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IN' THE ALEUTIANS
ON OCTOBER fifth, through a low, sweeping fog, they heard
the roar of breakers and saw, close at hand £ rocky shore swept by great waves.
It was ADAK. Desperately they clawed away, fearful of the rocks.
Day by day the men grew weaker, the gales stronger, llore islands, rocky and
harborless, menaced them. Clouds of sea birds circled overhead in the constant
fog, screaming wildly. The rotting canvas ripped, and the seams strained, and the
sick men lived in lasting terror. Food ran out. They, cut rations from a hot meal
every day to one every two days, then one every three.
Early in November they passed the last of the Aleutians and on a changing
wind drove close to Copper Island in the Commander Group. They sighted the island,
thought for a joyful moment that it was Kamchatka, realized in despair that it was
not, and let themselves drift past.
Copper Island fell away, but another—.larger and even more forbidding—rose
from the slate sea. It looked like an island, but the weary, dying men told them
selves they were safe: Kamchatka, they cried. We can land here on the Peninsula
and walk home.
Bering knew better. He tried to tell the men they were still hundreds of
miles from home, but they would not listen. If this were not home* they argued,
it was impossible to reach home. Even as the debate proceeded, two more of the
crew died. It was decided to land.
The ship was anchored off the bleak island, A storm arose. The St. Feter
broke her anchor and drove toward the rocks. Hastily the crew threw over another
anchor; it too failed to hold. The men strong enough to stand clung to the rail
and watched a knife-edged reef rush at them. And then Bering had a rare bit of
good fortune: a last great wave lifted the little ship over the rocks and dropped j
her in the.sheltered lagoon beyond. For the moment she was safe. I
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Less than a dozen men were strong enough to make the first trip to shore. It I
took them a week to get their companions off the St. Peter. The survivors had
little cause for thanksgiving. It was mid-November, The island was uninhabited,
treeless, almost barren, and cold—bitter cold.. They were sick and weak and hungry j
and lost. Yet most of those who made shore survived. They dug pits in the sandy I
beach and used canvas from the sails as covers. The gales raged continuously,,
sometimes driving rain under the covers, sometimes blowing in the beach sand.
In such a pit Bering lay, too weak to move. Steller nursed him. When the
sand covered the dying commander, the naturalist scooped it away. One day Bering j
asked that it be left around him-it felt warm. Not long after, on December 8,
l?Ul, Bering, conqueror of the North Pacific, died. His companions had to dig him j
out of the sand before they could bury him. *
j There were other deaths, thirty in all during the voyage, but somehow most :
jof the stranded.men clung to life. Steller found plants that helped their scurvy, j
jThe strongest went hunting and came back with sea animals that gave both meat and |
jfur. When the St. Peter broke up in a great storm, boards were salvaged from the j
‘•wreckage and rude shelters built. The cracks were stuffed with fox furs.
J CONTINUED ON PAGE 1* \