The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-07-14
Found In the Ice
BY M. QUAD
Copyright, 1914. by Associated Lit
erary Press.

On the 18th day of October, 1852, the
ship Princess left Australia with a
cargo Of wool and other articles valued
i at S250.000. She had in her treasure
/ room gold in dust, bars and coin aggre-
/ eating S1,300,000 She was never heard
4 from.
In June. 1868. eighteen years after
! the loss of the Princess. / was one Of
| the crew Of the Boston whaler Tails
J man, which was trying the cruising
| ground on the south of Cape Horn.
| We had had fair run of luck when
we got gale from the north which
lasted for four days and nights with.
out break. This drove us away south
among the ice. and on a dozen different
occasions the ship was within hairs
breadth of being cast away or over
whelmed After the fourth day of the
gale there was a calm lasting thirty
hours. During this interval the Tails
man lay between two monster icebergs,
with her boats down and ready to tow
her ont of the way should they close
IN on ueT. 1hcn we EOI slLpub
breeze from the east.
Sometimes we lay moored to a berg
for several hours; again we We're
pounding among the great cakes of
ice. which threatened every moment to
crush in her sides We had been driv-
ing to the southeast for three days
when the breeze fell and left us on a
heaving sea, with a monster iceberg
about two miles away to the south.
The ship had thus far sustained little
damage. but the crew were exhausted
with the hard work and constant vigil
lance. The men were given an all
days rest, and no incident occurred |
until late in the afternoon. The mass !
of ice had front mile long on our |
side, with an average height of 800 feet. |
What its width was we could not say. |
We were astonished to see smoke Iis. |
ing from the far side of il. No one |
doubted that IL came from a fire lighted /
by shipwrecked sailors, who had |
caught sight of the Talisman and were |
making her a signal
The third mate aud three men were |
ordered of in one of the whaleboats to |
investigate and / was one OF the three
selected We took with us breaker
OF fresh water bottle of rum. bread
meat blankets. a boat compass aud
lantern. and darkness fell as we pulled
away from the ship.
We pulled 10 pass the western face
Of the berg and found 1t 10 be about
half a mile long. As we reached its
southern limit and turned to the east
we caught sight Of a small fire on a
ledge about 100 feet above the water.
As soon as we got up to IL the mate
hailed and was promptly answered
that there were two men ON the ledge.
one OF whom had broken leg. There
upon I was ordered to remain by the
boat and hold on. while the mate and
the two men landed on the berg and
began making their way mp to the
edge.
Twenty minutes later the berg split,
A fog settled down. and with It came
breeze / did not know what 10 do.
md so l laid in my oar, wrapped my
'elf in a blanket and sat down In the
bottom Of the boat You will think IL
lueer that I fell asleep under the cir
but that Is exactly what ,
happened. nor did I wake until day
ight came again Then / found my
elf in an ice Zoe which was drifting !
o the south at the rate Of about three I
niles an hour. .
I am not 81 all sure how long drift z
=. but the general direction was south.
Ind the time was At least four days
ind nights on the morning of Whist !
vas probably the fifth day I aEoke 20 c