Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 230, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1917 — VESSEL IN CONSTANT PERIL [ARTICLE]

VESSEL IN CONSTANT PERIL

Any Moment May Be the Lass of Ship That Braves the Terrors of the Arctic Seas. —= “Any vessel navigating in arctic waters may at any time -be crushed so suddenly that nothing below can be saved. At Etah,” Robert E. Peary writes in the Century, “I have always made preparations for such an emergency, and had all the pemmican, tea, coffee, biscuits, sugar, oil, ammunition —in fact, all the essentials necessary to sustain life and health- — placed on deck close to the rail, where it could easily be thrown off to the ice. In addition to this, the whaleboats, fully equipped for a week or ten days’ voyage, were ready at a moment’s notice to be lowered. Each boat, besides the required complement of oars, oarlocks, boathooks, a liquid compass and a bailer, contained pemmicam conveniently packed in sixpound tins; biscuits, 50 pounds; coffee, 10 pounds; compressed tea, 5 pounds; sugar, 10 pounds; condensed milk, 10 cans; oil, 5 gallons; a small oilstove, 1 rifle and 100 cartridges; 1 shotgun and 50 shells; 1 box of matches in a tightly corked—bottle; —l—hatchet, knives; a .can opener; needles and thread, and medical supplies consisting of quinine, astringent, bandages, cotton, gauze, boraclc acid, dusting powder, catgut and liniment. And every member of the party, including the Eskimos, had a small bundle of extra clothing packed and stood ready to leave the ship immediately after throwing off the supplies and lowering the boats."