The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-08-10
CAP TAIN OF The
STEAMER SIBERIA
Commander Of the Big Pacific
Liner Remarkable Man.
SKETCH OF HIS EXPERIENCES
suffered Hardships in the Arctic Re
haf
SKETCH OF HIS EXPERIENCES
Suffered Hardships in the Arctic Re
gions That Seioon Fall to the Lot
OF Regular Exp!orers-His Ship
Crushed in the Ice.

Special Dispatch 20 The Times.)
NEWPORT NEWS, VA. Aug. 9.-Prob-
aply the most Interesting individual in
the city at this time is Captain w. p. S.
Porter. Of San Francisco. Captain Por-
ter is chief officer Of the huge Pacific
Mall Liner Siberia, which is now being
completed at the plant of the Newport
News Snipbuilding and Dry Dock Com
pany, and whose sister ship. the Korea
IS en- route TO the Golden Gate via Cape
horn, to go into the trade between Ca!
toTnia and japanese and Chinese ports.
Captain Porter, just past middle age,
six feet in his stockings, with two hun
dred and sixty pounds to his credit In
rome, slnew and muscle, does not loof
ike a man who has spent seven Of the
most eventful years of his life within the
Arctic circle. undelg gong part of the time
hardships that would have made an end
to some men in short order.
With his sixty-two shipWrecked men,
Captain Porter was the goal Of that mar
Vicious expedition of Lieutenant Jarvis
and DR.. Call across seventeen hundred
miles of icy Alaskan wilderness in the
dead of winter, driving five hundred rein
deer on the hoof for food for the starv-
ing mariners who were playing h,de-anc
seek with death at Point Barrow, the
most northerly land that claims the pro-
lection OF the Stars and Stripes
The story of the rescue is a part of
history. In 1893 Captain Porter took the
whaler Jessie H. Freeman, a three hun
dred-ton steamer, out of San Francisco
for the Pacific Steam Whaling Company.
He passed on up through Boring Strait
into the Arctic Ocean. During the next
four years the Jessie H. Freeman was
cruising about in the waters between
FONT Barrow and Herschers Island.
catching whales and sending the bone
back to civilization as the opportunity
offered, wntering, in the meantime. in
the Arctic.
SHIP CRUSHED.
On September 90, 1897, as the ship was
making it's wa yback to the Straits.
following the tortuous coast between the
ice pack and the land. she was wrecked.
1t was at point about sixty miles
southwest of Point Barrow. The vessel
had made her way along the shore to a
point where the pack was jambed against
a projecting cape. There was an open
ing in the pack, however and the steam
er followed the lead, Captain Porter hop
ing to find an outlet; but the pack sud-
denly began to move and the ship was
crushed like An egg-shel. There was no
opportunity to get anything out Of her
and captain and crew were glad enough
to escape with their lives. They made
their way back to .Point Barrow, where
there is a village OF Eskimos Another
small village, Cape Smith, is situated to
the west a few miles away, but both of
them together could not entertain sixty
two hungry sailors. The kindly natives.
however, shared everything they had
with their involuntary guests, and life
was made as endurable as possible dur
ing the thirteen months the shipwrecked
men were compelled to "enjoy" the hos
pitality Of their generous, but poor and
dirty, hosts.
Captain orter sent two OF his men to
civilization. to secure aid. They left in
October, one going around the Alaskan
coast some twenty-five hundred miles.
finally reaching karluk, on Kodiak Island
where he procured a steamer and pro-
ceeded to Sitka getting in touch with
the world once more. The other courier
was sent in the opposite direction. strik-
ing British Columbia and making his
way to Fort Mcpherson and down the
Mackenzie river to Edmonton. a station
on a little spur OF the Canadian Pacific,
and the most northerly point reached
by an American railway. The whole dis
lance covered by this courier was about
thirty-three hundred miles, but he had
the benefit of occasional trading posts
and Of river navigation. He reached
Edmonton almost at the same time the
other courier arrived at Sitka.
THE RESCUE.
In the meantime the Freeman was ex-
pected home and had not arrived. Other
whalers came in and reported that they
had not seen the Freeman and it was a
moral certainty that she had been
wrecked. The arrival Of the couriers sim
ply made assurance double sure.
Uncle Sam lost no time in taking steps
to effect a rescue. During the preceding
twelve, tha revanr,a ~,
ers Bear and Thetis. which rescued
Greedy, had been engaged in the Boring
Sea service transporting reindeer from
Siberia to Alaska. The Russian Gov
eminent had granted this Government
permission to purchase the deer and i'm
port them. The animals thrkyed in
Alaska. rhe wisdom Of the Government
was to be demonstrated in a striking
manner in this rescue.
In December. the Bear steamed to Cane
Vancouver and landed Lieutenant Jarvis
and DR.. Call, who proceeded on foot
across the country to st. Michaels, where
they got dogs from the Alaska CONNER
cial Company and resumed their long
and cherries journey. AT Colavin Bay
they secured their first reindeer. and by
the time they reached Point OF Hope they
had a herd of five hundred These they
drove on the hoof across the tremendous
arriving there on March 10, having lost
but sixteen Of the herd-this. too. in the
dead Of winter, with the ground covered
with snow and ice and the mercury
standing from 50 to IS degrees below zero.
The deer furnished the shipwrecked
men subsistence until the Bear arrived
in August and on August % took the men
aboard and steamed back for the Pa
cific. arriving in San Francisco on Oc-
tober IS, completing the most remark
able achievement in the history of the
revenue service.
Il is worth noting that the United
States for years maintained a rescue
station at Point Barrow, but had aban-
doned it just two years before the Free
man was wrecked
PROVIDL-,T 1AL.
But for queer stroke of Providence,
Captain Porter and his men would have
Jared much worse than they did. During
their Imprisonment at Point Barrow, a
vessel was driven ashore right in our
backyard" as the captain expresses it.
Captain Porter tells Of the experience
interestingly, and if his deductions are
correct, his observations in this connec-