Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1909-06-10
CRUSHED IN THE ICE,
Thrilling Experience on Board a
Sealing Vessel.
HOW THE SHIP WENT DOWN.
Smashed In Amidships and Powerless
to Escape, She Was Swallowed In the
Crew to Escape on the FIoe.

Icy Deep-The Wild Rush Of the
Crew to Escape on the Floe.
Constant peril menaces the hardy
crews that fearlessly sail into the icy
northern seas and risk their lives in
the dangerous work of hunting the
seal. In Harper's Magazine George
Harding, the author, writes dramatic
ally Of the sinking of the ship on
which he sailed with the Newfound-
land sealing feet. His experience was
uniquely perilous. The ship was
crushed like an egg in the ice.
'On the bridge were the captain and
watch anxiously awaiting the chance
to head the ship out Of the moving
ice into the stationary pack of which
the big sheet was part. The bowline
lay on the barricade. ready for heav-
ing when the crew should be ordered
on the foe to haul the ships head
around. Aloft, the spyman searched
the gloom for signs of a hull in the
confused and tremendous waste.
Then there came terrific crush.
The vessel, caught in the trench be-
tween the raftering sheets, was pow
erless to escape. The smash Of break
ing timbers rose above the gale as a
great corner of ice crushed the YES
seps side amidships. The captain and
watch rushed to the engine room. It
was filed with steam, the infiowing
water having already reached the fires.
A oil oh
stop the thrush of water. The firemen
were retreating. The first of them,
like q creature from another world,
coal begrimed, undershirt clad, reached
the ice sheathed deck, spreading panic
in his path. Above the hailiDg of
questions and shouts that no man
could understand came the voice of
the skipper; he knew the situation as
no other man.
Men he shouted. the ship III go!
Pack your clothes-save the grubr
"Then it was confusion everywhere.
THE crew poured up the hatchway,
hauling clothes boxes and bags, crowd
ing over the side, colliding in midair
as they half tumbled and half slid
Laboriously the heavy pork barrels
were hauled by hand from the after
hold, where men braVely toiled. 9th
ers fought their way aloft, where the
sails were slowed. The canvas cut
loose, bellying out in the force of the
gale, was dropped to the deck. Punts
were slipped from the davits. Some,
hitting the ice with a crash, were
slowed in. Throughout it all the cap
tain shouted:
Haul them punts and grub farther
off, Farther yet! Fartherp
1.-THE water, rapidly rising, drove the
men from the lower hold. They re-
treated to the deck Then the inflow,
level with the ocean, ceased. The ice
for the time held the ship in it's grip.
Second by second passed, bringing no
change. In that brief interval each
man suddenly thought to save the
thing he most desired. A wild rush
was made to wheelhouse, to cabin, to
the ships storeroom-every man for
himself-a scuffle to get the thing most
coveted and escape to the ice. With
one 1t was a rifle from the ships ar
mory to replace the Anticipated muzzle
loader at home; with another, the
ships compass or the barometer; with
the after galley cook it was the cabin
dishes. In the cabin a crowd surged
to the medicine chest, scrambltng for
liniments and pills, smashing anything
that was an obstacle in their way.
Such was the scene when the cry arose
on deck, repeated by fifty men and
echoing throughout the vessel, ''Tis
time to take to the 'ce! Then q great
rush to be clear of the doomed ship as
the mass of men, some empty handed,
others laden, defending their spoil from
the unsuccessful, plunged on to the
ice.
1.-THE ship was sinking fast. 1t was
but short leap for the last man from
her deck to the loosening ice. The
men stood on the foe, looking the ship
over from the bow, lifted high, to the
stern, now below water.
GA pity to lose the vessel they
said. Wonderful hard to lose the trip
O. fat
"Then came the final plunge. The
mainmast, reaching over the foe, broke
as the weight of the vessel pulled 1t
under The great anchors sliding from
the bow added to the tumult, as every
thing not frozen solid to the deck
crashed into the house and galley. For
a second a fash of fame shot from the
overturned stoves; then nothing save
a few seal pelts and broken oars lay
on the surface of the troubled hole in
the foe where the Grand Lake had dis
appeared"