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Nature of Casualty
Abandoned after trapped in ice burned by Inupiaq Eskimos. 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: They [natives] burned the Gay Head (the ship I
abandoned) and Concordia where they lay. New York Times 10-31-1872
The five northernmost ships, the Roman, Comet, Concordia, Gay Head, and George, were completely
surrounded. Slightly to the south the John Wells, Massachusetts, Contest, J. D. Thompson, Henry
Taber, Fanny, Monticello, and Elizabeth Swift were not as tightly gripped... 1872: The Eskimos had
also burned the Gay Head and Concordia and stripped many of the remaining ships. Many of the
natives of Icy Cap stayed inland in the summer of 1872 for fear of retribution. Saddest of all, as they
rummaged through the ships searching for supplies of alcohol, most of which the whalemen had
destroyed before leaving, they broke into the ship's medicine chests and a number are reported to
have died from drinking the contents of the bottles. Bockstoce, John R., Whales, Ice, and Men: The
History of Whaling in the Western Arctic, University of Washington Press, Seattle Washington,
1986:154, 164
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