Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1900-01-18
AN ARCTIC MYSTERY.
A Ship Lost Over Fifty Years Ago
Appears and Disnppcars

Captain Jansen Of the British bark
Silicon, lately arrived at Philadelphia
from Greenland with cargo of cryolite,
tells strange story of the curious dis
covery of "A derelict which drifted into
the harbor of Ivigtut shortly after the
Silicon arrived there to load. The Incl
dent was so strange and so unearthly
that for days it affected the spirits OF
Captain Jansen and his crew.
In those arctic solitudes the adven-
turous seekers of cryoite look for the
arrival Of no ship other than those of
their own hardy little feet. The captain
Of the Silicon dropped into unconscious
poetry of describing the occurrence.
Never in his long career as a navigator
has the mariner been brought face to
face with an experience so weird and to
the snperstitious sailorman so foreboding
81 disaster and death.
when we arrived at Ivigtut." he said,
'the bleakness of the arctic night was al
most ready to come upon us. The sur
roundings there are never cheerful at
their best, and in the dark season they
are indescribable in their aspect of awful
desolation. The Silicon was locked at
the pier in front of the little town. the
only vessel within 900 miles.
Il can remember that | often stood
near the shore while the few miners
worked under the ftful light OF the
polar sun and thought how lonely the
bark looked in the midst of that awful
solitude. We were not there long. how
ever, before we had company.
"Three days after our arrival the look
ont, whom | always had on the watch
for floating ice, reported sail. To my
surprise, il was in the north. From the
frozen regions beyond the polar circle a
dismasted wreck bore down upon the Sill
con. The miners ceased their work; the
crew gathered upon the deck of the bark
and watched her coming in silence. With
scarcely swish as she cut through the
Icy water, borne by some strange cur
rent. she passed to the nOrthward of the
Silicon and grounded on the beach"
When the first moments of surprise
were over, Captain Jansen and his men
examined the strange craft. 1t was an
ancient. battered vessel without masts.
bulwarks or name The hulk had been
brig, and il seemed that she was a
Russian. Her patches were on. her cab
in doors fast and her hull was buoyant.
Her little cargo consisted OF skins and
furs. and they were in prime condition
No papers were in her cabin, but letter
in the forecastle said that she had been
abandoned in lSlS The baur found
tasted like chalk, but the beef II her hold
was perhaps better than the day it was
put on board.
The dangerous position in which the
derelict had stranded forbade any extern.
sive examination by Captain Jansen.
After a day or so the weather became
bad. and she was again swept ont to sea.
Much speculation was ipdulgcd in on
board the Silicon regarding the aban-
doned ship
Captain Jansen said there is no douh.
that the i'll fatod vessel had been frozen
in by the ice and abandoned. He recalls
that n story is current among the New
foundland whalers who venturcd into
Davis strait of Il great iceberg having
been seen with a curious object imhedded
within it, 80 feet above the surface OF
the water. 1t is supposed that the berg
contained n whale. but the captain of the
Silicon is positive that the object men
toned was the hull Of the Russian brig.