The ill-fated USS Jeannette was formerly the…
June 1881 CE
The ill-fated USS Jeannette was formerly the HMS Pandora, a Philomel-class gunvessel of the Royal Navy, purchased in 1875 by Sir Allen Young for his arctic voyages in 1875-1876.
The ship had been repurchased and renamed in 1878 by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., owner of the New York Herald.
Bennett is an Arctic enthusiast, and he had obtained the cooperation and assistance of the government in fitting out an expedition to the North Pole through the Bering Strait.
In March, Congress had authorized the detailing of naval officers to the expedition, and Lieutenant Commander George W. DeLong—a veteran Arctic explorer—had accompanied Bennett to Europe to select a ship.
After Jeannette was chosen and named, DeLong had sailed her from Le Havre to San Francisco, California during the summer and fall of 1878.
At Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Jeannette had been fitted with new boilers and other equipment.
Her hull had been massively reinforced to allow her to navigate the Arctic icepack.
Although privately owned, Jeannette was to sail under orders of the Navy, subject to naval laws and discipline.
The crew consists of thirty officers and men, and three civilians.
The ship contains the latest in scientific equipment; in addition to reaching the Pole through Bering Strait, scientific observation ranks high among the expedition's list of goals.
Jeannette had departed San Francisco on July 8, 1879, the Secretary of the Navy having added to her original instructions the task of searching for the long-overdue Swedish polar expedition of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (whose ship Vega had successfully traversed the Northeast Passage).
Jeannette had pushed northward to Alaska's Norton Sound and sent her last communication to Washington before starting north from St. Lawrence Bay, Siberia on August 27.
Under Lieutenant Commander DeLong's direction, the ship had sailed across the Chukchi Sea and sighted Herald Island on 4 September.
Soon afterward, she had been caught fast in the ice pack near Wrangel Island at 71°35′N 175°6′E.
For the next twenty-one months, Jeannette had drifted to the northwest, ever-closer to DeLong's goal, the North Pole itself.
He describes in his journal the important scientific records kept by the party: "A full meteorological record is kept, soundings are taken, astronomical observations made and positions computed, dip and declination of the needle observed and recorded… everything we can do is done as faithfully, as strictly, as mathematically as if we were at the Pole itself, or the lives of millions depended on our adherence to routine."
Two islands had been discovered in May 1881 and named Jeannette and Henrietta.
Bennett Island is discovered and claimed for the United States in early June.
On the night of June 12, the pressure of the ice finally begins to crush Jeannette when at 77°15′N 154°59′E.
DeLong and his men unload provisions and equipment onto the ice pack and the ship sinks the following morning.
The expedition now faces a long trek to the Siberian coast, with little hope of rescue even if successful..
They start off nevertheless for the Lena Delta, hauling their sledges with boats and supplies.