After attending to the burial of his brave comrades, and rewarding the natives who had assisted him, Melville set out for home. He arrived in New York, September 13, 1883, just one year from the day on which the three boats were separated in the gale. Due credit has been given Engineer Melville, both at home and abroad, for his promptness and energy in conducting the search for the lost crew of the Jeannette.
The fate of the Jeannette and her crew often leads people to overlook the results secured by her voyage. The long drift of twenty-one months enabled the voyagers of this expedition to acquire considerable knowledge of the ocean. The ship traveled over a large area, sometimes moving almost in a circle. The depth of the ocean, the character of its bed and its drift were determined. Many kinds of animal life were studied, and two islands were discovered.
XIII. GREELY IN GRINNELL LAND
1881–1883
Interest in the Frozen North became so great, that a conference of nations was held in Hamburg, Germany, in 1879, to discuss plans by means of which knowledge of that part of the world might be advanced. Eleven countries were represented, and it was decided to send out expeditions and establish stations for the purpose of making scientific observations. Fifteen expeditions were sent out by different countries, and fourteen stations were established. These stations were known as the International Circumpolar stations, and their work was to be coöperative.
The United States decided to establish two stations, one at Point Barrow, Alaska, and the other in Lady Franklin bay. The command of the expedition to Point Barrow was given to Lieutenant Ray. Adolphus Washington Greely, a lieutenant in the United States Army, was offered command of the other, and when the enterprise was made national in 1881, he accepted the commission.
The arrangements necessary for the journey were soon made, and Greely and his companions sailed on the Proteus to Newfoundland. They left that island on July 7, 1881, and headed for the north. The Proteus sailed through Davis strait and Baffin bay, passing the wonderful “bird cliffs,” which rise perpendicularly for over a thousand feet out of the sea, and are broken only by narrow ledges. Neither Eskimo nor animal can reach these rocks, and here, safe from harm, the birds lay their eggs and hatch out their young by the tens of thousands. Greely’s men shot many birds and secured hundreds of eggs.
Bird Cliffs.
The Proteus passed through Smith sound and Kennedy channel, and reached Lady Franklin bay in safety. She anchored at last in Discovery bay, on the coast of Grinnell land, where Greely and his men went ashore to select a place suitable for a camp, to be named Fort Conger. Then the Proteus steamed away, leaving a small company of men alone in the Arctic solitude. But they were too busy to feel lonely, and began to work hard in order to make a comfortable home for themselves. The house was built of wood covered with tarred paper, and stations for the instruments were erected near at hand.