THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE.'it
"AND the world is richer by this gift of suffering." With these pregnant words Mrs. Be Long concludes the narrative of her husband's ill-fated expedition. In the face of that dreary record of seemingly fruitless heroism, of apparent failure, we ask, "Is this true P" and we believe we may answer, "Yes." The record is the record of a leader of men, who entered the service in which he fell with an honourable purpose and a lofty aim ; who endured the disappointment of a noble nature with a patience which was the conquest of bitterness. Humanity is the richer for the lives of such men, their failure is worth many another man's success, their efforts have a vitalising power and quicken other pulses than their own to high endeavour. Yet the world is not the richer for volumes such as those before us,—their nine hundred pages might with advantage have been compressed into a ninth of that number. Who will wade through ponderous tomes filled page after page with records such as this :— " July 15th, Thursday.—Mr. Dunbar started out this morning, but soon returned, having found the lead of yesterday all closed up. 'Thus do things change in this part of the world. We made the dis- rovery this morning that the ship had come up one inch forward, and gone down an inch aft, caused probably by the encradling under- lying ice having melted sufficiently to change the point of support farther forward. It will give us something to watch from day to day. The forenoon gave us very fine weather. At noon I got the latitude, showing, I am sorry to say, a small sonthing. At two o'clock the sky became overcast, and from that time to midnight we had rain, mist, and thick fog. Although no material change occurred in the temperature (at midnight it was 32°), the sensation of cold was Increased about 100 per cent. The mist, fog, and rain seemed to penetrate to one's marrow in the most aggravating manner, and reminded him forcibly of the warmer times we have been accus- tomed to at home where no doubt this afternoon our friends have been suffering from heat, and sighing for ice and the shade. And thus, with our routine of eating, drinking, and sleeping, hourly weather obtervations, and the work of the ship, the day comes to an end, and, in the language of Mr. Wilfer, we can exclaim, Another one of them gone.'
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"July 19th, Monday.—I cannot help thinking, as I tarn over a new leaf and commence a fresh page, that I am wasting stationery in keeping a daily record of so unimportant matter as our daily life. Each night I am forced to admit that another day of our short season is slipping away without any result worthy of the spirit which con- veyed, and the enterprise which carried into effect, this present Arctic expedition. And the realization of our utter impotence to .change our fate in any way makes such an admission doubly dis-
• Ths Ship and Irs Journals ef George W. De Long. Editel by his Wife. 2 vols. London : litirau Paul. Trench, and Co. 18g.i.
agreeable. A bear in a trap, a bird in a cage, a ship in the ice, are alike held in bondage sharp and galling."
It was no fault of Commander De Long's that his log-book was, through his terrible misfortune, filled with such a record of dreary monotony, but neither is it the fault of the reader if he turns away from pages so wholly unattractive. The narrative, with all superfluous matter omitted, might have been com- pressed into one small volume, full of pathetic interest. Perhaps few men have ever entered life under circumstances less likely to foster a spirit of adventure and a capacity for endurance than George Washington De Long. He was an only child, "jealously guarded from outdoor influences, and restrained from the ordinary sports of boyhood." Swimming, boating, skating were all denied, and his chief companion was a girl cousin. As the years went on, be found three careers alone open to him, apparently ; he might be doctor, priest, or lawyer, with his parents' consent, but the most irresistible of all craves was upon him, the crave for the sea, and he could settle to nothing else. There seemed little chance of his overcoming all the obstacles in his path, when the break- ing-out of the war for the Uniongave a new turn to all thoughts ; and to save the lad from the perils of the Army, his father re-
luctantly consented to his entering the Navy, if he could obtain an appointment unassisted. And now George Be Long first discovered the metal he was made of. He won his way by sheer persistence, and ultimately applying himself vigorously to the work of the Naval Academy, " graduated with distinction in 1865, just as the war came to a close." His conduct on his first initiation in the service was characteristic of the future Com-
mander :—
"Be received his first orders for sea duty in November of that year, when he was ordered to Boston, to report to Admiral Stringham for duty on board the U S. steamer Canandaigua.' Upon arrival at the Navy yard he went at once to the vessel to inspect his quarters. He looked all over the ship, and finally entered the steerage, where he was to spend the next two years. He inspected it very thoroughly, and found that there were but two berths in it, while it was to be occupied by four midshipmen ; two therefore, it was plain, would have to swing in hammocks. This was not at all according to his views of what was proper, and off he set to see the admiral about it, and have the matter righted. On his way across the yard, be met some officers, who asked him where he was going. He told his errand, and they at once approved it in the most emphatic manner. That's right!' they said. The thing should be attended to. Just speak to the admiral positively about it, and you'll get what you want.' The young midshipman was shown into the office of Admiral Stringham, an erect gentleman, with white hair, and sharp, black eyes, who sat at his desk writing. His visitor advanced toward him, cap in hand, and said :—' Admiral, I am Midshipman De Long, of the U.S. steamer Canandaigua.' Sir, I have been inspecting my quarters on board, and I find only two bunks in the steerage for four midshipmen. I came, sir, to ask you to have two more berths put in before we start for sea.' 2he admiral looked up quickly, and said, "So you are Mid- shipman De Long, of the U.S. steamer 'Canandaigua ?"—' Yes, air.' Well, Midshipman Be Long, of the U.S. steamer Canandaigua,' I advise you to return on board the U.S. steamer Canandaigua,' and consider yourself very happy that you have any bunks at all in the steerage.' The admiral was better than his word, however. His amusement was greater than his amazement, and he ordered the additional bunks to be made. Years afterward he met again the innocent and resolute midshipman, and laughed heartily over their first encounter."
In 1873, Be Long, then a lieutenant, was ordered to the Juniata,' the man-of-war sent by the United States Govern- ment to the relief of the 'Polaris.' Reaching Upernavik with-
out succeeding in their object, and it being dangerous to attempt taking the larger vessel further north, Lieutenant De Long was appointed to the command of the steam-launch, the Little Juniata,' and sent on a perilous search expedition, daring which the indomitable energy, patience, and "passion for overcoming obstacles" which characterised him to the last were sufficiently manifested. To these qualities we may add a buoyant joyousness, the possession of which is, perhaps, the best and the rarest heritage which falls to the lot of man.
Undaunted by the hardships and perils to which he had been exposed in the Little Juniata,' Be Long desired, above all things, to take command of an expedition to the North Pole. He opened, for this purpose, communications with Mr. Gordon Bennett, which ended in the purchase of the 'Pandora' by that gentleman, and her being re-equipped for Polar exploration, under the new name of Jeannette.' The plan in the minds of Mr. Bennett and Be Long was to pursue the exploration by the Behring-Strait route ; the 'Jeannette' was to be sent round the Horn to San Francisco, and to be ready to start for the North early in the summer of 1879. With the history of that ill-fated vessel, the portion of the world that cares for Arctic travel is already well acquainted. In these pages attention has but recently been drawn to the experiences of the crew who were sent out from San Francisco to search for the survivors of the melancholy expedition.
The reasons for choosing the Bebring-Strait route were "the ,existence of the Japan current, flowing through Behring Strait to the north, and the supposed extent of Wrangel Island. It was hoped the warm waters of the current would open a way possibly to the Pole." On the supposition that Wrangel Island, now known to be a small island, was a vast continental tract, it was expected that the 'Jeannette,' in accordance with settled principles of Polar exploration, would follow its coast-line to the North, and when the vessel could work no further, sledge ex- peditions were to start along the ice-foot to make a still higher aatitude. Instead of all this, the old, dreary history of these explorations was re-enacted. In September, 1879, the ship was in the grip of the ice off Herald Island, and after twenty months of slow drifting was finally crushed and sank in June, 1881, in latitude 77° 15' north, longitude 155° 50' east. The conduct of the crew was admirable, and no precaution was neglected which could have ensured their safety. For three months the entire ship's company held together, under the direc- tion of De Long. Undismayed by storms, fogs, and ever- shifting fields of ice, they dragged themselves and their boats and sleds heavily laden with provisions over the terrible ice-hummocks, in the vain hope of reaching, by way of the New Siberian islands, the delta of the Lena. About ninety miles eastward of the Lena delta the boats were separated in a gale of wind, and before human aid was reached the greater number of the heroic little band had succumbed to cold and hunger. How far the expedition was altogether fruitless, we are not prepared to discuss. The discovery of two or three barren Quids of questionable extent can scarcely be deemed an adequate result, but added knowledge in some other respects is clearly not with- out its value. We would notice especially the absolute freedom of the entire crew amid all their privations from any touch of scurvy, so often the scourge of earlier expeditions. This freedom Be Long imputes greatly to the additional precautions taken to secure absolutely pure drinking water ; he and the ship's doctor (Dr. Ambler) were of opinion that the general belief that "ice formed at a temperature of 30° Fahrenheit will yield a perfectly pure and potable element" was erroneous. Dr. Ambler says," I have failed to find any ice of any degree of thickness up to five feet, or ice from any pools found on the floe surface, that would give a water absolutely free from salt." "Finally, we could not find it sufficiently pure to warrant its use, and we commenced to distil." The whole question of pure water and how to obtain it is full of interest, and the experience gained by the chief engineer, Mr. George Melville, as to the construction of vessels fitted for Arctic exploration will probably prove of considerable value ; but we take leave of these volumes with a conviction that if the really valuable matter they contain is to be made available to more than a very few readers, it must be com- pressed into more manageable compass, certainly into not more than one volume, easy to hold, and of which not more than one page in three can be skipped with impunity.
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