The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-09-20
Buddington's Side or the Polari
Story-The Junfata Overloaded.

Story-The Junfata Ovcrhauled.
The special dispatches TO the HERALD from
London give us the statement in brief of Cap
tain Buddington. It takes us back at once to
tho terrible scene on the 18th Of Octo-
Der, 1872. when the party on the
ice-Aoe were separated from the strained
and leaking Polaris. We have had the
story of those SO miraculously preserved who
were drifted fifteen hundred miles on the ice
foe, and the balance of the tale coming from
those so fsarfully sundered from their ship
mates is like story from the grave. 1t
will be remembered that Tyson's party
on the morrow of the separation
sighted the Polaris steering in under
the land, and that they signalled and signalled
in vain. 1t was then an open question
whether Buddingtons party had seen them or
not The question was still further subdivided
by the doubt whether, supposing the party on
the ice had been seen, Captain Buddington
had found it impossible to proceed to their
relief or had wilfully abandoned them. All
these points are covered in Captain Budding
toms statement In the first place, he says,
the party on tho ice-foe were never seen by
them after the separation. In the second
place, the condition of the Polaris leaves no
room for doubt that, even had they been
seen, any attempt to save them would have
been futile. We have also further particulars
as to the manner in which the winter was
passed in Lifeboat Cove, how the dreaded
scurvy broke out among the men, but, for
tunately in a mild form. The party
started southwark as soon as the water
opened, and sighted Cape York on
the Sd Of June. They were picked up, it is
now stated, on the 22d by the Ravenscraig
Thus, out of strange perils and unheard Of
adventures and out of the locked empire of
the ice oil who sailed away in the cause Of
science return home, save the gallant COM
mander, who lies in his frozen grave near
the dread regions it was his life's ambition to
explore
The action of Consul Molloy, of st. Johns,
in its promptness and intelligence and in its
success, lays the American people under
q deep obligation. He deserves hand
some recognition at the hands of the
government, whose well-meant but slow
and fumbling processes contrast so un-
favorably with his prompt chartering of the
Cabot and lucky overhauling seven hours after
of the Juniata, which had once more set out
for the north. The Tigress is still to be heard
from, and many here say that every hour
she remains out in this season adds materially
to her chances of being frozen in for the win
ter. She is expected at St Johns and it is
to be hoped will arrive there shortly, or else
the necessity may arise of sending another re-
lief expedition in turn after her.
The further the story is developed it sug-
gests the pertnency of the inquiry why the
Tgress did not touch at Cape York on her way
North in the first instance, or at least on her
return from Littleton Island. Commander
Greer may, in time, be able to give an
answer. There are always plenty Of Esqui-
maux OF Cape York, and it is scarcely
possible that they would not have been able to
tell something Of the course Of Buddington' s
party, hugging the Greenland coast as the
latter did in their progress south. After
Island, and being informed Of the southerly
route Of the party, it seems inexplicable that
Commander Greer should have run direct to
Upernavik without seeking light on the
search question at Cape York.
We have every reason to be thankful for the
issue as it stands. If pure providence had
been as slow as the government the story
would have been, we fear. different The
Tigress, the only missing vessel at present out
of the expedition and the search is much bet
ter fitted for the Polar regions than was the
ill-fated Polaris.