In the Later Days 395 



company of forty-nine men had barely time to 

 jump for the ice before she was utterly destroyed. 

 They went to tTTe Belvedere. A few hours later 

 the captain and fifty-five of the crew of the Orca 

 came to the same ship and said that they had been 

 forced to come by the destruction of their ship. 



Various plans for reaching the open water were 

 tried. Dynamite was used to open a way, but it 

 failed to accomplish the desired result. When 

 all means had failed, an accounting of the food 

 on hand showed that since the supplies on the 

 Freeman and the Orca had been lost, there cer- 

 tainly was no hope that all hands could survive 

 until the next summer. 



In this condition of affairs, Tilton offered to 

 attempt to reach a shore whaling station on the 

 southerly coast of Alaska whence supplies might 

 be forwarded. The captains without exception 

 flouted the suggestion, but Tilton said: 



" It is our only hope. We cannot survive with- 

 out assistance until summer. I have a fighting 

 chance if I go, and scarcely that if I remain. 

 If any one can make the trip, I can." 



The latter assertion was a conceded point, 



