CHAPTER XVIII

The Jeannette expedition, 1879-1881. - In command of Captain George W. De Long. - Leaves San Francisco, touches at Ounalaska, August 2, reaches Lawrence Bay, East Siberia, August 15. - Last seen by whale bark Sea Breeze near Herald Island, September 2.-The Jeannette beset in ice-pack, September 5, never again released. Daily routine of officers and crew. Ship springs a leak. - A frozen summer. - Sight of new land. - A second winter in the pack. -The Jeannette crushed. Abandonment. The retreat. The fate of the three boats. Death of De Long's party. Melville's search.

THE American Arctic expedition of 1879, commanded by Lieutenant George W. De Long of the United States Navy, was equipped and financed by Mr. James Gordon Bennett, proprietor of the New York Herald. The object of the expedition was to reach the North Pole by way of Behring Strait.

The bark-rigged steam yacht of four hundred twenty tons, Pandora, which had already seen considerable service in Arctic water, was purchased from Sir Allen Young. By special act of Congress she was allowed to sail under American colours, be navigated by officers of the United States Navy, and to change her name from Pandora to Jeannette. The Jeannette was reënforced and refitted for the arduous service expected of her, and her officers and crew, thirty-three in number, carefully selected for their especial fitness for the undertaking.

Among the number, Lieutenant De Long and Lieutenant Chipp, the executive officer, had seen Arctic service while

attached to the U. S. steamer Juanita, which had been sent by the government in search of the Polaris in 1873; Engineer Melville had been attached to the Tigress, while that ship had been on the same errand, and Seaman Wm. F. C. Nindemann had sailed on the Polaris and been a member of the ice-drift party.

Lieutenant John W. Danenhower, U. S. N., was appointed navigator; Dr. J. M. Ambler, surgeon; Jerome J. Collins, meteorologist; Raymond L. Newcomb, naturalist; and William M. Dunbar, ice pilot.

The Jeannette left San Francisco July 8, and moved slowly toward the Golden Gate amid the cheers and waving of handkerchiefs from thousands of spectators on the wharves and on Telegraph Hill. A salute of ten guns was fired from Fort Point, while a convoy of white-sailed craft of the San Francisco Yacht Club escorted her out to the broad Pacific. Pursuing her course, the Jeannette made for Ounalaska, one of the Aleutian Islands, which she reached August 2. There additional stores were taken aboard, and four days later she pursued her course, to St. Michaels, Alaska, where she anchored the 12th of August. Dogs and fur clothing were purchased, and two Alaskans, Anequin and Alexai, were hired to accompany the expedition as dog drivers. By the 25th of August, she had reached St. Lawrence Bay, East Siberia, where Lieutenant De Long learned that a ship supposed to be the Vega had gone south in June. She then rounded East Cape and touched at Cape Serdze, from which point Lieutenant De Long sent. his last letter home.

Captain Barnes of the American whale bark Sea Breeze saw the Jeannette under full sail and steam, on the 2d of September, 1879, about fifty miles south of Herald Island; on the 3d of September she was sighted by Captain Kelley of the bark Dawn; and at about the same time Captain Bauldry of the Helen Mar and several other whalers saw smoke from the

THE “JEANNETTE” EXPEDITION, 1879-1881

347

She was

Jeannette's smoke-stack in range of Herald Island. standing north. These were the last tidings heard of the expedition by the outside world for over two years.

On the 5th of September, the Jeannette, having boldly entered the ice in an attempt to push through and winter at Herald Island or Wrangell Land, was beset and never again left the ice-pack, but drifted at the mercy of this formidable foe, until she was crushed, and finally sank many months afterward. Hoping against hope that a release would come, first in the fall with the promise of Indian summer, then in the spring with the breaking up of the ice-pack, Captain De Long saw the weeks and months glide by, and followed the complicated drift of the Jeannette, as she coquetted with her jailer, turning and twisting in her course, suffering the constant pressure of her enemy, that hourly threatened her destruction and pursuing an uneven drift north and eastward.

The daily routine during the long imprisonment was practically as follows:

6 A.M.

Breakfast by watches.

Turn to, clear fire-hole of ice, fill barrels with

Call executive officer.

9 A.M.

10 A.M.

11 A.M.

ice.

11:30 A.M.

12 M.

1 P.M.

2 P.M.

3 P.M.

4 P.M.

snow, clean up decks.

Clear forecastle.

All hands take exercise on the

Inspection by executive officer.

Get soundings.

One watch may go below.

Fill barrels with snow. Clear fire-hole of ice.
Dinner by watches.

Galley fires out. Carpenter and boatswain re

port departments to executive officer.