And who was this noble Commander, and what were his services?
George Washington De Long entered the navy in the year 1865, when he was twenty-one years old. In 1873 he was second in command on the Juniata, a ship that accompanied the Polaris arctic expedition, in which he performed distinguished services. When, therefore, the liberality of a private citizen fitted out another expedition for arctic exploration, this young officer was chosen to take the command of the perilous undertaking.
The Jeannette—a name that will never be forgotten while history records the deeds of brave men—sailed from San Francisco on July 8, 1879, with a crew of thirty-three men all told. About the end of September the party had really entered upon the dangers and difficulties of arctic exploration. They were in the midst of great fields of ice, which drifted with the varying winds and currents, so that, although the ship was itself inactive, it was carried over great distances. On November 10, daylight disappeared, and a long night—a night that was to last for nearly three months—set in. In spite of their desolate situation, the gallant crew kept up their spirits, engaging in theatrical performances, and trying to brighten the gloom of an arctic winter by their cheerfulness.
In January, however, the ship sprang a leak, and all hands were kept busy at the pumps to keep the water down, and for eighteen months the pumps never ceased working. At last, however, the fight could be kept up no longer. On June 13, the Jeannette sank, and the crew were left encamped upon the ice, with no other hope of return than that which their three boats afforded.
Thus left almost destitute, Commander De Long had no other course open to him than to retreat. And what a gallant movement that was!
The three boats were two cutters and a whale-boat. The first, commanded by De Long, was twenty feet in length, and carried fourteen persons; the second, under Lieutenant Chipp, measured sixteen feet, and carried eight persons, and the whale-boat, which was larger than either of the others, being twenty-five feet long, was accompanied by eleven persons, under command of Engineer Melville. But though they had the boats, the gallant party could not launch them. They were in the midst of a sea, indeed, but it was a sea of solid ice, and for weeks the boats did not touch water, except for a short ferriage here and there where a break in the ice left a narrow strip of open sea. The boats were placed upon rudely built sleds, and for fifty-three weary days the resolute men dragged them over the ice. Some days they would make a mile; on others scarcely more than half that distance. Great hillocks of ice were to be surmounted, and cracks to be crossed, nearly every one of these being so wide that the sleds had to be let down into them and then hauled up on the other side.
Nor were these the only hardships that the retreating band had to encounter. The cold was intense, as may be imagined. Short rations and their fearful labor had reduced the strength of the men, so that one-quarter of the whole party had to be carried helpless on sleds, while almost all were suffering either from frost-bite or from the effect of the glare of the ice upon their eyes.
At last the retreating company reached comparatively open water. The boats were launched, and the party set sail for what they hoped would be a milder climate and a more hospitable shore.
Now, however, the perils by which they had been beset were increased. The cold was still as great as that which they had previously encountered, and it made itself more intensely felt now that the men were confined within the limits of small boats, and deprived of the active exercise which alone had kept the warmth in their bodies. The food supply was running so short that but scanty fare could be allowed, and the danger of drowning was added to that of perishing by cold and hunger.
For a few days all went fairly well, but during a gale that arose in the night the boats became separated, and in the morning the company on board the whale-boat scanned the dreary waters in vain for the sails of the boats manned by the crews of Commander De Long and Lieutenant Chipp. Engineer Melville's boat touched land on the delta of the Lena—a river which, flowing northward through Siberia, discharges itself into the arctic seas. Here the boat's crew met with hospitable treatment by the natives of those bleak and barren shores, and were all saved.