Eight Whaling Ships Trapped in Arctic Ice at Point Barrow
Nearly two hundred souls aboard; San Francisco merchants seek presidential relief expedition
Word that eight American whaling vessels were icebound off Alaska with hundreds of crewmen aboard prompted San Francisco's business community to appeal directly to the President for a rescue mission.
NewsPipe summary
Mesa Free Press · November 19, 1897 · Page 2
1 min readThe fact that eight whaling vessels are nipped in the ice at Point Barrow, with nearly two hundred souls on board, is creating widespread feelings of apprehension along the coast, and particularly among merchants engaged in the whaling business and among sailors and their families. The anxiety has become so great that the trustees of the San Francisco chamber of commerce have determined to hold a meeting for the purpose of formulating a telegraphic dispatch to be sent to the President of the United States, urging him to dispatch a relief expedition to their rescue at the earliest possible moment.
Was this worth reading?
This is how the site learns what to look for. Ratings move the weights behind the front page; notes go into the editorial brief that guides what gets pulled from the archives next.
Elsewhere in the archive
Schooner Volcano Survives Mid-Ocean Storm Without a Compass
Mesa Free Press · November 19, 1897 · San Francisco, California
A small trading schooner bound for Alaska lost its compass in a Pacific storm, and its captain steered home by the stars in a feat seafaring men called marvelous — a forgotten piece of maritime heroism.
Improvements Planned for Wilson's Peak Park
Mesa Free Press · November 19, 1897 · Wilson's Peak, California
Plans to terrace the mountainside, lay new trails, and add tourist facilities at a Southern California mountain resort, as reported in a routine local improvement notice.
Berkeley Student From Redlands Dies of Morphine Poisoning
Mesa Free Press · November 19, 1897 · Berkeley, California
A young California college student's sudden death from morphine, rumored to stem from a failed romance, was reported in a single terse paragraph — the kind of unresolved personal tragedy newspapers of the era rarely followed up on.
O'Donnell's Suit Against School Board Thrown Out
Mesa Free Press · November 19, 1897 · San Francisco, California
A malfeasance complaint against the San Francisco Board of Education over school textbooks was dismissed by the superior court, ending Dr. C. C. O'Donnell's case with no chance to amend.