The “Jeannette” in the Ice Pack.
To the southwest lay Herald island, which the men attempted to explore. Taking a dog sledge, they traveled to within six miles of the beach, where they found open water, so that they were obliged to return to the ship without setting foot on land. They found the ship drifting with the ice, and in danger of being crushed between the huge masses which surrounded her. Thundering noises from far away could be heard as the blocks of ice ground and grated together. At times the ice separated near the ship, leaving it in clear water. Again, the pack closed up about the stanch little vessel, which was like an eggshell at the mercy of enormous blocks of floating ice.
But all this time the Jeannette was drifting, and at length she came in sight of Wrangel Land. Before De Long lost sight of this land, he satisfied himself that it was an island, and not a part of Greenland as some explorers had supposed.
On November 10 the black Arctic night began, which lasted until January 25. The bitterness of the cold during this long period of darkness is inconceivable. The surface water was usually at a temperature of 29° F., the freezing point of salt water.
Notwithstanding their discomforts, the men followed a regular routine. At seven o’clock in the morning all on board were called and the fires were started in the galleys. At nine o’clock the explorers ate their breakfast. From eleven until one o’clock every man took his gun and went out on the ice to exercise. At three in the afternoon dinner was served, and the galley fires were put out in order to save coal. Between seven and eight o’clock tea was made. The crew lived on pork and beans, salt beef, and canned goods. Sometimes, when the hunters were successful, they had the meat of the seal, bear, or walrus. For amusements there were theatricals and a navigation class.
For one year and nine months the Jeannette floated in the pack, at the mercy of wind and tide. The coldest weather came in February, when the thermometer registered 58° below zero. In spite of the windings and turnings of their course, the general direction was toward the northwest. De Long trusted to the strength of his ship to withstand the pressure of the ice, and float across the pole out into the Atlantic ocean. At length, on May 17, 1881, land was sighted. It proved to be an island not indicated on the chart of that region. De Long therefore claimed it as a discovery, and named it Jeannette island. Another island was discovered not far away, and called Henrietta.
A sledge party under Melville was sent out from the ship to explore this island. The ice over which they traveled consisted of large blocks that floated rapidly and were constantly changing their position. Sometimes the men were obliged to jump into the water and swim from one block to another. The dogs were almost useless; they refused to jump, and tried to run away. The men pushed them into the water, and then they had to swim for their lives. This seems cruel treatment, but Arctic exploration means severe suffering for all who engage in it, and the help of the dogs was absolutely necessary.
Henrietta island was rocky and ice-capped, not in itself a very valuable possession for the United States of America; yet the Stars and Stripes were set up there, and a square copper case, containing copies of the New York Herald and a record of the voyage, was placed in a cairn. Then the sledge party returned to the ship. The Jeannette was in dire distress, for the ice around her, now rapidly breaking up, was by turns receding and closing in. Every time it closed in, it pressed against her sides with tremendous force, so that her timbers fairly creaked.