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Nature of Casualty
Abandoned after trapped in ice. Tornfelt, Evert E., Burwell, Michael, Shipwrecks of the Alaskan Shelf
and Shore, U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Alaska OCS Region, 1992
The Bringhampton Republican publishes the following private letter from Capt. William H. Kelley, of the
that city, who was Captain of one the fleet of whalers deserted in the ice Point Belcher a year ago, and
is again in the Arctic in command of a vessel: The bark Seneca (brother Ned's vessel) was dragged by
the ice up the coast some distance - her bowsprit gone, bulwarks stove and rudder carried away. she
was then frozen in solid, and so they found; she will probably be saved if she is not stove..... Since
writing the above I have seen the Seneca. I don't believe she will be got off. She lies high aground and
on her beam ends. The hull of the Champion lies two miles south of her; the Reindeer still further
south; only the Minerva will be saved. New York Times 10-31-1872
Ned Herendeen set to work at once on the best ship, the Minerva. They chopped the ice out of her
hold, took out what remained of her cargo, thus lightened, they got her afloat and at anchor. They
refitted her with some new gear and sails, bought all the baleen they could from the natives, and
collected the oil that had washed ashore in casks from the Reindeer and Champion. The other ships
took some gear and cargo from the wrecks. No records remain of the Eustace's and Francis Palmer's
salvage. Bockstoce, John R., Whales, Ice, and Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic,
University of Washington Press, Seattle Washington, 1986: 164-165
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Official Number: 4405
Type: Ship
Length: 111 Feet
Home Port: Edgartown, MA
Place Built: Mattapoisett, MA
Date Lost: Sept. 14, 1871
Captain When Lost: Henry Pease
Where: Point Belcher, near Wainwright Inlet
Cause: Trapped in Ice and Abandoned
Cargo: 275 Barrels of Sperm Oil and 300 Barrels of Whale Oil
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