Jeannette Expedition (1879–1881)

Background

European exploration of the Arctic regions began in the 16th century, with searches for new routes to the Pacific via the Northeast and Northwest passages.

The Smith Sound route was not favored by everyone; among those who rejected it was leading cartographer August Petermann from Germany, widely known as the "Sage of Gotha."

In July 1873, the United States Navy dispatched USS Juniata to Greenland, to search for survivors from the Polaris expedition, which had disintegrated after the death of its leader, Charles Francis Hall.

James Gordon Bennett Jr. had succeeded his father as proprietor of the Herald in 1866. He had won renown in 1872, when his reporter Henry Morton Stanley, sent by Bennett to Africa in search of the British missionary-explorer David Livingstone, cabled that Livingstone had been found.

Preparation

As no suitable ship was available in the U.S., De Long went to England, where he found Young's Pandora on offer at $6,000. The vessel's Arctic pedigree made it seem ideal, but Young's hesitancy about selling delayed the purchase until late 1877.

In selecting his crew, De Long's priority was men with Arctic experience. For his second-in-command he chose lieutenant Charles W. Chipp, who had served with him on the Little Juniata adventure. Another veteran of the Polaris rescue mission, George W. Melville, was appointed as ship's engineer.

De Long quickly found himself at odds with the naval engineers at Mare Island, whose estimates of the work required to prepare Jeannette for the Arctic greatly exceeded his own judgement of what was necessary. De Long spent much time negotiating on Bennett's behalf with the Navy Department in an effort to reduce costs. In this he was broadly successful, but in other areas he faced setbacks.

Voyage

Jeannette's departure from San Francisco, on July 8, 1879, was a popular spectacle, witnessed by large crowds who came from all quarters of the city.

Jeannette initially made good speed northward; on September 2 she was about 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi) from the charted position of Wrangel's Land, but with ice thickening all around, movement became slow and erratic.

The initial direction of Jeannette's drift was haphazard, back and forth—on October 13, nearly a month after the ship was first trapped, Herald Island was still in sight.

Early in 1881, De Long noted that after sixteen months, Jeannette was still only 220 nautical miles (410 km; 250 mi) from the point where she had been trapped.

The entire crew of thirty-three men was still together. De Long's general plan was to march with dogs and sleds to the New Siberian Islands, somewhere to the south, and then use the boats to carry his party to the Siberian mainland.

Storm and landfall

The entire crew were still together on Semyenovsky Island. The boats left the island early in the morning of September 12, in fair weather. Thirteen men were with De Long in the large cutter, Chipp with seven others took the smaller cutter, while Melville and ten men sailed in the whaleboat. Danenhower, who outranked Melville, complained bitterly to De Long about being placed under the engineer's command, but De Long replied that Danenhower was unfit for duty, a view confirmed by Ambler. De Long instructed that the boats should each aim for a point indicated as "Cape Barkin" on the Petermann map; if they became separated, and landed in different areas, the parties should rendezvous at Bulun, a sizeable settlement about 100 miles (160 km) from the coast.

The boats made good progress through the morning, and Melville initially thought they might strike land after a single night at sea. In the afternoon the weather worsened; the boats separated and lost sight of each other. De Long used a sea anchor to stabilize his craft in the ferocious seas and, despite having his sail torn away by the wind, managed to hold a course to the west.

De Long party

De Long's party found no immediate sign at their landing-place of any human habitation, and had only a sketchy idea of where they were—Petermann's map provided few useful details. On September 19, having buried their non-essential possessions in a mound marked by a tent pole, they set out in search of settlements. Progress was hampered by the poor physical condition of the men, in particular Eriksen, who was badly affected by frostbite. On September 21 they halted at two empty huts, probably part of a hunting camp, where Alexey raised spirits by shooting a deer to replenish their dwindling food stocks. De Long allowed his exhausted party several days' rest before resuming the march.

On September 28 the party found a large hut, with signs of recent occupation–edible food in the store and moccasin tracks in the snow. When searches in the locality brought no sign of people, De Long decided to move on. By October 4, Eriksen could not continue; the party halted at another abandoned hut where, on October 6, Eriksen died. On October 9, with the condition of several men worsening, De Long decided to send two of the fittest in the group, Nindemann and Noros, to seek help.

Melville, Nindemann, and Noros

After resting at Arrhu, Melville's group moved out, aiming for the agreed rendezvous at Bulun. On September 19 they encountered native Tungus huntsmen, who led the party first to the tiny settlement of Little Borkhia, and then on to the larger village of Zemovialach. Here, locals advised them that they would have to wait for the river to freeze before attempting to reach Bulun.

After several weeks, Melville learned from a Russian traveler that two Americans were recuperating at Bulun. Weather conditions were now suitable for travel, so Melville hired a pair of expert local dog drivers to take him there. He left Danenhower in charge, with instructions to lead the party to Bulun as soon as practicable, and from there to proceed as best he could to Yakutsk, a large city hundreds of miles to the south. Melville arrived in Bulun on November 3, where he found Nindemann and Noros, weak but recovering.

From Nindemann and Noros, Melville learned of De Long's plight and his urgent need for rescue. The pair had endured a harrowing experience since leaving De Long nearly a month previously: they had struggled for ten days, sleeping in improvised shelters and eating what they could catch or shoot.

Searches

From Bulun, Melville sent messages to Washington and the Herald, advising them of Jeannette's loss and listing the survivors and missing parties. On November 5, he set out with two local guides, using rough maps supplied by Nindemann and Noros, to begin his search for De Long.

At the village of North Bulun, natives brought him notes left by De Long's party in cairns. One note directed Melville to the cache of logbooks and instruments that De Long had buried at his landing-place. Although now convinced that De Long and his comrades must have perished, Melville continued the search, but the encroaching Arctic winter meant that he could do no more that season. He returned to Bulun at the end of November and then traveled on to Yakutsk to be reunited with the other Jeannette survivors.

In January 1882, while most of the survivors began their long journey home, Melville, Nindemann and James Bartlett prepared to head a new search in the Lena Delta when weather allowed. They left Yakutsk on January 16, and resumed their search when the thaw began in mid-March. Beginning at the spot where Nindemann and Noros had left De Long the previous October, Melville began a systematic examination of the area.

Aftermath

Of the total expedition party of thirty-three men, thirteen returned alive to the U.S. The first group of survivors landed in New York in May 1882, but celebrations were deferred until the arrival, on September 13, of Melville, Nindemann, and Noros. They were welcomed as heroes, given a civic reception, and treated to a banquet at the celebrated Delmonico's restaurant.

Public interest in the Jeannette expedition had been high since the first news of the ship's fate had been received from Yakutsk. Bennett had dispatched several Herald reporters to Russia, including John P. Jackson, who had reached the Lena Delta and found De Long's tomb. In his zeal for a story, Jackson had opened the tomb to search for papers or other records, an act of desecration that Emma De Long described to Bennett as "the bitterest potion I had to swallow in my whole life". Jackson had also interviewed Danenhower, who made allegations of discord within the party and of ill-treatment of certain officers, particularly himself.

A naval inquiry into the loss of Jeannette convened at the beginning of October, at which the survivors were the principal witnesses.