Book Description

From 1879-1881, a crew of thirty-three men, led by Lieutenant Commander George Washington DeLong, participated in an Arctic adventure that defines the limits of human endurance. The Navy-operated, but privately owned, steamer Jeannette left San Francisco, California, for the North Pole through what was then believed to be open water beyond the Arctic icepack. The Jeannette remained in the ice as it drifted to the northwest through the first half of 1881. During this time, the crew made scientific observations, hunted seals and polar bears. In May 1881, they landed on Henrietta Island, 600 miles from Wrangell. In June 1881 the ice parted and they hoped they might reach open sea, but on the 12th the flows closed in with such force that Jeannette's hull was crushed. Her crew removed three boats, supplies and some equipment and began a difficult trek, dragging the boats over the ice towards open water. They reached the Kotelnoi and Simonoski Islands in early September, after which the way was clear to sail to the Lena Delta. However, the three boats were separated in a storm. One, commanded by Lieutenant Charles W. Chipp and seven other men, was not seen again. The other two, commanded by DeLong with thirteen others and Chief Engineer George W. Melville with ten others, landed far apart on the delta. Melville's party was saved by local inhabitants. DeLong and his men trudged south over the desolate terrain. After one man died of the effects of frostbite and the others were weakened by exposure and hunger, Seamen Nindemann and Noros were sent ahead to find help. Before that materialized, the remaining eleven succumbed, with DeLong and two others surviving perhaps a few days beyond 30 October 1881, when he made his final journal entry. The bodies of ten were discovered in March 1882, as Melville conducted a search for the other members of the expedition, and were transported back to the United States in early 1884.