A WRECKED WHALER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21912, 22 September 1934, Page 1 (Supplement)

A WRECKED WHALER

ON THE SIBERIAN COAST

BY LONEHANDEB

Anyone caring for tales of adventure would bo interested in reading the late Captain F. A. Barker's story of the wreck of the colonial whaling ship Japan —on the coast of Siberia in October, 1870—and the hardships endured by the survivors before relief came. In my young days I was shipmate with men who were part of the Japan's crew, and was told their version of the wreck and the hard times they had during the Arctic winter they lived through with tho Eskimos who sheltered and fed them. The old skipper's story has not yet been printed, and the writing is faint and therefore hard to read, but it is worth while, for every happening is minutely detailed.

On October 9, 1870, the whalesliip Japan, of Melbourne, was bound out of the Arctic Circle through Behring Strait for the Sandwich Islands and thence for her home port. But Fate had decreed otherwise. For some days previously the ship had been through heavy weather and the skipper was not quite suro of his position, yet he kept what was thought to be the right course, although ho bad not seen sun, moon or stars for the previous eleven days. Suddenly the land showed through the fog, and what was supposed to be Cape East appeared close to; but this was a mistake and it proved fatal. A stiff gale was on at the time and the only chance of anyone being saved was to run the ship hard and fast on the beach and chance being washed to safety. At this time the temperature was thirteen degrees below zero. Presently the order was given and the Japan struck end on to the following sea, which swept her fore and aft. The next big sea that came in swung the doomed ship broadside on to the beach and sent the masts and yards crashing over the side, and by means of these part of the crew managed to reach the shore. Misfortunes of Survivors Tho wreck took place a few miles from an Indian village and it was solely owing to the help the natives gave that so many survived. Captain Barker states that he was the iast mkn to reach the village, and he arrived there lashed on a sleigh by two natives who brought him in. While on the journey he inquired of the natives, as well as he could, what was in a mound of snow they passed, and he was told that one of his men had fallen by tho wayside and the snow had covered him. This man was a native of Tasmania, named Muir, and a while later the skipper read th<3 burial service where they buried him, in a grave about two feet deep. This was the best they could do with tho only tool the natives would give them to dig with, a kind of shovel made out of the shoulder-blade of a walrus.

Seven others of the crew perished; probably these were all drowned, as no one could give any account of them. It was said that two men never left the forecastle. The story tells of one of the survivors 'Who landed fully clothed and with little more than his feet wet. Perhaps this was not quite so. Anyway, the twenty-five men who escaped from the wreck and lived through one of the hardest winters the natives had experienced for years must have had a lot of luck, for some of them were badly frost-bitten and were still bad when summer came again. The record makes pitiful reading, but it is interesting, for little escaped the observant eye of the Japan's skipper. Offer of Hospitality

Ovaline was the native name of the settlement where the shipwrecked whalers spent the winter months, and about two hundred miles further south is Plover Bay, where at this time a small trading schooner was laid up for the winter. A man named Chapman was skipper and owner, and, as soon as he heard of the disaster to the Japan, he sent the following letter:

Schooner H. P. Bourne, Plover Bay, I>ecembor 27. 1870.

Dear Sir, _ I have heard from the Indians that a ship has been wrecked at Ovaline. As they tell the story, you have nothing to eat. Yourself and one of your crew are welcome to share with me. My accommodations are not very good, but such as they are you are welcome to. I have been trying for the past month to send you word. The men who will bring you this will do all in their power to bring you safe to the schooner. I think that you are living with as good a man as there is on the whole coast, and if you are any way comfortable you had better stay there, for my schooner is small. If you should not come, send me two of your men, if there are any who will attempt the journey. If you decide to come, be sure and provide yourself with deer-skin clothing to make the journey in. I would like you and Mr. Irving (the chief officer) to come to the schooner. From your well-wisher. E. Chapman. Captain Barker says that when he got this welcome chance to secure better quarters he had to think for a while, for it seemed like deserting his men,' but as he could do more for them by going ho decided to accept the kind offer. A Long Trek Captain Barker's host was not pleased with his guest for leaving him, and prophesied disaster for tho white man if lie attempted tho journey to Plover Bay in midwinter. However, the skipper was determined to go, and on January 7 ho made ci start.

Two natives, each with a sleigh and a t-eam of dogs, accompanied him. The journey took seven days to make, and the distance they travelled was two hundred and fifty miles, a record, so the skipper said, for a European to make in midwinter. The route is described as a barren, desolate waste. Not a tree or shrub was to bo seen, or ever has been, throughout thd entire distance between Ovaline and Plover Bay; nothing but snow and ice in every direction; a hard country to travel in.

Captain Barker mentions that while on tho way down they camo across a deer man and his family on trek to a fresh camping-place. The fit-out consisted of twenty sleighs, each one drawn by two male reindeer. The leading sleigh was in charge of a woman drivdr, who guided and controlled the team by means of a leather thong attached to the leader's horns. Every fifth following sleigh in the long train was in charge of a woman driver.

Each sleigh was loaded with skins, except the last. This was housed over with skins and carried tho deer man's favourite wife and infant child and a boy about three years old. The women drivers travelled on foot, and, as tho captain remarks, they would probably have wet feet by the time their journey was over.

The deer men of the north are considered well-to-do people, because they have herds of deer which can be used as more advanced people use cash to supply their needs. The coast natives have little or nothing but what they get by hunting; consequently, they never have anything to help them out when hard times come.

Captain Barker's stay with the goodhearted skipper, who had shared his store of food with the shipwrecked whalers, ended when the first ships of the American whaling fleet arrived in the spring of 1871, and after all bis men had been safely berthed on several of the first ' arrivals, Captain Barker made the best of his way back to what he called "good old New Zeala.nd."