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Nature of Casualty
Abandoned after trapped in ice, in 1872 and found 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
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... Masses of whaleboats
were already heading south, relaying provisions to the ships in clear water, when on Wednesday, the
thirteenth, the ice crushed the bark Fanny and dragged the bark George past the Gay Head, smashing
her jib-boom on the way..... 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, 157-158, 164
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