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Andrews
The Andrews was an American bark based out of the wealthy whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts. She made three Arctic whaling voyages during the 1860s. On her last voyage in 1867, she was wrecked during freeze-up in Cumberland Sound.
Shipwrecks were quite common in Cumberland Sound; there were at least eight of them from 1859-1870. The Andrews is unusual only in that logbooks and journals for all of her voyages survive in American archives today, and one of them is beautifully illustrated.
In November 1867, the Andrews was anchored for the second year in a row off Harrison's Point near Naujaqtalik. During a storm, some large pieces of ice blew in and drove her into some rocks. Her hull broke open. The ship was ruined, but since the ice could not yet withstand heavy loads, the Andrews' men were unable to move to a better location. The crew lived on board for eleven days, waiting for the sea to freeze, even though water flowed through the main sleeping cabin every time the tide came in. Everyone got wet, and many of the men did not even have a change of clothes since they had accidentally evacuated their gear below the high tide line and had all of their belongings soaked. Inuit from surrounding camps were able to cross the ice with dog teams on November 26. They evacuated the men to Umanaqjuaq (Blacklead Island) and welcomed many of them temporarily in their own homes.
The Andrews' men lived out the winter in two small, poorly-insulated houses. They used lumber from the ship to build berths and a separate cookhouse. Everyone survived. In Cumberland Sound, men rarely died when their ships ran aground, and they invariably received passage home the following summer on another vessel. Whaling ships were not the safest place to be during freeze-up, but Inuit and qallunaat communities ensured that shipwrecks did not lead to death and starvation in Cumberland Sound.
A shipwreck was, however, a serious financial loss to everyone aboard. The Andrews itself may have been insured, but men on whaling ships were paid only a share of a voyage's profits. With no ship to transport blubber and baleen to southern markets, they would have made nothing for this voyage, and many would probably have returned home in debt. The Andrews' captain made the best of the situation by salvaging and auctioning off most parts of the wreck; he even had sawdust sledded to the houses, presumably to burn in the stoves. Finally, he sold what was left of the wreck to another American ship, the Milwood, for $50. Although it is not recorded in the logbook, it is certainly possible that he also traded pieces of the ship to Inuit for fresh meat, furs or winter clothing. If any part of the wreck was left unclaimed, Inuit would also surely have scavenged it for wood, nails and other useful commodities.