“Omit no effort, spare no expense in securing safety of men in second cutter. Let the sick and the frozen of those already rescued have every attention, and as soon as practicable have them transferred to a milder climate. Department will supply necessary funds.”
In the meantime J. P. Jackson, special correspondent of the New York Herald, had arrived at Irkutsk, on his way to the Lena Delta. The Navy Department detailed L. P. Noros to accompany him. Lieutenant Giles B. Harber, U. S. N., accompanied by Master W. H. Schuetze, had been sent to search for Lieutenant Chipp and his party.
MELVILLE’S SEARCH
Melville, with Nindemann and Bartlett as assistants, engaged three interpreters and reached Belun the second week in February. A month was spent in collecting dogs and provisions and establishing depots of supplies at Mat Vai and Kas Karta. On March 16, 1882, accompanied by Nindemann, Melville proceeded to a place called Usterda, where Captain De Long had crossed the river to the westward. A search was now made for the hut where Erickson had died.
Snow covered the country and effectively obliterated all traces of previous travellers. Storms forced their return to Kas Karta, and a fresh start was made. The party divided to insure a more thorough search.
“We followed the bay,” says Mr. Melville in his narrative, “until late in the evening, having visited all the headlands; finally we came up to the large river with the broken ice. I jumped upon the headland or point of land making down in the bay and found where an immense fire had been made. The fire bed was probably six feet in diameter, large drift-logs hove into it, and a large fire made, such as a signal fire. I then hailed Nindemann and the natives, saying ‘Here they are!’ They thought that I had found the place where the De Long party had been. Nindemann came upon the point of land, and said that neither he nor Noros had made a fire of that kind, only a small fire in the cleft of a bank; but he was sure that this was the point of land they had turned going to the westward, and that this was the river along which he and Noros had come....”
“It is the custom of the people here,” continues Melville, “in making a search to go facing the river and when they see anything to attract them, drop off the sled and examine it, or pick it up and go on. In this manner, about five hundred yards from the point where the fire had been, I saw the points of four sticks standing up out of the snow about eighteen inches, and lashed together with a piece of rope. Seeing this, I dropped off the sled, and going up to the place on the snow bank, I found a Remington rifle slung across the points of the sticks, and the muzzle about eight inches out of the snow. The dog-driver, seeing I had found something, came back with the sled, and I sent him to Nindemann to tell him to come back, he having gone as far up the river as the flat-boat. When they returned I started the natives to digging out the snow-bank underneath the tent-poles. I supposed that the party had got tired of carrying their books and papers, and had made a deposit of them at this place, and erected these poles over the papers and books as a landmark, that they might return and secure them in case they arrived at a place of safety. Nindemann and I stood around a little while, got upon the bank, and took a look at the river. Nindemann said he would go to the northward, and see if he could discover anything of the track and find the way to Erickson’s hut. I took the compass and proceeded to the southward to get the bearings of Stolbovoi and Mat Vai, so I might return there that night in case it came on to blow.
“In proceeding to a point to set up the compass, I saw a tea-kettle partially buried in the snow. One of the natives had followed me, and I pointed out to him the kettle, and advancing to pick it up, I came upon the bodies of three men, partially buried in the snow, one hand reaching out with the left arm of the man raised way above the surface of the snow—his whole left arm. I immediately recognized them as Captain De Long, Dr. Ambler, and Ah Sam, the cook. The captain and the doctor were lying with their heads to the northward, face to the west, and Ah Sam was lying at right angles to the other two, with his head about the Doctor’s middle, and feet in the fire, or where the fire had been. This fireplace was surrounded by drift-wood, immense trunks of trees, and they had their fire in the crotch of a large tree. They had carried the tea-kettle up there, and got a lot of Arctic willow which they used for tea, and some ice to make water for their tea, and had a fire. They apparently had attempted to carry their books and papers up there on this high point, because they carried the chart case up there, and I suppose the fatigue of going up on the high land prevented their returning to get the rest of their books and papers. No doubt they saw that if they died on the river bed, where the water runs, the spring freshets would carry them off to sea.
“I gathered up all the small articles lying around in the vicinity of the dead. I found the ice journal about three or four feet in the rear of De Long; that is, it looked as though he had been lying down, and with his left hand tossed the book over his shoulder to the rear, or to the eastward of him.”
“Referring to the journal,” continues Melville, “I found that the whole of the people were now in the lee of the bank, in a distance of about five hundred yards. In the meantime, the native that had gone for Nindemann had brought him back.”