The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-20
-a-.-- EXPERIENCE ON A INHALER.
J. Morgan Smith Has Hard Time of
 Jt in the Arctic Seas.

l 1t in the Arcl!C SedS
 J. Morgan Smith, who was a nephew
 of the late James A. Smith of this city
 and son of teh Rev. James Morgan Smith of Grand Rapids, Mich., and who Is also a relative of J. Peirpont Morgan has just returned from short triI on the whaling vessel Fearless, having deserted at St. Michaels and reaching Seattle on the schooner Hera, aboard
 which three passengers starved to
 death. It is said that the young man
 had souandered $300,000 having a good
 time before he shipped on the whaler
 but it is not likely that he had any
 such amount of money at his disposal
 as his father was by no means rich
 man. Young Smith, who is now in Se-
 attle, says of his trip:
 q can stand proper sail DTS, and like
 the life with them, but these men on
 the whalers are the scum of the earth, men who are shanghaied by the sailor
 boarding-house masters. They have a
 hard time of it but I think they get about what they deserve. As far as ] Nananimo they treated us nicely for fear we would desert there As it was, two got away, and one was sent ashore because he was ill.
 We had a fearfully rough passage of twenty eight days from Nananimo to Rutch Harbor, where we got more coal, and started into the Behring Sea for whales. Near St. Lawrence Island we heard the cry There she blows and lowered the boats. We didn't get the whale and that was the only one we saw on all the voyage We went into the Arctic and traded along the Siber- ian coast and found the Dromde Is- lands. We were in the ice in May. After going as far as Cape Lisbon we turned and came back into the Behring. The fourth mate deserted at Cape Clar- ence.
 we ran to St. Michaels for provisions and there jumped the ship after three and a half months experience. You see. I could not stand those whaler men. The Fearless is what they call an easy ship That is, there is no un- necessary brutality. No one lifted hand to me, but I've seen many man hit over the head. Still these fellows deserve what they get There was enough to eat with potatoes to keep down the scurvy, and I doubt whether most of that crew would have been certain of three square meals a day anywhere else.
 "But the thought of wintering with those men was more than I could stand. know the experience would have driven me crazy. Then, too I had no letters from home, and I knew my mother was ill. So, at St, Michaels. I gave my field glasses to two men who had previously deserted from the Alex ander as bribe for them to help me to escape. That day thied the water and found that it was too cold to swim in, making up my mind to swim for 1t if worst came to the worst.
 we were all on deck except the first mate, who had gone to the Corwin to get his hand fixed by surgeon, and in an hour we were going to sail, Still those fellows who were to take me off did not come. I slid over the bow and perched on the martingale, thinking I'd have to swim. Then I saw my two men coming off in a canoe. They pad died under me and 1 dropped and rolled | out of sight 'Once I got ashore near the Eskimo village I ran across the island and alonge the back beach so the | officers could not catch me and hold me up with pistols, as they had three other