A QUEER EXCHANGE OF SHIPS IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN.

Bush Advocate, Issue 351, 9 August 1890, Page 8

A QUEER EXCHANGE OF SHIPS IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN.

(NEW YORK STTJJ.) We were whaling in the Arctic Ocean, to the north of Point Barrow, Alaska, in the old Scotch barque Emma Davis. That was my fifth whaling voyage, and no ship could have hud worse luck. When wo had been out fourteen months, we had to buy ». barrel of oil to keep our lamps going. We had sighted a whale now and then, but they were as wild as deer, and twice when we had made fast we had our boats stovo, aud lost two or three men. We had lost topmasts, been aleak, had several sails destroyed, been on fh'B, and it seemed as if the very devil was to pay with the voyage, and yet no one could blame anyone else. It waa simply " ehip'a luck," and we had to make the best of it. Finally, late in the season, when we ought to have been heading for the south, we got among the whales. That is, they suddenly appeared all around us, and on the very first day we killsu four without accident. We cut thera in without trying out, as this was tho quicker way to dispose of them, and the lasfc of the blubber was nosooner over the rail than down went the boats and two more whales were necured. Tliu winter gules were at iiand aud ice was making fait, but it was our golden opportunity. We drifted slov/iy to tho south, killing nud cuti.iug in as wo went, and if we could have had two woeka more of it we could have tilled the ship. One afternoon, as we had a half-cut whale on each side of us, a gale sprang up, a heavy snowstorm came on, and in loss than an hour wo had to let go our prizes and look sharply after the barque. It was the beginning of the Arctic winter, and while the captain w«ssufcwn'edof it ho decided to tako one more ohnuee. There might come a few days of iine weather after the gale, und so we drifted away to the north to wear out the gale. For thirty hours there was no lefc up, and ev9ry half-hour we had to turn out and shovel snow over the rails. Just as the gale broke we got among the Held ioc, and tho temperature went down in four hours from 'Jdeg. below ?;oro to lSdeg. below. From a gale blowing at the rate of forty miles an hour the wind died out until it hadn't motion enough to flare a candle. On that fast night, when we were surrounded by field icb and drifting with it, many of tiiejncu were badly frostbitten, and tho frost cracked through tho old ship liie muakcts. Morning came without a breath of wind, •with the temperature down to 20deg. below, and now every man knew it waa one chance m ten for us. We wore drifting very- slowly to the Houth, and whilo we made everything as snug a« possible tho Cat..taiu hoped for a broak before winter actually .shut down. Before uoon the sea, as far us could be discovered from tho crow's n#st with a glass, wa3 covered with field ice, and by night the temperature was 32deg. below. We kept up our fires and got out all the spare clothing and bedding, but many of tho men suffered with the cold, and no one slept more than ten minutes a time on account of the noises. When morning came again it brought in wind, whilo the cold was just as intense, aud we could now discover a great change in the ice around us. It was rugged and broken, the heave of the boh having piled cakes on. toj> of each other, and the field was four or five feet thick. Tho old man himself went to the crow's nest and took a long look, and when he came down ho said to the men, who were waiting to hear his words : "Well, boys, it looks very serious to mo, and I oxpect you had better prepare to winter this side of Dundee." That settled it with as. We turned to and began to caulk and batten to keep out the cold, and in a couple of duyj wo were as ready as we could be. For four days aud nights there wasn't a puff of wiud, with tha cold so intense that ico formed to tho thickness of 7ft. alongside tho barque. At daylight ou the morabg of the fifth a squall came out. of the south-west, accompanied by snow, and before noon tho ice field was broken up. At noon the wind died almost out, but within an hour it shipped to the north, and away went everything to the south. A wilder sight than a sea covered -vith great cakes and blocks of ice, each one tossing, grinding, and crashing on its own account, no one ever saw. Wo dared show only a rag of sail — just enough to give her steerage way — and the smashing she got that afternoon seemed enough to break every timber in her bows. At night tho wind fell again, and at* 7 o'clock iho thi'iTnometer marked 42deg. below. An y~or,n as the ho.'ive of the eea subsided tbo iuu whs lirmly weided together again, and whftti morning came there wore hills and hummocks iv right as big as the ship. The men tv.-rrt now told by the mate that our position was about ninety miles north of Smith-; Bay, .'mil that our floe wax n<« longer driftitijr. This signified that tho southern edgo <>f it rested airsiinst; tbo shore ico, and that wo were in for it, unless soimo uulooked for atrcuk of Iwk camo to our uld. Next duy there -woo heavy wind squalls, but the ico did no!, break uor did the ship move. That .settled it. I?av tho next week we had culms and squalls, with the temperature ranging from 27dejr. to oiideg. below, but the pack was as nolid as a rooky ledge. We wore housed in by tliiu time, and had established tho winter routine, and the Arctic night had come. For the next month, not to weary the reader -with, details, our life was that so often described in the books. Then a sudden and terrible interruption came. The barque bogau to heave out. The first movement ooeurrod at about 10 o'clock iv tho forenoon, and filled everybody with diro alarm. After five minutes sho heaved again, lifting right out of tho solid field, with groat cakes cliugiug to her, as if machinery was at work. As she lifted she canted to starboard, and at noon her decks •were at an angle of ±5 degTees. It lias always scorned to me that powdev ought to have been used to blow tip tho ice around her and lot her back. Indeed, had not our captain got bo ! badly rattled wo could have cut aud sawed aud dragged away half an acre of ico in half a day. The carpenter, who had a little piau of his own, reported that the heave bud shattered several planks in her hottom, and that she would fill if she was cradled back. She took one more heave, canting over until almost on her beam ends, and thon we got the order to abandon

her. We got out clothing, bedding, provisions, a oompas3, and four boats, ami at* midnight headed away in four gangs foe Smith's Bay, each gang having" a boat:, which was dragged aiid lifted over tho ico. The order to abandon ship has tho same effect, ou tho sailor that the order to retreat dcen on tho soldier. It creates a panioky feeiicjr. and he loses his judgment. Wo had not gone five miles before some ot tho men begait to enreo the oaptaiu's stupidity in leavingthe neighbourhood of the barque, nud others expressed their doubts of tho carpenter's reports. However, all pressed forward, and, after making ten miles, we went iuto camp. Fortunately"for us, there was no wind, whiu* tho thermometer "was only about lodeg. below. After a rest of tax hours we pushed on again, aud now our marches itud rests svtvtj marked by hours. It was terrible hard work crossing- those ice iields, and five hours oi pulling, hauling, climbing, and sliding were enough to wear" out the best man in tho craw. We had mod© forty miles or more, ami wero strung out on the pack for a milo cr mor;, when a man named Tinkersou and inyseii:, ■who were ahead to pick the route, turned v large hummock or hill of ice to find ourselves bumping up againat a three-masted ship. There she Jay, broadside to us and not over 50ft. away, looming up in the darkness, like a mountain. We rubbed our eyes aud looked again, but it was not a deception. Wo sent the news back and waited until all had come up, and then Captain Tree went forward with his mates and hailed her. There was no response, and after hailing again, the first mate climbod in over the bowß. In three or four minute. 1 * he reported her abandoned, and we all went on board. We soon found her to be tho Bristol ship Endurance, a whaler, of courw, and two-thirds full of blubbor and oil. Shehad a fdight list to port, and, after looking her over, the officers Baid that she had hovo out, the same as our barque, but had settled back again. She had also been abandoned in a hurry, as there were many evidences, but an inspection ehowed plenty of provisions aboard, and proved her perfectly sound. We had our bedding and clothing, and when it was decided to trako possession of her the crew were pleased. In three hours after first sighting her we were as much at homo aboard as if we had formed tho original crew. She was a larger craft than ours, and also better found, and we profited by the change. We had been aboard of the Endurance about a month when the carpenter fell siok. In his case it was pure homesickness and nothing else. Ho was moody and taciturn, refused to make any effort to' throw off tho feeling, and at length took to his bed. There was really no medicine to touch his case. ' He was slowly dying beoause of his desire to get home to wife and bairns. All of us had a touch of his malady, but we shook it off by hunting, trapping, indulging in games, and keeping our thoughts with the ship. Lord ! man, but I have often wondered why half the crew did not go dead crazy. Ife was endless night. It was iee — iee — ice. It was like being shut up in a dungeon, with the addition that when, night came and all was still, the ship was full of groans and sighs from stem to Btern — noises caused by the ice heavitag and settling. I was appointed to nuree tho carpenter, and when he had been brought very low, and know that he must go, he told me a secret. Ho said he had made a false report to the captain about the damage to the barque'sbottom on purpose to induoe him to abandon her and start for land. He hoped in this wa j to get home the sooner. This confession was made to me with th» proflf&se on nry part not to .betray the maa while living, and he lived on for two weeks after making the statement. When ho had been buried in an ioy grave I told the captain, and he at ouoe fitted out an expedition to g* back and lookupthe barque. The first mate and live men composod this party, and after being gone a week, during which timo the weather woa full of tempest, snow, and sleet, they returned from the west and blundered right up agaiust us before they saw the ship. Their compass had been broken, and they had been lost for six day.i on that fearful waste of ice. One man died of exposure thai night, and two others wero used up for a month. Two weoks later the second mate headed a party, bat they only went about fifteen miles to tho north. They reported, travelling bo difficult that they had to return. Nothing further was done until the sun and daylight came again. Then the first mat* set out again, but after making about half the distance he found open water and sigaa of a break np, and returned. No further efforts were made. Day by day tho sun lasted a little longer, giving us mora of the blessed daylight, and af. Jla.it a gal» came to break up the great field aud show vi* streaks of open water. When we were finally clear of tho icy bed which had held tho ship, we headed for "Point Ban-on, sometimes gaining and sometimes losing ground. Ono day, I remember, we made twenty miles to the Bouth, but on the very next a change of wind paoked the ice and drifted us that far back t# the north; We were slowly working down, toward the Straits, however, when, one day, at noon, after a snow squall lasting about tw* hours, we got into a channel running; Bouth-west. We had scarcely entered it before wo caught sight of a barque coming down a channel from the north, aud not over a mile to tho west of us. Twenty voicesat ono* cried out that the stranger wan our old craft, the Emma Davis, and as we neared each other, running on the long lines of a triangle, everybody felt sure of it. We also noticed much excitement aboard the barque, but it was only when the two crafts got out their ioe anchors within a stone's t hrow of eae other that matters were fully explained. Who do you suppose these strange mea. were ? None others than tho crew of tho Endurance. They had our barque, and we had their ship. A swap had heon made g£ crafts. Their ship novo out about the same time oui-s did, and they had abandoned her for tha same reasons. Instead of trying to make tho land, they nought to find a brig which they had seen to the north of them. Thig brig was a myth, or some foreign vessel which got safely out and could not afterwards be. traced. In hunting for her they came across our barque. Three days only had passed, and yet she had canted back almost to an even keel. They had boarded her, taken full possession, and then workod. her out on tho broak-np. We changed crews and resumed tho voyage, and both crafts entered the port of Nuwuk together, whence, later on, both resumed the business of whaling. It was called even up all the way round, and neither was debtor or creditor.