The daily Alaskan., 1905-05-22
A TRAGEDY
 OF THE ICE

l, lot of wreckage lying at the base of the berg and sent four of us or ln the yawl to inspect and report, When the berg was reached the mate and two men scrambled on to the ice for closer look. leaving the boat In my charge. They had reached shelf above me and 20O feet to the east when, without the slightest warning, the great lump of ice began to split and quake, and down came thousands of tons into the sea. The three mon must have met instant death, while the boat was shot to a distance of half a mile as if moved by steam.
 Then a fog came up. That was the last saw of the TaliSman,
 The weather was not severe, and l was warmly clad and did not suffer much during the night In fact l slept most of the time, leaving the boat to take care of herself. There were food and water and blankets, ane unless the little craft should get into a squeeze l might drift for several days and not be much the worse for It. awoke at daylight next morning to find the fog still holding and the pack still drifting, and it was not until afternoon that the weather cleared,
 When the fog rolled away was within half mile of one of the big gest bergs that ever drirted up from the N.rozen south. lt was a mile or more in length, but not over forty feet high-a mighty mass of ice, as blue and as hard as steel itself. Here and there were great rocks showing, and the confguration of the berg hint ed that what was now out of water had once been fathomS deep beneath the surface.
 l hauled my boat on tO the ice and set out to reach the berg and see what sort of shelter it afforded. The pack ice had piled up ten feet high around 1t, and was all of an hour making that half mile. When | finally reached the berg and made my way up its jagged eastern side 1t was Co find a great hollow in its center like the mouth of volcano. In the center of this hollow lay a great mass of wreck age, mostly covered with snow, and after a long stare l slid down and be gan an investigation. No one will ever behold a more curious sight A space several hundred feet square was covered with broken m3StS, yards, beams, blanks, ropes and other debris. Amid this heap were hundreds of ar ticles belonging to the interior of a ship, such as tables, chairs, crockery and bedding. X few articles had not been damaged, but the greater num- Der had been quite destroyed for fur ther usefulness. There was a sort of mildew covering everything, and such articles of clothing as l held up were quite rotten. A large ship had suffer ed destruction by smashing against the berg. It looked to me as if she might have been whole when she first rested in the crater, but had been crushed later on by fall of ice. No other force except dynamite could have so wrecked and scattered her about
 Sailorlike, my first thought was to identify the wreck. This l did by find ing a life preSevver with the name Princess on it. 1 had not then heard of the loss of the Australian packet, but knew from the fittings that the wreck must have been fine passenger ship. There were no bodies under or about the wreckage, and during my search of half a day I did not find any money or jewelry or other article of value. Of her cargo only small portion was at hand, and that was bales of wool, black with mildew. l carried the life preserver and some of the leaves of her rotten log book back to my boat to corroborate the story l should tell if ever rescued, and l de- bated long whether or not to set fire to the wreckage. I finally decided to do SO, that I might get the advantage of the smoke as signal, and when l finally quit the berg there was a col umn of black smoke rising straight in- to the air that could be seen for fifty miles away.
 The weather had grown warmer, and as evening came the pack ice began to separate and long lanes of water to ,how themselves. I took one of these .anes and worked at the oars until inally clear of the field, and then let he boat slowly drift Co the north, be- ievlug that some of the whalcrS cruis- ng in that dirC2tior would sooner or itCr come down in answer to the sig
 al There were fool and water 10 last ne for four days, and the supply of blankets kept me wNrm, and but for the worry and anxiety I should have almost called 1t a picnic. Among the whalers of the north and south seas no boat is allowed to leave the ship, even 70 go half a mile, without food and ,lankets, and in many cases an alcohol .tOve Is added. It was to this inleSible
 ule that owed my life.
 On the afternoon of the fourth day, liter had been watching the antics of | school of young whales for an hour, a scotch whaler hove in sight and came lqwn and picked me up. She had seen q e smoke forty-fve miles away and
 | A