weather, but experienced more heavy
seas At O'Clock the evening of the 7th
We passed one of the China steamers.
from the Sth to the 18th of April we had
considerable disagreeabie weather, with
a moderate gals the 18th to vary the pro.
gramme.
'Nothing of Importance occurred from
the 18th to the 18th of the month, except
ing the sudden illness Of one Of the men
who was affected with thu measles. We
experienced heavy gales from the south
east, April 18th. This was the first
chance We bad to sail any length of time
without the use OF steam. April 10th and
18th we had strong Winds from the
northwest. We steamed hard all day in
order to make land. We anchored at $50
p. m. at Aucatan island. The pass
here Is very rocky and the sea was break
Ing in on us, SO we could not go in to
Unalaska. We anchored and waited for
q chance to go through the pass. On
April 18th we remained at anchor
Watching our chances to go through the
some codtshing. at which we had good
success.
A QUICK TRIP.
eve finally succeeded in goiKg through
the pass and auchoring in Duton Harbor,
Unalasak, at o a. m. the morning of the
10Th after a disagrseable voyage of 80
days. which In spite OF this weather was
quick trip.
"The Grampus." says Captain Lenvitt,
works just as well In gale of wind, as
many ships do In a strong head wind.
The steamer has fine engines and a boy
could handle her she works so easily. The
poor old steward and cook of our steamer
had picnic all the way up. We run the
steamer hard through heavy seas and a
head wind, and sometimes cook, soup,
dough. cake and pie would be all mixed
up. We had a new cabin boy, q fellow
who had never bsen on the wat.r before,
and he has been as good as a circus. Tho
boy was so awfully scared that he is not
over 1t yet. ! would ring for my coffee
ATS q. m. He would bring 1t, and to see
him try and keep his feat was fun. He
said he wasn't so much frightened, as
that 1t made him feel queer. +"
The next letters received at Woodfords
from from Capt. Leavits. were dated June
were received August 4th. 10 these let
tiers Captain Leavitt says, "Ws are still
looking for whales. but up to the present
time have only seen them, and very far
Oh AZ bnhb. We are not at all dtSappOint-
ed, however, as we did not count on get
ting them in the spring.
IN THE FROZEN NORTH.
owe have had the meanest sort of wealth.
er, all the spring, and In fact thus far
into the summer. We have had a grea
deal of fog. SO thick that 1t was impossi-
BILE to sse over hundred yards around
us. We worked on through the Ice, how
ever. and were constantly on the move. "
Speaking of the crew. Capt. Leavitt says,
II have fine crew, all young men, most
of them green hands, but they are taking
hold first rate and will make excellent
men. We have had quite lot OF sickness
on board, the grippe causing most of the
trouble. The Indians at Indian Point
ware all laid up with 1t, and Think we
got 1t ct that placs. We ars all nicely
now. On the 22d of June, in twenty
hours we had about a foot of snow on
deck. This last week, We have..had snow,
rain, hail, fog and of course wind TO
spare. 1t is daylight all the time now,
and you ses the sun at IL o'clock mid