Show the Spitz spitsbergen bergen drama SEVENTEEN WHALERS PERISH IN ME THE ICE writing from stockholm july 17 the correspondent of the london standard says the sad news of the tile death of or the seventeen norwegian whalers chalers wh alers frozen in at the spitzbergen Spitz bergen islands has now been confirmed beyond a doubt captain mack who penetrated into the in the end of ofa june une has now sent home homo the journal found in one ono of the houses there the eloquent of which initiates us into the world of suffering and despair the unfortunate men had bad to go through before death put an end to their miseries what j is most horrible of all is the im which the perusal of this mournful message forces upon us that a little energy and knowledge of how to take care of themselves would have been sufficient to keep alive all these poor victims of an are arctic tie tic winters inclemency As the entries in the journal make us believe no serious and continuous activity was kept up though the men must not have been 1 ignorant that hard work is the best preservative against the dreaded foe of northern life the but it is owing 0 to professor exertions to keep his men constantly at work even when there was no necessity for it that we have only to record one dea death th from among the sixty seven members of his expedition but at iff Is jord fjord unhappily there was ho llo experienced leader to warn again against st luiet inactivity which under those latitudes means death those poor sailors and fishers perished victims of their ignorance and probably of their carelessness capt mack reports that it appeared they had not known how to make proper use of the comfortable house in which they e w were ere ero quartered instead of div dividing aiding among themselves the rooms of their spacious dwelling they all crowded together into one which moreover bore traces of utter neglect and and the large stores of preserved potatoes and other vegetables were left nearly untouched pd the men probably not knowing how to manage this kind of food the story of their struggle is soon told qu the of of september last year six norwegian ships with their crewson crews of together fifty seven men were frozen in on the northeastern coast of the Spitz bergs at gray hook and welcome point eighteen and twenty four english miles respectively from the winter quarters of the swedish polar expedition at mosel bay their provisions being calculated to last only up to the of december the they y applied to the prof for assistance and were allowed by him to dispose of the house and stores accumulated at Is fjord consequently seventeen men with two small open boats left gray hook on the ath of october crossing the ice westward until they found open water and finally reached iff jord in their boats on the of october the remaining forty one men prepared themselves to pass the tho winter eith either elther P r in their townships own ships at gm gray Y hook or with the swedish expedition at aft mosel mosci bay when happily in the first days of november a i neavy heavy storm broke the ice and made their escape possible thirty nine men were thus able to reach the norwegian port of soc only two the old captain mat wai was and his cook book would not aban don their ship which was not insured and have now been found dead in a boat probably on their way to mosel bay the ship was totally crushed by the ice lee the entries of the journal found at isra ord be bein begin in with the ath october 1872 and are regularly continued every day until the ad march this year no kind hind of occupation jf nor any understanding on the part of the men is is reported i except a few hunting parties by IT whom two OVO bears two foxes and a few reindeers rein deers were brought home darkness however soon prevented prevent edall edail all ail further hunting expeditions eions and on the ath november t lie tile journal reports hunting totally ta I 1 ay abandoned by cause of th the darkness a rk observations were regu regularly arl made and annotated five times a da day das glo gle tio the temperature which was very hard in october the quicksilver running down to nineteen degrees below celsius on the was milder again in november noveme cr leing being being two degrees above on the ath and va lied between 0 degines above to twenty two seconds below until the ath of january when it began to go down a again ain aln the lowest degree 32 degrees below is observed on the of february at 4 am no mention is made of sickness or disease before the ath december when it is said one of the crew sick since eight days but from this day the same complaint repeats itself with sad monotony no improvement in the state of the sick on the it is said two men constantly in bed nearly all suffer budne er of the disease though though no indication is given what kind of illness is meant there is no doubt that it was but the first death is recorded on the january in the following words tonnes who was aken taken ill the ath of this month was called to the lord this coining at after a painful illness this afternoon died also hendrik hendriksen who was taken ill on the december the ad of february only three men were in good health and the journal repeats every day no improvement in pro 11 the of february wo read today to day ve we have feen seen the sun forthe for the first time in in the year 1873 11 A new death is is recorded the following day today the lord again called to heaven v en one of our comrades niles larson lanson after an illness of eighty two days two days later the entries are made by another hand who writes on the 11 1 I have now on only ly one man in good health to look after the whole wh 0 le house bouse 0 lord hel hei help heip ns us in our great distress and on 1 the he ath no he continues this evening another of our men died the lord called him home from this place so rich in suffering from this day the journal contains nothing but annotations of deaths until the of april when the last regular entry is made thus thu 8 martin hansen died the april at 6 aam oam am then tjien begins another hand who writes peder andreas nilsen of Bats fiord fjord a red bonnet har T Mitter huk huU what these words which have apparently been written under the influence of delirium are meant to express swill will never be known and the horrible fate of the poor su frerer sufferer who traced them can only be gue guessed 4 did ho he struggle hours days or weeks amon among the sixteen corpses of his comrades commee or did the deliverer come as lie he dropped his pen nobody knows or will ever know |