### id262786662 weather is unreliable > In 1871, 33 whaling ships, including two from Connecticut and a third with a Connecticut captain and owner, were trapped and crushed by pack ice off Alaska’s Arctic coast. They were only yards, and in some cases feet, away from shore. The whalers had counted on a wind shift driving the ice out to sea as it had done in the past, but the ice didn’t clear and they were forced to abandon their boats. More than 1,200 whalers, and in many cases their wives and family members, were stranded in unforgiving conditions, on a desolate section of beach stretching from Wainwright to Point Franklin in northern Alaska. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fqy5twhtnth75k5ntegf3avf) - [[Dramatic Discovery of Two Whaleships Lost in Arctic for 144 Years by Erik Ofgang#id262786662 weather is unreliable|View in Vault]]