The National tribune., 1882-05-13
The End of it All.

De Long and ten members of his party puts
an end to all doubts concerning their fate
and renders it extremely improbable that
any better fortune attended the efforts of
Lieutenant Chipp and his crew to reach the
Siberian settlements. According to Lieu
tenant Danenhower's thrilling narrative of
the retreat from the Jeanette, the ships
company were divided into three nearly
equal parties, commanded respectively by
Captain DeLong, Engineer Melville, and
Lieutenant Chipp. They held together dur
ing the long and perilous journey across the
ice, and even when open water was reached,
at last and they were able to launch their
boats, they succeeded, at first, in keeping
within sight of each other. But they met
with heavy seas and rough weather, they
were repeatedly in danger of being swamped,
and, finally, during violent gale at night,
they were separated forever. Engineer
Melville's party eventually succeeded in
reaching the Lena River Delta, in New
Siberia, and were succored by the natives,
and it was while they were awaiting the
means of transportation to the nearest Rus
sian post that word reached them of the
arrival of two sailors who had been sent
out in advance by the Captain in search of
provisions, and they were thus assured that
L
impossible, however, owing to the season of
the year-the ice in the rivers not yet being
strong enough to make travelling safe
their own feeble condition, and the scarcity
of supplies, to go to the Captains rescue,
stores which they had brought with them
two days before the two sailors were sent
ahead, as a forlorn hope it is doubtful
whether, under any circumstances, aid could
have reached them in time. Instead of
endeavoring to enter the Lena River by one
of the openings along the eastern coast of
New Siberia, as Engineer Melville succeeded
in doing, the Captain seems to have shaped
his course so as to clear the northern
extremity of the island, and when he, at
last, made land, he was at the greatest
distance from Bulun-the nearest Russian
station. No language can convey any idea
of the sufferings which he must have under
gone in that bleak and desolate region while
waiting for death to release his starving crew
from their misery, and although we shall soon
knew from the books and papers which were
recovered at the scene the details of that
last struggle for life, no description, however
vivid, can do justice to the horrors of such
calamity. They perished almost within
reach of the friendly hands that were out
stretched to them, yet with no hope Of
rescue, and it is unutterably sad to think
that so much heroism, fortitude, and man
hood avaifed neither to save their lives nor
accomplish any memorable achievement for
science Martyrs to rash ambition, they
have left behind them only the record of
their futile voyage to commemorate their fate.
Doubtless the search for Lieutenant
Chipp's party will be pursued until every
possible place of refuge has been explored
but as yet no trace of their whereabouts has
been discovered, and it is more than probable
that they never succeeded in reaching land
Their boat was far from seaworthy, and it
was so scantily provisioned that even if they
succeeded in overcoming the perils of the sea
they could not long have eluded death from
starvation. More cruel than the fate which
overlook Sir John Franklin, theirs befel
them at the very moment when escape be-
came possible.
So this, then, is the end of the Jeanette
expedition which was to have accomplished
such great things in the way of Arctic ex-
plorations. 1t is pitiful; yes, it is shameful
What can ever compensate the widows and
orphans that this hapless voyage has made
for the loss OF their dear ones! A plague on
polar expeditions and the ambitious minds
that project them! Better that the frozen
seas that girt the Pole should remain un-
fathomed and their barren islands 90 un-
named than that the lives of the great, the
good. and the brave should be sacrificed to
the Thirst for the Unknown.