A Token for Mariners, Part 4
The Merciful Preſervation and Deliverance of Captain Bloſe and his ſhips Company, who were Caſt away in an Iſland of Ice near Ruſſia, this preſent year 1697.
October the 7th. 1696. We came from Archangel in Ruſſia in the Riga Merchant, Burthen 300 Tuns, 18 Guns, Samuel Bloſe Commander. The 8th we had the Wind at North Weſt by Weſt, we plied to Windward, and it blew very hard; the 10th we took two Reefs in our Topſails; the 12th we took in our Topſails, and Reefed Coſts; the 13th about One in the Morning we Sprung a Leak, in ſo much that we were forced to ſet both our Pumps to Work, and bear away before the Wind; yet ſtill the Water increaſed; and the 14th we cut our Main-Sail from the Yard, and let him fly over-board, the Weather being ſo exceſſive thick by reaſon of the extraordinary much Snow that then fell, that we could not ſee the Land, nor any place where we could run our Ship Aſhore to ſave our Lives; The 15th in the Morning, about One of the Clock, by Fortune, unexpected of us, before we ſee any Land, we ſtruck upon an Iſland, called by the Ruſſes, Muſſoves, lying in the Miſſen Gulf, which by the Miraculous hand of God … gotten well aſhore, for as God of his wonderful goodneſs ſo order'd it, we ſtruck about High Water, and as the Water fell away, our Ship dryed, ſo that we got all ſafe to Land without any harm; and if it had pleaſed God we happen'd ever ſo little, either to one ſide or the other, we ſhould have all periſh'd amongſt the Iſlands of Ice. When we got all aſhore, we made us a Tent, and when it was Day, looking about us, ſaw ſomething like Houſes; ſo our Captain and a Dutch Merchant Paſſenger that we had on Board of our Ship, and our Doctor, went to ſee what they were, thinking to find ſome Inhabitants, but they could …ind none: then we went Aboard our Ship, and got all our Beef aſhore that we could find, about One hundred Weight of Bisket Bread, which was all the Bread we could find; then we Calculated that our Beef at Four Pieces a day, would ſerve us till the middle of May, and every Man one Bisket a Day; but that would laſt but a ſmall time: Beſides, we got a ſhore Three Boxes of Candles, which was a great comfort to us in our neceſſity, by reaſon we had not above Three hours Day. Then we got all our things we had ſaved to the Houſe that we ſaw; and going about diſcover'd a great many more Houſes, and we went to them to ſee what we could find, expecting to ſee ſome People, but there was none but empty Cask, ſo we came home to the place that we had carried our things to again; but, as God would have it, juſt againſt the Houſe that we had taken for our Habitation, in the Snow, we ſaw Two Cask, and we went and found them both full of Rye Meal, which was a Joy beyond meaſure to us in our Extremity; and then we found another Cask with a Kneeding-Tub in it: December the Firſt, the Dutch Merchant, and Four more of our hands went out and took a Compaſs, and Proviſion with them, upon Diſcovery, hoping to ſee ſome body to ſpeak to, that we might know where we were, but they could find no Inhabitants, the Courſe they ſteered was S. E. but when they came to turn back, their Compaſs unhung, and they not minding it, went up and down a long time, and at length came to the ſame place where they were when they firſt turned back; then they looked more earneſtly upon their Compaſs, and found it unhung, they hung it, and came the direct way home again; but when they came in ſight of a Houſe that was about Two Miles off of our Houſe, the Merchant and one more Travelling better than the other Three, went before, and promis'd them to make a Fire againſt they came; but the Weather being ſo ſevere, they were not able to come along, but were Starved with the Cold before they could get up to us: So the Lord, of his great Mercy, made Proviſion for us until the Firſt of March, it being a Sabbath day, and we at our Devotion, one of our Boys being at another Ho…ſe Boiling of our Victuals, ſaw ſome Men upon the Iſland, he fell down, being much ſurpriz'd, but ſoon got up again, and run and told us; upon which we left our Prayers, and run to ſee what they were; our Merchant could ſpeak the Language, which was the preſervation of all our Lives, for otherways they would have Murther'd us for breaking down their Houſes, and Eating their Proviſions that we found upon the Iſland, for they would not be perſwaded but we were Pirats and Robbers, by reaſon that we werre Building of a Small Veſſel for our own Security, of carrying us to the Main when the Ice broke up; but our Merchant ſpeaking their Language, perſwaded them, and promiſed them to make them Satisfaction for what Dammage we had done them; for we broke down Two of their Houſes for Firing: So they …rned us out of our Houſes, and took our Meal from us. The Men that came over were in Number 500, Ten Men in a Boat, they came there to kill Seales: They asked us what we had ſeen? We told them, Nothing but Two Ravens. They made very ſtrange of it, and would not believe it: For they told us, That none of them could live there but Six Weeks in the Year, whether they catcht Fiſh or not, the Iſland was ſo Haunted. Soon after the Ruſſians came there, that Man that ſaved his Life, and got well home with the Merchant, when the other Three were Starved with the Cold Died, that was Four that was Dead, our Complyment at firſt was 27, but then we had but 23 Living: Then our Merchant went to the Ruſſians, and deſired them to put us …ver, and he would ſatisfie them for it: They granted we ſhould have Six Boats, and 60 Men to Drag us over the Ice, for it was Seven Leagues from the Main, and all full of Iſlands of Ice between, inſomuch that they were 24 hours coming over when they came upon the ſaid Iſland: But it pleaſed the Lord ſo to order it that after they had dragg'd us over Two ſmall Iſlands of Ice, that as God parted the Red-Sea for the Children of Iſrael to paſs through, ſo he parted the Ice from us, inſomuch that we got over in Six houres times, which the Ruſsians told us was never ſo before. But when we came over we lay where there was 1000 Men a Fiſhing, The firſt Night: and the next Morning we hired Sledges to drag us to ſome place Inhabited: The Beaſts that dragg'd the Sledges along they call Roeys, they are like Dear, but larger: We were forc'd to be Dragg'd, we could not Travel our Limbs were ſo diſabled with the Cold before we got off the aforeſaid Iſland: beſides the Snow was of ſuch a vaſt thickneſs, and ſo hard Frozen, that we could find no Path, if we could Travel never ſo well, If the Shamakes, as they call them, had not ſhown us the way; the firſt Night of our Journey upon the Sledges our Carpenters Mate died, ſo we made a Hole in the Snow and put him in, and left him. Then our Captain, and the Merchant, and the Doctor, being but ſingle in a Sledge, and we near double, went faſter than us to the next Town to provide Victuals and freſh Sledges for us againſt we came; and when we came to that Town we got Sledges that had Horſes to draw them along, ſo we Rid Night and Day till we came to Archangel; the Third day of our Travels another of our Men Died, and the Fifth day another; the former we Buryed in the Ground, becauſe we were nigh a Town, but the other we Buryed in the Snow: So that when we came to Archangel, out of our 27 Men, we had but 20 left. March the 17th we came off the aforeſaid Iſland, and we Travell'd Night and Day, except the firſt Night, until the 25th of the ſame Month. Two days after we came to Archangel we loſt another Man. At Archangel our Captain got Stoves for us to inhabit in, and ſent us Proviſion, where we remain'd till the 6th day of June, when there came in Six Sail of Hollanders, being the Firſt that came that year, who divided us amongſt them, and brought us to Greenland, and from thence ſome of us were brought to Holland, and ſome to Hamborough, from whence Sixteen of us got Paſſage to England, where we Arriv'd the Fifteenth of November, 1697. Two went to the Straits, and our Dutch Merchant tarried in Holland.
This Account is given by Francis Lee, who was Boatſwain of the Ship, and Atteſted by others now Living in London.