June 11, 1865 Sunday From the 1st thru the 13th of June: Before burning, Abigail, commanded by Lieutenant Waddell obtained a stove from her for his cabin, one of the many items that had not been provided when C.S.S. Shenandoah hastily left Liverpool the previous Autumn. . He needed it in the ensuing days as he navigated along the frozen shores of Siberia. "I continued as far as the Chi-jinskiki Bay, but found it so full of ice the steamer could not be entered. I then stood along the land of eastern Siberia as far as Tausk Bay, when. she was forced away by the ice, and I left for Shantaski [Shantarski] Island, but I found ice in such quantities before we reached the 150º meridian of east longitude that she was forced to the southward finding ice in almost every direction and apparently closing on her."
"The situation caused anxiety of mind, and I solved the seamanship problem before us. The scene was cold, the mercury several degrees below zero, the ice varied in thickness from fifteen to thirty feet and, although not very firm, was sufficiently so to injure the Shenandoah if we were not very careful. I wanted to reach Shantarski Island (called by whalers Greer Island) for there is fishing there and in the bays southwest of it."
In this chill sea, Shenandoah met severe gales. "The damage from these gales is much increased by the heavy ice which a vessel is likely to be driven on and wrecked. We encountered the first one of those gales to windward of twenty miles of floe ice, and if we had been lying to with the ice under our lea, the Shenandoah would probably have been lost with her entire crew.
"It became imperatively necessary to relieve the ship of her perilous situation. She was run a little distance from and along the floe until a passage was seen from aloft through it with open water beyond. Into this passage she was entered and in a short time she was lying to under close reefed sails with the floe to windward, and this was the solution of that seamanship problem alluded to a little time before, for our dreaded enemy was now become our best friend, the fury of the sea was expended on it and not against the Shenandoah. It was a breakwater for the ship.
"She laid perfectly easy, the water was as smooth as a pond, while the seas on the weather edge of the floe broke furiously, throwing sheets of water twenty feet high, to all appearances a fog bank."
It was so far away we could only hear the hurrying of wind as it piped louder and carried in it a penetrating mist. The Shenandoah being relieved of the threatened danger, the next thought was to prevent her from going into the ice during the thick weather, which now came on in fine rain and sleet. The wind was bitter cold, turning the rain into ice and forming a crust everywhere. The braces, blocks, yards, sails, and all the running rigging was perfectly coated with ice from a half to two inches thick, so that it was impossible to use the braces and icicles of great length and size hung from every portion of the rigging."
"The gale had passed over, and it was calm, the clouds were exhausted, the rosy tints of morn opened upon a scene of enchantment, and when the sunlight burst on us, the flash and sparkle from truck to deck, from bowsprit to topsail awakened exclamations of enthusiastic delight over the fair ship."
"The disposition was evidently not to disturb, but leave to enjoyment the crystal mantle of the Shenandoah. Finally the crew was sent aloft with billets of wood to dislodge the ice and free the running rigging. The large icicles falling from aloft rendered the deck dangerous to move upon, and it soon became covered with clear, beautiful ice, which was removed to the tanks, casks, and every vessel capable of receiving it."
_________________ Gen Ned Simms 2/XVI Corps/AotT Blood 'n Guts hisself, a land lovin' pirate. Show me some arty tubes and we'll charge 'em. VMI Class of '00
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