there are hundreds of them in rhe neighborhood, some desperate men. In rhe ea rly morning of 30 November, disas ter struck. Ar 8:45AM smoke ca me up rhe pipe fro m rhe chain locker, and Morga n we nt aft and reporred the ship on fire in the fo rehold . .. the fire pumps had been disconnected to keep rhem fro m freez ing.. .. For a rime ir seemed as if we we re gaining on the fire, but it fin ally drove the men fr om betwee n decks; then rhe h atchways were battened down and sa il made to run rhe ship into shallow water to scuttle her. . .. We were rhen ordered to launch rhe boars, and every man that was able to do anything rook hold; all rhe boars were gotten over, and the officers and men got the few clothes they had saved into their boats. There was some pemican, Hour, beans, sugar, and coffee, enough for fifteen d ays' ratio ns, saved and got into the boars .. .. Ir was a grand sight, one long to be remembered by us who wirnessed it, to see the burning vessel; thousa nds of ca midges were stored in the hold, and, as the fire reached rhem, rhey were exploded. Steam was nor blowing off from the main and donkey boilers, the fire room and decks being in a blaze; the fire was running up the rigging; masts, yards and sa il were in a blaze; the reporrs when oil, alcohol, or powder was exploded, and sheets of flame sweeping rhe enti re length of rhe ship-all helped to make a grand picture.
The fire down below soon got out of control. In time the cartridges and powder in the hold exploded and sent flames up the masts and tarred rigging, igniting the sails aloft. barren land of fa r-eastern Siberia. For centuries they h ad m anaged a subsisrencelevel existence on the meager resources of the land and sea. Starvation was a given th reat th rough the long harsh winters, when the scarce game was barely enough to sustain their own population. Now they were expected- a nd w illing- ro sh are what little they h ad in foo d and sh elter with th irty-six A merica n sea men and their Rus-
sian dog driver while they wa ited for the return of rhe whaling Heer rhe fo llow in g spring. There was not enough of either to go around . The men crowded into the existin g "yaranga" hu ts in fo ur isolated villages, making their beds in the cramped quarters amid the squalor and forced intimacy of family life in huts too small in floor plan ro accommodate everyone.
Natives ofEast Cape Village, Siberia, 1885. The houses pictured are similar to the yarangas that the crew from USS Rodgers shared with the Chukchi during the winter of 1881-82.
All rhe men made it safely to shore, with the few supplies they were able to salvage. They would be spending the winter in Siberia with the natives, a true culture shock to both sides of rhe arrangement. N either rhe host peoples nor their uninvited guests were prepared for their sudden cohabitation, but both sides made the best of it. The nati ve Tchoutkichi (also spelled C hukchi) people-"Chook-Chees" to the sailorslived in low hide-covered hurs gathered into small isolated villages scattered around the
SEA HISTORY 150, SPRING 2015
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