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ICE WORLD
New clues as to how crew survived 1813 shipwreck in Alaska
by Brooks Hays
Sitka, Alaska (UPI) Sep 10, 2015


Icebreaker Healy first U.S. surface ship to reach North Pole on its own
Dutch Harbor, Ala. (UPI) Sep 10, 2015 - The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy became the first U.S. surface ship to reach the North Pole without assistance on Saturday.

Typically, icebreakers are accompanied by submarines that help clear a channel through the ice, but Healy successfully made the trek solo.

The feat marks the high point of a month-long journey that began in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Healy reached the North Pole a week ahead of schedule, just days after President Obama became to first U.S. president to set foot inside the Arctic Circle, where he called on Congress hasten funding for the acquisition and construction of a new polar icebreaker.

CGC Healy is youngest of the Coast Guard's two operational icebreakers, part of a larger effort called Geotraces -- a partnership between the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Science Foundation aimed at better understanding the biogeochemical processes that shape the planet's oceans.

While plowing through the ice surrounding the North Pole, Healy and its crew will be measuring and analyzing the movements and makeup of the air, ice, snow, seawater, meltwater and sediments in the region.

"As the Arctic region continues to open up to development, the data gathered on board Healy during this cruise will become ever more essential to understanding how the scientific processes of the Arctic work, and how to most responsibly exercise stewardship over the region," the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Healy is a state-of-the-art floating scientific research machine. The 420-foot-long boat boasts 5,000 square feet of labs and rooms devoted to science.

"This week also included our first on-ice science station," scientists wrote in their most recent blog update. "Working throughout Thursday night into early Friday morning, we conducted multiple on-ice science experiments. Due to the 24 hours of daylight, scientists are able to get out on the ice and collect samples around the clock!"

In January 1813, just miles from its destination, the Russian-American Company frigate Neva floundered and sank.

More than a third of the ship's crew were able to make it to the shores of Alaska's Kruzof Island, but with limited supplies. Most lived to tell the story.

The wreck killed 32 men, 15 crew members had already died at sea. But 26 men made it to safety. Of those 26, only two of the men perished in the month spent waiting for rescuers -- in the harsh cold of winter.

Now, researchers are beginning to piece together how those 24 men survived the arctic elements.

"The items left behind by survivors provide a unique snapshot-in-time for January 1813, and might help us to understand the adaptations that allowed them to await rescue in a frigid, unfamiliar environment for almost a month," Dave McMahan, a researcher with the Sitka Historical Society, said in a press release.

The sailors were part of Russia's colonial ambitions in the Americas. The Neva and its crew had played an important role in defeating the natives of southeast Alaska, the Tlingit people. The defeat allowed the Russian-American Company to establish the trading city of Sitka -- Neva's destination on that fateful January day.

With the help of Tlingit natives, a National Science Foundation-funded team of excavators located the remains of the survivors' camp. Their digging has uncovered metal scraps, copper spikes, musket balls, a Russian ax and more. A fishing hook fashioned out of cooper was also found. The sailors likely struck gun flints against steel scraps to start fires, researchers say.

"Collectively, the artifacts reflect improvisation in a survival situation, and do not include ceramics, glass and other materials that would be associated with a settlement," McMahan said.

The team of researchers, from the United States, Canada and Russia, will continue to analyze the artifacts. But McMahan has also encouraged anyone with oral history of the Neva wreck to reach out to the Sitka Historical Society.

"One goal of the research is to replace some of the myths and 'lore of the sea' with scientific findings," he said.


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