The Proteus encountered ice in Melville Bay. Garlington examined the Nares cache of eighteen hundred rations on Southeast Gary Island, 60 per cent of the rations proving to be in good condition. There is no record that the 40 per cent were replaced from the Proteus’s stores.
Littleton Island was passed without a cache being left there. The ice prevented an advance, and Garlington thereupon decided to go to Cape Sabine “to examine cache there, leave records, and await further developments.” “At half-past three the Proteus came to anchor at Payer Harbor,” writes Schley. “She remained at her anchorage from 3:30 to 8 P.M. This stay of four hours and a half at Cape Sabine was a turning-point in the history of the relief expedition. It was made up of golden moments. It is true that no one could predict that by that time next day the Proteus would be at the bottom of the Kane Sea. It is also true that Garlington’s instructions had been officially construed as not including the formation of depots on the way north, and that the importance of reaching Lady Franklin Bay had been impressed upon his mind as the main purpose of his enterprise. At the same time it was known with tolerable certainty that two months later Greely would be at that point, if he carried out his intentions; and the commander of the relief expedition, although not expressly directed to land anywhere, had been instructed that if landings should be made at points where caches of provisions were located, he was, if possible, to examine them, and replace any damaged articles of food.
“Now there were two caches at or near Cape Sabine. One of them, left by Beebe the year before, was around the point of the cape. The other, left by Nares in 1875, was on Stalknecht Island, a long, low rock in the harbour itself, due west from Brevoort Island, and close to it. The position of the cache was well known. Beebe had visited it in 1882. The Proteus was now at Payer Harbor, probably within half a mile of Stalknecht Island; and on board the vessel were the four depots of provisions, of two hundred and fifty rations each, that had been arranged at Disco to be in readiness for landing at some tune and at any time.”
Garlington ordered two privates to land and take a set of observations, while he went with a party of men to examine the caches. The repair of a cache and the set of observations are all the work reported as having been done at Cape Sabine on the way north.
Garlington then put to sea, and followed the open leads of water to the northward. After an advance of twenty miles, the ship was stopped by the pack near Cape Albert. The following day she was crushed, and the crew and relief party took to the floe, throwing overboard such stores and provisions as came to hand. Lieutenant Colwell was the last man to leave the ship. Garlington and his party of fifteen men, two whale-boats, and provisions for forty days reached Cape Sabine in safety. He now followed the “Wildes-Garlington agreement,” which said “Should Proteus be lost, push a boat with party south to Yantic.”
GARLINGTON’S RETREAT
Garlington’s record left by him on Brevoort Island read in part:—
“Depot landed ... 500 rations of bread, tea, and a lot of canned goods. Cache of 250 rations; left by expedition of 1882, visited by me, and found in good condition. English depot in damaged condition, not visited by me. Cache on Littleton Island; boat at Isabella. U.S.S. Yantic on her way to Littleton Island, with orders not to enter ice ... I will endeavour to communicate with these vessels at once. Everything in power of man will be done to rescue the (Greely’s) brave men.”
“It transpired,” writes Greely, “that there was no boat at Isabella; that Garlington’s orders to replace damaged caches were imperative and disobeyed; that he had no knowledge that the Littleton Island cache was safe; that at Sabine he took every pound of food he could reach, though told that Greely was provisioned only to August, 1883; and that after Colwell’s skill had brought Garlington safe to the Yantic, he did not even ask Wilde to go north and lay down food for Greely, otherwise doomed to starvation.”