New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-10-15
DEIICACY IN TIE NATY

:. Now that the Jeanette has been at the bot
tom of the sea for about eighteen months,
naval experts are hurting out the truth
When she left San Francisco in the summer
of 1879 she was on all sides supposed to be a
staunch ship, well adapted for the hazardous
service upon which she had entered. She had
been oyerhaued, repaired and strengthened
under the supervision of competent engineers.
A Naval Board had formally inspected the
vessel, examined the details of reconstruction,
and allowed her to proceed on her Inflated
voyage. The experts are now Freeing thelr
minds"
Commander Calhoun. Commnndant Of the
Mare Island Navy Yard in 1879, tells the
Jeanette Board of Inquiry that it was i'm
possible to adapt the ship to long cruise in
high ATTITUDES. Chiet-Engineer Farmer,
member of the Board Of Inspection, admits
that some of the recommendations of the first
Board were rot carried out, but does not know
who was responsible for the deviations. He
considered the ship q safe one to 90 to sea H."
and "as we'll adapted to Arctic cruising as
remodelled vessel could be made" but con-
demned her model as untitled for such service.
The floor was too fat and she did not have as
much "dead rise" as was really needed con-
sequently she was more liable to get nipped
ain the ice and less likely to rise readily when
"caught between two cakes" Captain Johnson,
the senior member OF the Board OF Inspection,
explains why he and his colleagues did not
express a decided opinion upon the Jeannette's
untitness for the voyage at was private
enterprise" he says, land the vessel was pur-
"chased, which made it rather a delicate mat
"ter to express an unfavOrable opinion i'll an
"oflicial capacity. That is what influenced me,
"though | cannot say what actuated the other
"mcmb eIs of the Board"
This is q case of delicacy which exhausts our
patience The Board OF Inspectors had been
commissioned to inspect the Jeanette and
ascertain whether she was fitted for cruise in
the direction of the North Pole. If she was
not adapted for the dangerous service that was
before her, they should have said so outright.
The fact that the vessel had been purchased
by Mr.. Bennett, and that the expedition was
private enterprise, involved no question of
delicacy. The ship lay in the Government
dock, was registered as Government vessel,
and was to DE commanded and manned by
officers and men of the. United States Navy.
The Board of Inspectors had been appointed
by the Navy Department and were under no
obligations to conceal their unfavOrabe I'M
pressions of Mr.. Benefits vessel. They had
no right to allow any question of "delicacy"
to influence them in their official capacity.
Their duty was plain. II the Jeanette was
imperfectly modelled, overstrained by pre-
vious voyages to high atitudes and untitled
for three years cruise northward, where she
would be subjected to tremendous ice pres
sures, they should have said so.
1t was no secret that De Long expected to
winter in the open pack. He was heading for
a quarter of the Arctic which had not been ex-
plored and he had only a vague hope of finding
in Wrangell Land a new Greenland trending
northward. He told his companions that il
he could not find n harbOr lie should enter tho
ice and let the currents carry him whittier they
would. 1t was not an ordinary Arctic voyage,
but one which required not only the staunchest
and most seawortby vessel but one particularly
adapted for resisting ice pressures. The defect
In the model to which Chief-Engineer Farmer
refers was a radical One The lack of what he
terms "dead rise LETT her at the mercy of the
grinding foes. She was caught in the Ice and
exposed to enormous pressure, when II her
model had been different she might have been