THE WHALERS SAVED. They Escape After Being in the Ice Ten Days.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 330, 2 January 1889, Page 5

THE WHALERS SAVED. They Escape After Being in the Ice Ten Days.

On November 6th ti iloeb of whaling vessels went iubo San Francisco from the Arctic. The first) one to appear outside tho heads was the steam whaler Tlnasher » Captain Weeks, which was signalled at about t\ro o'clock many miles out. It waa from her, ab about threoo'clock, that it was learned that all of the thirteen ice-bound whalers which were caught on September 23rd were saved Captain Weeks received the news from ♦he whaling 1 steamer Lucretia, for though the Thrasher and tho Josso H. Freeman wore the relief steamers sent north neither t of them got near the endangered vessels on account of the ice. The Thrasher and Jessie JI. Freeman returned south in the latter par*" of September, and among 1 the whaler^ the thirteen imperilled \ossels wcio considered as good / as lost . On the 2nd of October, nine dixya after the. ice closed m on the barques, the longdelayed gale thai, was to prove their salvation sprang; up from the north- west. The nine days were, howovor. unmarked by any incident, the ice closing; m gradunlly about them and new ieo forming in the open ■water in which they had refuge. The 500 men, in fact, wero reconciled to a winter season in the Arctic until the gale came. The wind blew with increasing violence throughout; the night of the 2nd, and on tho morning of the 3rd the ice field showed ot breaking towards tbo south. The •wi alinu captains were all alert for a chance to fjet towjnds the open weather to tho .-.oath, and, taking advantage ofeNOiy opening, all but the TSiiza and Reindeer got out on the 3rd. JLafcer reports show that they escaped in tho days following, a 1 - they had landed their natives- south ot the BehringStrait", when the Thrasher left lor San JTrancibCo. further than this Captain Weeks knows nothing, but his report was sufficient to act every whaleman in the happiest humour. The barque Ocean, one ot the ihhteen vea&els, was three miles outside the heads at half-past four p.m. on November 7. The catch of the Arctic fleet is placed at 154 whales, distributed as follows : Orca 16, Balnena 12, Beluga 10, Hunter 8, Andrew Hicks 8, Eliza 7, Narwhal 7, Belvedere 7, Mars 7, Ocean 7, Sea Breeze 7, William Bayli&s 7, Kosaiio 6, Lancer 6, «I. P. West 5, Thrasher, 5, JbJidalpo, 3, Jesse H. Freeman 3, Grampus 3, 0hi0 11. 3, Reindeer 3, Lucretia 2, Abram Barker 2, Bounding Billow 2, Ohio 1, Lagoda 1, J. A. Hamilton 1, Wanderer clean, Triton clean I