In the Later Days 409 



others had been crushed, or stranded, or burned 

 by the natives. This ship had served, during 

 the winter, as a home for one sailor, who had 

 braved the danger in the hope of making a for- 

 tune by saving bone from the abandoned ships. 

 He secured a plenty of the bone, but the Eskimos 

 would not let him keep it; in fact, they would 

 have killed him but for the pity of their women, 

 who hid him when the murderous mood was upon 

 them. When spring came, he was glad to escape 

 to the fleet empty-handed. The Minerva was 

 manned and taken south. She was eventually 

 sold and used as a freighter to carry oil from the 

 Sandwich Islands to New Bedford. 



In 1876 twelve ships were caught by the ice. 

 "Several men perished in journeying from one 

 beleaguered vessel to another, apparently more 

 safe, and many died on the toilsome, perilous 

 march to the rescuing ships. . . . Fifty-three 

 remained " with the ships, rather than risk the 

 journey alongshore in search of ships that were 

 clear of the ice, and three hundred escaped. The 

 men who remained "were unequal to the exertion 

 necessary to save their lives," says Goode's Whale 

 Fishery. 



