Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-12-22
TEE Loss OF THE JEANETTE.


which has reached land is now free from
all danger. 1t must be realized that these
men have undergone the most terrible
hardships since leaving the ship, and in
the statement that De Long and his com.
paniona were all suffering from frost-bitten
limbs there is grave reason for apprehen-
sion that some of them may yet sink under
their sufferings. The experience of the
crew of the Jeanette after abandoning
the vessel must have been frightful, and
whatever provisions and other supplies
they may have been enabled to take with
them were doubtless consumed long before
the termination of their three months
struggle with the inclement Arctic weather.
The Jeanette was crushed In the ice last
June, either on the 18th or the sd flor
both dates are given in the dispatchesl.
This date indicates that the vessel was
destroyed when the ice broke up after the
winter, and the presumption therefore is
that she never succeeded in getting
away from her winter quarters. It is
stated by old whalers that the ice on this
side of the polar regions is much thicker
and more dangerous than on the other,
and Captain Hooper, of the Corwin, told
the Pacific Coast Geographical Society re-
Gently that if he was ordered to take his ship
in where the Jeanette went, he should
never expect to bring her out again. In
deed it appears that Lieutenant De Long
himself fully expected to have to abandon
his ship and come out with boats or sledges.
Had the vessel been crushed before the
breaking up of the ice, or at the beginning
of winter, it is probable that the crew
would have had much less officially in
making land, for they could then have
used sledges nearly or quite the entire dis
lance. The loss of the ship at the begin
ming of the short open season, however,
compelled them to rely upon the boats,
and with them they must have had to make
their way through broken ice and water SO
mixed together as to render progress ex-
ceedingly slow.
Boat journeys in the Arctic are also very
much more dangerous than sledge journeys,
because the men become cramped and stiff,
and are exposed to the action of the
cold almost without a chance to save
themselves from frost-bite by exercise.
This is no doubt the reason why Lieutenant
De Longs men are suffering from the cause
referred to. 1t is also probable that they
lost their instruments, or were obliged to
leave the ship so hurriedly that they could
not take them. We do not know how else
to account for the fact that they were
three months making five hundred miles,
even allowing for great difficulties in get
ting through the ice. Apparently they
could not have been able to use sledges at
all, or they left them and the dogs on the
vessel. They could hardly have taken the
dogs in the boats with them, though if the
latter were large they would not have been
overcrowdei with twelve men in each.
When the safety of the explorers has been
fully ascertained there will be great curl
osity concerning the movements of the
Jeanette since her departure, and up to
the time of her loss. 1t is curious that the
place where she appears to have been
crushed is comparatively speaking but
short distance from Franz josef Land,
xrbara che ,rao 1aeh baard From, NaarIx,
two years have elapsed since then, how
ever, and as one of them was an unusually
mild one for the Arctic, it must be pre-.
sumed that she did considerable work that
summer. 1t must be confessed, neverthe-
less, that the possibility of her having been
imprisoned nearly the whole time, suggests
itself, for If she had been free it seems very
unlikely that she would have returned
upon her own track in the manner ind.
Gated.
At present there is nothing to indicate
that she has added to the previous knowl-
edge Of the polar regions. In the absence
of information it looks as though she had
failed to get as far north as Professor
Nerdenskjold, though of course this may
be mistaken conclusion, based upon the
fact that the Jeannettes last winter quar-
tiers were further south than was anticipa-
ted. If she was fixed in the pack ice, and
was carried by the current which sets to
the northwestward, it remains to be ex-
planned why she did not drift further. ALI
these interesting questions, however, must
be put aside until some account of her
actual route reaches us. At least we may
be certain that the brave and skillful com.
mander of the Jeanette neglected no op-
portunity to push his explorations, and that
if he has failed it is because success was
impossible under the circumstances. But
there is another consideration which can
be discussed without waiting for more
news, and that is the difficulty, perhaps
we should say the impossibility, of build
ing any vessel capable of resisting the
enormous pressure of the ice in the polar
regions. The Jeanette was the strongest
and best prepared vessel that ever
entered those waters. Her build
was SO sharp and wedge like that
it was believed she could never be crushed,
but that the heaviest pressure could only
force her on top of the ice. She was so
braced inside as to present resistance to
pressure almost equal to that of solid
mass, and it was confidently expected by
experienced whalers that she could afford
to despise ordinary dangers. But the
Arctic ice is of caliber to take tie con-
ceit cut of the most skillful naval archi-
tect, and it must be concluded that when
the Jeannettes time came she was crushed
Ike an egg-shell notwithstanding her
heavy timbers and her stone and iron
braces and pillars and beams. And we
fear that it will also have to be realized
that her expedition has been a failure. If
it had not been we do lot think Lieutenant
De Long would have wintered where he
did. Perhaps, however. the discoveries
4 l.. - 4L1z1 x IL.