Here they found themselves in a delightful spot. Dryas, saxefrage, sedges, grasses and buttercups clothed the hill slopes and river banks, and there was animal life in abundance. No sooner were they ashore than the men set about building their quarters, a work which they executed with such dispatch that in a fortnight they had made themselves an exceedingly comfortable house, which they named Fort Conger. Unfortunately, even at this early stage of the proceedings, the party does not seem to have been on harmonious terms, and it appears that Greely, able officer though he was, had an unfortunate way of alienating the sympathy of his followers. The first signs of this friction appeared when, eight days after the landing, the Proteus sailed for home, and took with her one or two volunteers who had intended to take part in the work of the expedition but found it impossible to stay. When she was on the point of starting again, Lieutenant Kislingbury, one of the regular officers of the expedition, expressed himself dissatisfied with the manner in which affairs were being conducted and asked permission to return. This was granted him, but he missed the ship and was obliged to return to the station. From that time onward Greely hardly spoke to him, and though he did splendid work as a huntsman for the party and showed himself anxious to forward its interests in every possible way, he was never asked to resume his official connection with it.
The earlier days of their stay at Fort Conger were spent in making short sledge expeditions and in laying down depots of provisions at Cape Beechey and Cape Murchison. Under the direction of the astronomer Israel, too, scientific investigations were pursued with the utmost zeal, and many exceedingly valuable results were obtained. As soon as spring came round again sledging expeditions were sent out in all directions, and some members of the party had rather curious experiences. For example, Pavy, the doctor of the mission, and a small party, went off on a voyage of discovery in the direction of the winter quarters of the Alert, which they reached in safety. Eight days later, however, they were unwise enough to take refuge from a storm on an iceberg. To their horror and alarm, the gale separated their berg from the main pack and sent it sailing towards the north. They had reached lat. 82° 56´ N., and were beginning to wonder whether they would ever return again when, by good luck, their raft drifted towards the shore which they succeeded in reaching, but only with great difficulty.
While Pavy and his companions were indulging in their perilous voyage, Lieutenant J. B. Lockwood, one of the most indefatigable members of the mission, was making an extraordinary journey up the west coast of Greenland. He left Fort Conger on April 3 with orders to explore the coast near Cape Britannia and thence to press on in any direction which he thought fit. The ice was rough, the gales were violent, and the cold was intense, the thermometer sometimes sinking as low as 81° below freezing point. In spite of these difficulties, however, he pushed rapidly on, and on April 27 he reached Cape Bryant. Thence he sent back all of his men except two, Sergeant Brainard and Christiansen, and with these companions he made his way forward with renewed ardour. In the course of his journey he crossed Sherard Osborn Fiord, passed the highest point reached by Beaumont in 1876, doubled Cape May, climbed Cape Britannia, and, on May 13, reached Lockwood Island, the highest point attained by any Arctic explorer up to that time (83° 24′ N. 42° 45′ W.). Some miles to the north he saw Cape Washington, the most northern known land, but he was unable to determine whether or not there was land beyond it. Lockwood and his companions then set out on the return journey, reaching Fort Conger without misadventure on June 1.
The summer was very warm indeed. The snow melted and uncovered traces of Eskimo habitations, while some of the party actually saw butterflies and bumblebees. But of the ship which they were expecting there was not a trace. As, however, they were amply provisioned for another winter there was no cause for immediate alarm.
In the spring of 1883 Lockwood attempted to repeat his exploit of the previous year, but the conditions were against him, and he had to return without fulfilling his object. He immediately set out to assist Greely in his exploration of the interior of Grinnell Land, a work which had been begun during the previous summer. The results of their efforts showed that that country is a positive Paradise compared with most Arctic lands. It is intersected by rivers and long fertile valleys in which browsed herds of musk-oxen, while an enormous glacial lake, some five hundred square miles in area and fed by glaciers, which they named Lake Hazen, was one of its most remarkable features.
August brought with it no sign of the expected ship, and Greely now saw that he must set about his homeward journey in his boats without delay. Accordingly, on August 9, he and his companions started away from Fort Conger in their steam launch, two boats and a dingy, taking with them every scrap of food that they could stow away into the small accommodation at their command. The voyage was difficult and dangerous, for the heavy spring tides, rising twenty-five feet and more, combined with violent gales, kept the ice pack in constant motion against the precipitous and rock-bound coast. What with the delays caused by the weather and the constant stoppages which they were obliged to make in order to pick up every cache, however small, that had been laid down during the years of their stay at Discovery Harbour, it took them sixteen days to cover the two hundred miles which lay between their starting-place and Cape Hawks. Worse, however, was to come, for off Bache Island the boats were frozen into the ice so securely that they had no choice but to abandon them, and so adverse were the conditions that nineteen days were spent in struggling to the shore which was only thirteen miles distant when they started for it.
At last, however, they succeeded in effecting a landing between Cape Sabine and Cape Isabella, but they were now really in little better case than before. They were all in good health, it is true, and they had saved their instruments and the valuable records of their doings, but they were desperately short of provisions, and the shore on which they found themselves was inhospitable in the last degree. However, there was nothing for it but to make the best of a bad business. Accordingly, some set about hunting, some started the erection of winter quarters, while others went out in search of cairns and records. It was on Cape Sabine that one of these parties found a record which told them why the Proteus had not put in an appearance at Lady Franklin Sound. While on her way thither in July 1883, the record said, she had been crushed by the ice north of the Cape, and rendered absolutely useless for further service. She had, however, left a store of provisions there, and her commander, Lieutenant E. A. Garlington, left a message there to say that he would attempt to join the U.S.S. Yantic with all possible rapidity with a view to obtaining immediate succour for the distressed party. Unfortunately for them, the Yantic, which was under orders to repair to Littleton Island, was only a fair-weather vessel, and could render them no assistance whatever.
Greely repaired immediately to Cape Sabine, and erected winter quarters on Bedford Pim Island. The cache spoken of by Garlington was there, it is true, but it was miserably inadequate, and the party found themselves face to face with the terrible necessity of passing a long Arctic winter poorly housed, inadequately clad, and with only forty days’ rations. From that time Greely’s diary is one long tale of horror. Hunger, starvation and scurvy played fearful havoc among the men, and their condition soon became deplorable. Up till the beginning of April the expedition had only lost one of its members, but the 5th of that month saw the beginning of the end, and from that day onwards deaths were terribly frequent. Lockwood, Kislingbury, Israel, the astronomer, and Dr Pavy all sickened and died within a few weeks of one another; Rice, the photographer, perished while attempting to take up a cache; Jens died while out hunting; while Henry, who acted as cook, had to be executed for stealing from the small store of provisions left to the famine-stricken men.
At last, on June 22, 1884, Greely was astonished to hear the sound of a steamer’s whistle. He was too weak to leave the hut himself, but one of the few survivors of his party brought in news of the arrival of two relief ships, the Thetis and the Bear, under the command of Captain W. S. Schley and Commander H. H. Emory. No time was lost in taking Greely and his men on board, and they were conveyed back to America forthwith, one more death taking place on the voyage.
We now come to a part of the story which is omitted from most histories of this expedition, but which ought to be given in full, terrible though it unquestionably is. We have already mentioned that the Secretary for War of that day, Mr Robert T. Lincoln, was not too well disposed towards the expedition from the start, and that he put many difficulties in its way before it left American shores. Incredible though it may seem, it was in the same spirit that the authorities approached the relief expeditions, and there can be no question whatever that most, if not all, of Greely’s men could have been saved if the original plans had been properly carried out.