The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-19

q
on a fire shovel before the furnace fire,
until they gradually thawed laid their
eggs, and cackled as all hens do after
| such a performance. You all know
what a luxury fresh eggs are on board
ship; well our steward thought of CIV
| ing the captain a few of these nicely
| boiled, but, his hopes We're dashed,
for ii took two days to boil four eggs,
| the cold being so intense the water re-
fused TO boil.
For a whole week We lived on bis
cult and fat pork, the latter had to
be sawn by our carpenter into small
pieces. The climax was reached when
cur reflections actually froze in the
mirrors. We then gave ourselves up
for lost, and retired to our berths to
die.
Happily, next morning, milder
weather set in, and our prospects
frightened. Now, all this time the ship
was drifting towards the land, and
about May IA, we caught sight of POu-
linquet distant about fifteen miles,
and having changed signals with the
shore, a party was seen coming over
the ice towards us, which turned out
to be sealers, dragging a boat after
them. They came alongside and l in
vited them aboard. They looked weary
after their long journey over the ice,
and ! ordered the steward to give
them some whisky. But here a new
difficulty presented itself; we found
that every drop of whisky in the ship
had frozen solid in the bottles How
ever, we broke the bottles, and there
was seen the strange spectacle Of seal
ers eating whisky and biscuits. After
two hours rest, the sealers started for
the shore again, and our passengers
availed themselves of this opportunity
Of reaching terra firma, which,
thought, was most ungratefu of them,
considering the pleasant and interest
ing experience they had, while on
board. Fate, however, meted out a
Just reward for their ingratitude We
had been watching them for some
time on their way over the ice, when
suddenly, to our establishment, one
suddenly disappeared from view. He
had slipped and fallen between two
large ice foes, but the others succeed
ed in rescuing their unfortunate COM
panion. The suffering that miserable
man underwent was almost beyond
description. With the thermometer 80
degrees below Zero and a northwest
gale blowing, he had to have his
clothes taken off and wrung out, and
then be clothed again in the same
half frozen garments. They finally
reached the shore.
The ship continued in this position
for three weeks, during which time we
had many wonderful escapes from de-
struction. At one time passing close
10 enormous icebergs, which lowered
far above our mastheads al other times
passing with the drift ice close to the
jagged rocks, expecting every moment
to feel the thump and become a total
wreck At last the ice began to get
slack, and in our anxiety to get to
harbor, we had the misfortune to break
our propeller, which was indeed the
cause Of one of the most ingenious
feats of engineering l have ever ex-
perienced during my nautical career.
We had, of course, a spare propeller on
board, but the great difficulty we had
to contend was the tipping of the ship
to enable us to take off the old and
mt on the new one. An idea finally
struck me, which, though hazardous
as it seemed, l had not the least hesi-
tation in putting into execution lit
tie distance from the ship was a huge
iceberg with over-hanging edge l
ordered the engines full speed a head
and struck the berg so nicely that
the ledge dropped on our forecastle
head, and the stern was lifted to the
required position. 1t came on a dense
fog which like the darkness of Egypt, |
could be felt. To get the new pro |
peller out OF the hold, it was necessary
to construct a platform or staging over |
the hatchway, and with many nails |
and much hammering. this took the
carpenter for half a day; when sud
denly the fog cleared away, and the |
whole staging collapsed, the carpen- |
ter having been mailing 1t to the fog.
After fitting the new propeller a new |
difficulty arose as to how to remove |
the enormous pile of ice from the |
forecastle head, but again, the old |
adage necessity is the mother of in
vention, was fully borne out. We got |
all the rockets, powder, and blue lights |
in the ship, and having driven holes in |
the ice, at a given signal the lot was
fired; and the berg was blown to
pieces"
We finally reached our port of des-
tination safely.
OSullivan wiped his mouth, with his
handkerchief and sat down. There was
not a word of comment, until two of
us slipped into the hotel, and straight
way returned with the cake, which
was presented to O'Sullivan with great
ceremony.