The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 18, 1898, Page 17

7 f I y PBE RU:D. o[] ton’s report. on the Sth to attempt a rescue, tion fraught with many unu: every officer jumped officers: Captain F. nt J. H. Brown, [+ Barrow, and that the cre; most of the ships. it to Point Barrow, this being th reach them in the spring, for it w Lieute ful finish. plans to a succe sentatives at) Wa ship’s company. reached Polnt Barrow. successfully QO0CO00CCOOCOCOOO0000000 O 000000000 000000000C00000000000000000009000000000000 Speclal to the Sunday Call from Seattle. At noon tc-day, the 13th of Septem- ber, the United States revenue steamer Bear arrived in Seattle harbor, hav- ing on board ninety-one shipwrecked whalers, the greater part of the crews of the Or Rosario and Freeman, which. ve have left their bones in the Arctic seas. The other part of the crews shipped on board ether vessels of the whaling fleet after the Bear reached Point Barrow in the spring. Thus is brought to a successful finish the expedition for the relief of the im- prisoned whalers, on which mission the Bear left Seattle on the 27th of last November, and which adds one more successful Arctic expedition to the credit of the revenue cuttér service. PP Story of:the Rescue. After rather a rough passage the Bear reached Unalaska on December 9, and, sending ashore the stores which would not be needed until the spring and gathering up all the dogs in the village, left on the 1ith and started on the real work of the trip. The weather holding good we made fair time, so that on the morning ‘of the 13th we passed St. Lawrence Island, having . seen little or no ice, and then we be- M gan to hope we could get as far north as Cape Prince of Wales. In the afternoon, however, we began to strike the mushy water, that is, water on the point of freezing, and con- slderable drift ice began to make its appearance, £o that at about & p. m. would pro This serious state of aff: and on the 10th the revenue cutter Bear was chosen for the trip. 1al hardships/and dangers, the department declded to call for volunteers. Of course the chance, and applications to go poured in, and the department findlly selected the following tle, who was at the time in command of the Bear: First Lieutenant D. H. Jarvis, First Lieu- P. Bertholf, C. 8, Cochrane, J. G. Berry, B. H. Camden and H. G. Ham- ond Lieutenant stant Engineer H. 'N. Wood, Second Assistant Engineers H. XK. Spencer turned fro ible haste a her errand of mercy. She was to make her w party, who were to_travel by means of. dog sle The officers designated for the overl TICLES TR it A5 BSEEN FROM™ Correspondent of R | | The Call. : s being made known at V H. Woodruff. on the 13th it was decided it would be impossible for us to get much further, and we turned and stood for Nunivak Island. At this time we were within about seventy-five miles of Sledge Island, and it seemed toe bad we could not get ashore there, as Nunivak rep- resented about 800 miles more of sled travel. However, there was no help for it and we headed south, reaching Cape Vancouver on the afternoon of the 16th. place, and upon going ashore Jarvis found a native trader who could furnish us with dogs and sleds and get us to St. Michael in about ten days. This was good news, and our supplies were landed at once, our good-bys were said, and soon Lieutenant Jarvis, Dr. Call and myself stood on the beach, at last, started on our long journey over the snow and ice. There was another man with us, F. Koltchoff, who was to be employed with the Government herd of reindeer at Unalakleet, and was to be taken along with us that far. ‘We had landed about four miles from the village of Tununak, but as the na- tives had come to meet us In their kay- aks they took our provisions and out- fits ana transported everything to the village, while we, with the trader, Alexis Caleny, footed it, arriving at hig house at about 3:30 p. m. After a further consultation with Alexis Lieutenant Jarvis declded not to start until the 18th, as one of the teams we wera to use had but just returned from an elght days’ trip and needed rest. So we utilized the rest of that day and the next completing our preparations and packing the dop sleds. Early on Sat- urday morning, the 18th, everybody wasg astir and the dogs soon harnmessed, and at half-past 7 we started with four POINT BObt, i THE RESCUERS -« - - PREPARING TO L PRE] © LEAVE pT HoPE . o |7 WATH THE SLEDS SRSl LTI il summer trip to the Arctic, and repairs were needed, but they were d all preparations made, so that on November 27 she left Seattle bound on north as far as the ice would permit and then land the overland s to Cape Prince of Wales, get the deer herd at that place and drive only means of getting.food to the imprisoned 'whalers before the ships could an impossibility to sled provisions enough for 200 or 300 men a thousand miles. nd trip were Lieutenants Jarvis and Bertholf and Dr. Call nt Jarvis, who commanded the party, had ‘seen eight seasons in thé Arctic Ocean, and was thor- oughly familiar with' the coast and country, and knew the natives well, and was eminently fitted to carry the § As.soon as it was officially decided to send the Bear The Call,” through ‘its- repre- hington, offered to bear the expenses incident to the expedition, and the department finally de- cided to allow The Call to furnish the fur clothing needed by the officers and men and the extra provisions and tobacco for the crew, the department, of course, providing the usual ship's ration. the Bear took.on board 12,000 extra rations with which to feed the shipwrecked men when she Below will be found an account of the hardships experienced by the rescuers before they reached the starving whalers There is a native village at this - T L y Bt = teams and Alexis for a guide. After toiling ‘our way over what séemed an impassable mountain the first day and a road nearly as tough tle mnext, tak- ing a direction about northeast, we reached a village called by the natives Kiyiligamute on the evening' of the 20t Here Alexis said some of his dogs were too young and too weak to stand the travel any further, and as all the dogs in the village w.re away at the time Jarvis decided to go on ahead with two teams and Dr. Call and leave Koltchoff, Alexis and myself behind to wait for the fresh dogs: By this arrangement he would 'lose no time and would have all necessary ar- rangements made af St. Michael by the time we arrived at that place. The de- 000000000 0000000'0000030002 published a statement by Captain Tilton of the steam whaler Alexander, ffect that eight vessels of the whaling fleet were icebound at or near Point rve. before the spring owing to the scanty store of provisions on On November 5 the Jeannette, Karluk, Gayhead and Alice Knowles arrived and confirmed’ Til- Washington, it was decided, at a Cabinet meeting held It being an expedi- Besides the rations for the ©COocOo0CCOOCO000O000TO0000C000000 i G THE BEAR..... | -----CAUGUT IN..... =3 s A tails of our sled trip having been de- scribed in my previous letters to The Call I will not repeat them lLere. Our route lay in a general northeast direc- tion for the next two days, and then about north, which brought us to the Yukon. Then we traveled down the river to the sea and proceeded along the ,coast to St. Michael. Jarvis reached Andreafsky on the Yukon on How the Natives Who Succumbed to the Hardships Were Buried by Their Friends. the 24th and after making glad the hearts of the miners with the letters he had brought from home, traveled down the river and reached St. Michael on the 30th. Meanwhile the fresh dogs we were waiting for arrived on the even- ing of the 21st, so that Koltchoff, Alexis and myself were able to follow on the 22d, and reached St. Michael on the 1st of January about noon, and found that Jarvis had left there .nly two hours before. I spon learned from his letter of instructions that he had gone along the coast up around Norton Sound and along the Cape Prince of ‘Wales peninsula, so as to get the deer herd started norta as soon as possible, and that I was to follow as soon as I could procure the necessary dogs, and to go to the head of Norton Sound and pack provisions across what is known as the divide, so as to meet the deer herd when it arrived at Kotze- bue Sound ,and thus replenizh the iar- der of the Ccer herders. As Jarvis in- tended to travel by deer sled as soon as he reached the herd, I waijted at St. Michael' for-a few days until: his teams could get, back, as:.dogs - were - very scarce, tlie rush‘to the Klondike hav- ing prett~ well cleaned:the country of them. After waiting a few days, and seeing no signs of the dogs, I decided to g0 to Unalakleet, where I was to get the bulk of my provisions and wait there for the dog teams. Alexis V- ing been engaged to go only as fa¥ as St. Michael, I bought one of his teams- and left him there. Koltchoff, being of no further use to the expedition, was also left there, and on the 6th of Jan- uarv I left St. Michael with one dog team and a native guide. After we hr7 gone about ten miles of the way across the stretch of ice to the main- land the queerest looking outfit I had ‘ever seen loomed up ahead. There v.as ice all around us as far as the eye could reach, yet here was a vessel apparently bear- ing down upon us rapidly, for we could make out a lug sail, a mast and the American ensign flving from the mast- head. My native guide could make nothing out of it, but upon closer in- spect’'on we made it out to be a sled coming across the ice under sail and going so fast with a fair wind as to nearly run over the dogs. As soon as we came abreast and the usual saluta- tions had been exchanged I found the owner of this curfous outfit to be Mr. George F. Tilton, the third mate of the whaler Belvidere, who had left Point Barrow on the 17th of October and as on his way to Sau Francisco to let the owners of the imprisoned vessels know their condition and to ask for whatever help could be sent. As I learned after a few minutes’ conversation that Til- ton had met Jarvis and Call and had given them all the information he had, we soon parted. and I continued on my way to Unalakleet, arriving there on January 8. Here 1 was forced to walt again, for the dogs had not yet returned. By this time the weather had got very cold, and the thermometer was on the aver- age about 35-degrees below zero, and vet, as we were well provided with skin clothing, we did not suffer great- ly. After waiting at Unalakleet until the 15th, and no dogs having arrived, I concluded to go on to Koyuk, at the Continued on Page Twenty-six.