Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-05

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! and froze solidly to deck. cargo and rig
| ging, making it hard to get about.
The sailors were kept almost steadily
at work scraping the snow off the deck
cargo and shaking it out of the tar
| paulins. It was grueling and discourage
| ing labor. No sooner did they have
| things fairly clear than the snow would
come down harder than ever, accom-
panied by icy blasts of wind out of the
northwest, and the work all had to be
done over again.
ON the thirteenth day a thaw came
~ and We were free We headed back
to the village of Whalen.
1t was late enough now to notice the
longer nights. and henceforth they
would grow in length until the sun hid
his face from us entirely. OF course We
hoped to be safely out of the Arctic be-
fore that melancholy time came around.
At Whalep we met a certain DR..
George Nechepoorenco, who introduced
himself as representing The Co-opera-
tive BolShevik traders of the Chukotsk
peninsula" He was also acting gov
ernor, or something equivalent.
The Whalen Chukchis welcomed the
return of the schooner by enthusiastic
cally swarming on board. We did some
trading, but most of our business that
first day was with DR.. Nechepoorenco,
who had long list of wants. He rep
resented to us that the population of
Whalen was threatened by serious
famine, unless we would go over to
Nome, purchase supplies, and bring
them back to Siberia. The people de-
pended upon some Russian vessel to
bring supplies for the coming Winter.
This vessel had failed to appear, and
was now so long overdue they had given
her up entirely.
General appearances and the condi-
ton of the natives seemed to verify the
doctors statements. Seal and walrus
we're scarce and the natives had taken
to eating whatever dead ones they could
find. know of nothing more terrible
than hunger in the Arctic, for with
lief, it becomes an obsession that preys
upon the mind and seems to affect the
brain as we'll as the body.
This proposition diSarranged our plans
most unfortunately, as the trip to Nome
and back would mean dangerous de-
lay in getting out of the Arctic before
Winter. But one cannot, in cold blood,
condemn an entire settlement of men,
| women and little children to almost
possible to avert it, so we agreed to
make the trip.
A southerly gale and much floating
ice off the Cape kept us at Whalen
until daylight. when we sailed for our
station at Sanivina Straits. The trip
there was attended by heavy swells, but
we were free from ice peril for the first
time since we encountered dangerous
Ice off Indian Point at the beginning of
the voyage. Since that time we had
been SO days in the Arctic packs and
leads, waging an almost hourly battle
against the ice, and the relief to strained
nerves was tremendous when we found
ourselves, for the time being at least,
not under the necessity Of keeping a
day-and-night vigil.
We spent about "a hours at Saniyina
and left for Nome in the teeth Of q
driving northeaSter and a wild sea. If
we had retained the supplies intended
for our Kolyma station, which we had
unloaded at Kaluchin, to be forwarded
when possible, we might have spared
ourselves the hazardous journey ahead
for these provisions comprised pretty
much what the people of Whalen
needed. On account of the ice condi-
tons behind us, return trip to Kalu-
chin would have been far greater
We had a stormy passage. Every-
thing movable on the schooner rolled
and tumbled about. The seas were high.
and the wind blew with gale strength
but the stanch little boat stayed right
on the Job and bucked her way through
Il X Il
WE made Nome very early the fol-
lowing morning, and I at once
went ashore with the captain and en-
gineer.
Although We were racing against the
Arctic night and frozen Boring Sea.
unforeseen delays cropped up, and 10
was not until the morning of our fourth
dav that we were actually ready to
pull out, taking with us 10 natives
Eskimos-whose homes were at East
Cape, and who were anxious to return
there before Winter. In addition to
these natives, who made a decided
| overload for the already heavily laden
| schooner, we took three of their fav-
orite dogs and towed their big whale
boat aStern
If their plight, stranded at Nome
without friends, had not been so des-
perate, We would not have considered
the matter, but there seemed no help
| for 1t. They begged and besought us
, piteously to return them to their homes
AS two of their number were women
/ and one little child, we could not
, find it in our hearts or conscience to
leave them to certain misery where
nc" 81 c course, on1 might we'll ask what
| they had planned to do about getting
| back to East Cape in the first place.
They certainly could not know that the
1skum would happen along SO con-