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Map Showing Routes from San Francisco to Alaska and the Klondike, The A laska Exploration Company, 1891. What becam e of the remainder of the dories could not navigate in a river overrun with huge boulders. Food was running low, Gloucester Mining Co mpany? The fishershe!ter proved inadequate, and some essential man Charley Strandberg froze to death while attempting to reach the stranded mining tools had been lost or srolen. The men discovered that the work of Eclipse for supplies-the only man to die findin g and retrieving gold was incredibly during rhe expedition . Fred Story returned difficult. Most of the precious metal was to G loucester late in spring 1899 , where he located well below the ground's surface. In purchased a new propeller for the Eclipse. In summertime, the prospectors had to dig June, he boarded a train back to the West through the semi-thawed permafrost. The Coast in the hope of findin g his shipmates gold-bearing material had to be slui ced and repairing their vessel. C harley Swinson through rhe fri gid water to separate the returned home that O ctober to report rhar railings from rhe ore-impossible work in rhe bitterly cold winter had accelerated their rhe Alaskan winter. Most gold prospecting fai lure. When their supplies ran out, rhey enterprises rhar started with rhe gold rush gathered in rhe deep snow by the inoperable Eclipse and disbanded- the Gloucester of 1897 would end in disappointment. Mi ning Company venture a bust. The fate This is rhe Law of rhe Yukon , that of rhe rest of rhe m en is unknown, but it is o nly the Strong shall thri ve. likely rhey scattered, emp ty-handed . Some Thar surely rhe Weak shall perish , appear to have serried in Alaska, others m ay and o nly rhe Fir survive. have moved on to Was hington and Oregon Disso lute, damned and despairful, to work in the lucrative fisheries. N one crippl ed and palsied and slain , resettled in G loucester. This is the Will of the Yuko n, The ill-fated G loucester M ining ComLo, how she makes ir plain. pany typifies m any stories of East Coas t m en, adventurers who voyaged to CaliforFrom "The Law ofthe Yukon " nia, Oregon , Washington , Alas ka and on by Robert Service
SEA HISTORY 13 1, SUMMER 20 10
to the gold fields. Las t known as nam es recorded as ship's crew or on passenger lists, many disappeared in the dustbin of history. Blackburn, rhe one parti cipant who returned to Glo ucester before ever reaching rhe Kl o ndike, became a legendary figure in N ew England, continuing to leave his m ark on m aritim e history in h is pursuit of uncommon fears until his death . .!, D r. Louis Arthur Norton is a reg;ui ar contributor to Sea History. A professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut H ealth Center, Farmington, he earned his masters in history in retirement. H e has p ublished four maritime history books: Sailors' Folk Arr U nder Glass, Joshua Barney: Hero of the Revolutionary War and 18 12, N ew England's Stormalong and recently Captains Contentious: The D ysfunctional Sons of rhe Brine (see book review, page 45-46). Two of his Log of Mystic Seaport articles were awarded the Gerald E. Morris Prize for maritime historiography (2002 and 2 006). H e recently received the 2 00912010 short story fiction award from the Connecticut Authors and Publishers A ssociation.
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