The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1902-07-05
icEeouNp STEAMERS SAFE.
Portland and Jeanne Are Heard From
Al Last.

Portland and Jeanne Are Heard From
At Last.
Port Townsend, Wash. July L.
The steamer Centennial reached port
this morning nine and one-half days
from Cape Nome, bringing news of
the safety Of the steamers jeanne and
Portland. She also brings word that
the story of the loss Of the United
States rel cutter Thetis is untrue.
The steam whaler Belevedere arrived
at Cape Nome on June 20 and reported
that the Jeanne and Portland
sighted in the ice pack on June IL
eighty miles north Of Cape Prince OF
Wales and the Deomdes islands. The
cutter Thetis was standing by
the imprisoned vessels. The jeanne
srd Portland were not injured by the
Ice and there are good prospects Of the
vessels escaping.
The Thetis, which Is commanded by
Captain w. A. Healy, has performed
q notable achievement in finding the
two craft for whom so many other
vessels were searching. and Captain
Healy has added another honorable
entry to his long record of rescues in
the Arctic.
The Portland is a large steamer. and
the Jeanne is a steam schooner. Both
are In the Nome trade and both carry
passengers. On their present voyage
they were closed upon by the ice pack
and carried northward by the pack. AS
kh1w> -zr1 ypuvorI ~ Am nn0nln
aboard the two steamers their mishap
caused a great deal of anxiety in
every city on the Pacific coast. A
large feet of vessels has been search
ing for the missing steamers, and
grave fears were felt, as the ice-locked
steamers seemed in a fair way to be
either crushed or carried almost to the
pole, where the people aboard would
perish Of cold and starvation.
Among the searchers was the EVE
u cutter Thetis, Captain Healy.
Healy is a veteran Of the service and
knows the North Pacific thoroughly.
He made the Bear famous by his splen-
did work with her, and during his
years of service he has rescued thous-
ands of people from death in Arctic
waters.
During the four years in which Cap
tain Healy was kept ashore not a yes
sci was rescued in the Arctic. In 1900
and every year had its list of missing
ships. During the years when Captain
Healy had cruised those waters he
either found every missing ship or pro-
cured satisfactory evidence that she
had gone to the bottom and vas be-
yond the reach Of aid.
One Of several events may happen
when a ship is packed in the ice as
are Inc Portland and the jeanne. Eth
er the Ice may crush its timbers, or
it may be held permanently in the
pack-ships have remained in the ice
for years-or the ice may open and
let 1t out.
Captain Healy is standing by to see
what will happen to the Portland and
Jeanne. If the ice opens and frees
them he will convoy them to port. II
the ice brushes them or takes them
too far north he will take of. the crews
and passengers and abandon the
hulks.
Healy's in the Arctic is at.
t%ributable to his extraordinary knowl-
edge of the region. He knows the
coast, the currents and all the condi-
lions as a saint knows his prayers.
The Belvedere was in sight of both
the Portland and the jeanne, and left
them to return to Nome only after
her officers had assured themselves
that they could render no assistance
to the bealeagured vessels. At the
time they were last sighted the Port
land had been out Of Seattle, Nome
bound, for fifty-two days and the
jeanne for ~forty-eight days.
But signals from both vessels to the
free vessels following them announced
that all was well on board in each
case, passengers well and food and
water plentiful and general conditions
cheerful. Messages, however, carried
the frank admission on the part of the
officers of the imprisoned vessels that
the feeling of cheerfulness was greatly
augmented by the arrival on the scene
of the Thetis, standing by ready to re-
spond to any urgency signal.
The Centennial left Nome on the
morning of June 20. The whaler Bel
vedere had arrived in port only a few
hours before. The Belvedere brought
only the most meager information con-
corning the conditions on board the
beleaguered vessels, as the only means
of communication between them and
the free vessels within their sight was
by signaling, and that process is slow
and tiresome.