Juniata Sentinel

Failure of Capt. Hall's Arctic Expedition.

The Arctic Expedition which started in the steamer Polaris for the arctic country in June, 1871, has come to a failure. Its commander, Capt. Hall, died of paralysis on the 5th of October, 1871. Nineteen of the crew, while on an iceberg drifted away from the vessel on the 30th of last April, and after floating about 196 days they were discovered by the steamer Tigress, and taken off and landed at St. Johns, N. F. These men ate the meat, raw, of the seal and polar bear, as they could get it. The Polaris has not been heard of since the men were separated from her. She had a crew of thirteen left, under the command of Capt. Buddington.

Since the above was put in type the following statement of Captain Tyson who commanded the party that was adrift on the ice has been made public: On the 24th of August, 1871, we left Tessinack and went through Smith's Sound. We succeeded in getting as far north as latitude 82 16', when we returned and wintered at Polaris Bay, latitude 81 38', longitude 61 44'. We were frozen up until the 5th of September. On the 10th of October Captain Hall started on a sledge journey north, and returned on the 24th, when he was taken sick, and died on the 5th of November. He was buried on the 11th. The attack that carried him off was said to be apoplexy. We passed the winter at Polaris Bay. On the 5th of June, 1872, we attempted to reach the north with two boats. We hauled our other boat on shore and returned overland on the 5th of July. We started for home on the 12th of August, and the 15th were beset with ice in latitude 80 02'. We drifted from there down to latitude 77 35', when we encountered a heavy southwest gale, the ship being under heavy pressure. On the night of the 15th we commenced landing provisions, &c., on the ice, the vessel being reported leaking very badly at times. We continued landing provisions for two or three hours, when the pressure ceased. I went on board the vessel and asked the sailing master if the vessel was making any more water than usual. He reported that she was not. I then went to the pumps and ascertained that she was not making any more than she had been doing all summer. I went on the ice again and shortly after, it began to crack, and in a few minutes afterwards broke in many pieces. The vessel broke from her fastenings and was soon lost to sight in the darkness and storm.

On the broken ice were most of our provisions to sustain the party through the winter and, seeing nothing of the vessel, we attempted to reach the shore, in hopes of finding natives to assist us in living through the winter. Getting about half way to the shore with our heavily laden boats our progress became hard by the drifting ice, and I was compelled to haul on the ice again. At this time I succeeded in saving fourteen cans of pemmican, eleven and a half bags of bread, ten dozen one and two pound cans of meat and soup, fourteen hams, one small bag of chocolate, weighing twenty pounds; some musk ox skins, a few blankets, a number of rifles and abundant ammunition. In the morning, knowing that I had not provisions enough and other articles of food, clothing, compasses, &c., on the abatement of the gale, I endeavored to shoot as many seals as possible, both for food, light and fuel, but could only get three owing to bad weather having set in. I supposed the wind to be about southwest. On its clearing up I found myself within about eight miles of what I supposed to be the east coast, and about thirty or forty miles below the ship. The ice being weak I could not transport boats and provisions to land until it grew stronger. While here I discovered my other boat, bread, &c., and saved all. The ice growing firmer, I made another attempt to reach the shore, carrying everything in the boats, and dragging them on their keels. The ice being exceedingly rough we stove both boats. We succeeded on the 1st of November in getting about half-way to shore. Night came on us and stormy weather. In the morning the ice was broken, and we were drifting southward very fast. We saw no more land for many days, bad weather continuing all through the month of November. We built snow houses, and made ourselves as comfortable as we could. We were ten white men, two Esquimaux men, two women and five children in all. We succeeded in killing a few seals, which furnished us with light and fuel with which to warm our scanty allowance of food through the darkness of the Arctic winter.

In the latter part of February we lived principally upon birds, and in March commenced to catch seals. Through that month we supported ourselves on the flesh of bears and seals, wasting neither skin nor entrails. We collected enough food to last us until the middle of May, had we not been driven to sea by a strong westerly gale in the latter part of March, our floe piece being often reduced from five miles in circumference to about twenty yards in diameter. We left the piece on April 1, and abandoned nearly all our meat, a large amount of ammunition, clothing, skins and other articles, taking a portion of the meat in the boat, which we were obliged to throw overboard on account of the boats being so deeply laden. I regained the outer edge of the pack of ice on the 3d of April, and succeeded in getting a little further in on the pack. On the 4th heavy northeast gale set in, a heavy sea running under the ice, which broke it in small pieces, so that we had to live on small pans, as we could not put the boat out, neither could we find seals for food, and we were reduced almost to starvation.

On the twenty-first of April we sighted a polar bear. Every person was ordered to lie down and imitate the seal, while the two Esquimaux secreted themselves behind a piece of ice, enticed the bear near enough to us to kill him. A few days after this we got our boat in the water and worked our way west and southwest, and continued to work every opportunity to the westward, in hopes of reaching the Labrador coast and getting temporary relief. We were picked up by the steamship Tigress, Captain Bartlett, on the 30th of April, in latitude 53 35' north, longitude 55 west, or near Wolf Island, and about forty miles from land. The Polaris is now without boats, having lost two in trying to get north in the spring of 1872. The Tigress fell in with the party in a dense fog, and providentially struck the very floe on which they must have perished. They all seemed tolerably well.

The following is from one of Captain Tyson's men: "When the party separated from the ship it was quite dark, and darkness continued for over two months, with but a couple of hours of light daily. We managed well so long as we had a snow-house to shelter us, but we had to take to the boat and get on another ice-field, which was too small for a house, and we were only kept warm by swallowing seal fat and blood, and burning fat in pans, the last of which also served as a signal light at night. We have suffered most since April 1st. On the night of the 22nd of April, the sea washed over the ice with great force. The women and children were under the boat, while the men were outside trying to keep the boat from being washed away. Some of the men were washed off several times, and after being rescued their feet and hands swelled and sickness set in, but they recovered and are now almost entirely well."