Existing comment:
"134th day. A hard night."
-- DeLong's journal after the loss of the Jeanette
Jeannette Expedition:
In 1879, the steamer Jeannette [spelled multiple ways in the same sign] sailed from San Francisco on a mission to seek the North Pole. The expedition's commander, George Washington DeLong, was a naval officer.
Two months later, Jeannette became icebound in the northern Bering Sea. The crew spent the next 19 months conducting scientific exploration. Then, in 1881, Jeanette succumbed to the ice. The crew boarded lifeboats and set off for Siberia, 500 miles away. Twenty-two of the 34 men -- including Commander DeLong -- perished.
Jeannette was locked in Arctic ice for more than a year and a half. The crew continued their scientific endeavors and supplemented food stores by hunting.
On June 12, 1881, ice overwhelmed Jeannette, crushing the ship's hull. The crew was forced to abandon the ship and take to lifeboats early on the morning of June 13.
For more than 140 days, the expedition struggled to reach Siberia. One boat was lost with all hands in a gale; the other two boats became widely separated. DeLong and his boat's crew died of starvation and exposure. Chief Engineer Charles Melville and his crew were rescued.
Melville returned to Siberia in 1882 to search for DeLong and other crewmembers. He found the bodies on the Lena River Delta of Siberia. The location was marked with a rock cairn and cross. The Russian government returned the bodies to the United States for burial. |