The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1905-08-17

leading toward the island. At length
we found an open lead and thinking it
went to the island we steamed up the
lane of water for about so miles, when
the channel suddenly ended. 1t was
night and the captain ordered us to get
out our ice anchors and wait until
morning before attempting to retreat
down the lane.
| STUCK IN THE ICE.
"When morning came there was no
! water in sight. The channel had COM
pletely frozen over and we were
hemmed in. We were 80 or 40 miles
from the island, which we could see
from the deck quite plainly. There was
nothing to do but winter in the open,
and this we did.
"Once during the winter the great
field of ice split just at the stem of our
vessel, the crack extending for miles.
Then one section of the ice field began
to move and rasped our stempiece so
that it bent over badly, and the ship
began to leak at a great rate. Then
the crack closed up, and we remained
frozen in. but leaking badly.
''The carpenters were put to work,
and did the only possible thing to save
the craft. They filled up the bow of
bulkhead. She still leaked badly, but
constantly we kept her pretty free.
Those pumps were kept at work right
up to the time she was crushed.
"For nearly two years we remained
frozen in. All that time the ice field, in
which we were fast, kept drifting about
in all directions. To relieve the mOnot-
ony of our lives we went hunting for
polar bears, of which we killed about
40, the largest weighing about 1900
pounds. They did not seem to know
what men were and were quite indiffer-
ent to our presence. We also killed
number of seals, or flow rats as they
were called. They were good only for
dog food. Some WalruseS also were
shot by our men.
I'VE played football, wrestled, ran
races, and exercised in other ways.
II had my first experience with the
midnight sun. When it first came up
we knew just when to expect it. Every
one of the crew was up on ice pinacles
looking for it to rise. The sun merely
appeared for second or two and dis
appeared. The next day it was up
longer and moved horizontally very
little. The next day it was up still
longer and in time we had our three
months of sunlight.
That summer and the succeeding
winter passed without incident except
that we had been drifting all the time.
In the q months we were frozen in
that ice field we drifted over 1900 miles
in a devious course, and wound up
about 400 miles north of where we had
first anchored in the ice.
'1t was on June 10, 1881, that our
ship was pinched by the ice. The men
had been ordered to the ice field for
exercise, as each day we had to go
through two hours exercise, unless the
thermometer was below 40 degrees
below zero. If it was colder than that
our exercise was not compulsory. We
had true naval discipline.
suddenly with a great report the ice
cracked just along the port side of the
Jeanette, and an open lane of water
appeared for miles in either direction
of the ship. This lane of water was
fully a quarter of mile wide.
Capt. belong at once ordered the
recall of the crew. A black painted
barrel was run up to the mainmast
head, the crew understanding it to
mean, "All hands aboard ship" AS
soon as the men returned, preparations
were made to cast the ship loose from
the ice field.
''Then we noticed the lane of water
was narrowing up again. Slowly but
surely the two fields of ice closed to-
gether, and the unfortunate Jeanette
was caught between the two ice walls.
Where the two edges of ice caught the
ship the ice was about 10 feet thick
The pressure was such that her decks
soon buckled and arched like the back
of fighting cat.