The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1882-06-01

what the Crew OF the Jeannette
had to Endure.
N. Y. Herald
Another portion of the narrative
of Lieutenant Danenhower is print
ed in the Herald to day. 1t tells
the story asthe adventures Of the
yeannette's company from the first
encampment on ice, Immediately
after the ship went down, to the
arrival ofthe three boats into the
open water hear the Lena Delta and
THEFT. separation there, and the story
Of the crew Of the whaleboat till the
arrival at q lucky haven in the Lena
River. 1t covers a period Of three
months. Perhaps no thirty three
men that have lived since the world
began ever struggled with finer reso-
luton. OF, a more tenacious spirit
against difficulties so apparently
insurmountable or hardships and
perils so unremitting.
Life itself would hardly be worth
such labors, but victory is. and
these heroes struggled thai they
might not be altogether vanquished
by the memorable forces. In such
circumstances men of the races of
tenderer fibre blow out their brains
or cut their throats and in the great
oblivion get away from that hard lot
that is before them, considering
more their personal sensation than
the thought OF the grander COM
radeship of life that every man is
necessary to every other. mall this
story we hear not word that is
contrary to discipline and absolute
good will.
1t was in fact an appalling future
that was before the little company
that gathered together on the loose
ice OF the Arctic drift on June ID,
1881. They were beside the grave
of their ship, they Were many hun
dred miles from the nearest shore
where they could hope for safety
and people living on the sides of a
volcano in constant eruption are in
a condition which is one Of absolute
stability and rest by comparison
with that of the navigators on the
movable masses of ice then in an ac-
tive process Of rupture ali disintegra
ton. Around them were the supplies
necessary to sustain life through a
peroid of their possible struggle,and
with these the boats that must be
taken along as necessary provis-
ions against the moment they might
come to open water. 10 drag three
boats was an addition to their other
burdens that made the prospects
of progress almost hopeless; yet to
60 on without the boats would in
yolve calamity so evidently and nee
essarily that they might as well stay
and die where they were. Boats,
provisions and all together were
slowed on eight sleds, and the ag-
gregate weight of the sleds, and the
loads was l5,400 pounds. Only
twenty-t two men were fit for duty
when the retreat began, and these
had to drag all, for the few dogs left
at this time were only equal to pull
ing two light sleds with stores for
immediate use. 1t was necessary
that all hands should take one sled
at time the distance of the daily
march, then return for another, and
so on, thus going over the distance
fifteen miles at least for the first
march. They made mile day.
Let nc one imagine that this drag
was over snow or smooth ice; for the
ice was as the face of a rocky coun-
try might be when recently tossed
into new ruggedness by an earth
quake, and between tipped up foes
the spaces were filled with snow in
to which men went as into traps.
Often these seem to have concealed
open assures in the ice and the men
had to be helped out of the sea be-
meath. Over open spaces of water
the burdens had to be ferried on
foes of Ice, and this seems to have
been the easiest mode of progress
on. Seven days they had gone
southwark in this laborious and soul
wearing way, making about a mile
or mile and halflin each twenty
four hours. Then an observation
was taken and it was found that
they were twentyseyen miles north.
ward of the point from which they
had started. By the drift of the
who.e mass of the Ice they had not
only lost their labor, but it would
take them thirty days to get to the
point at which that labor should have
placed them. Yet they did at last
reach the Lena Delta. In view Of
such difficulties it is more than ever
a subject of wonder that so many
of those who are missing were lost
on dry land, if lost they ale.