The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-07-13
ARCTIC HEROES.
The Fortitude Displayed by De Long ana
His Companions-Loyal to the Last.

| The Fortftude Displayed by De Long ana
His Companions-Loyal to the Last.
The diary of Lieutenant De Long,
found beside his body, extends from
October to October 80, 1881. 1t is
the record of terrible suffering borne
with indomitable heroism and ending
in death. There is not in literature q
nobler or more pathetic story.
De Long and his men died of cold
and hunger. They supported lie
during thirty days by the adoption of
every means known to shipwrecked men
except cannibalism. No one seems to
have thought of that horrible expedient
At first they had little dog meat, and
they managed to shoot two or three ptar-
migans then they were reduced to tea
made OF willow twigs and to alcohol. At
last they gnawed the leather of their
boots and bits of deer skin, and then,
too weak to continue their march, lay
down to die, They were slowly dying
of starvation for fully three weeks, and
In this condition had to resist as best
they could the terrible cold. Through
it all they never lost their courage.
Gall hands weak aud feeble, but cheer
full" wrote De Long, when it must have
been perfectly clear that nothing but q
miracle could save the party from death.
There is not line in the whole diary of
complaint or murmuring against God or
man.
1t too often happens that discipline
vanishes among shipwrecked men, and
that the selfish desire for life leads to
inhumanity, if not to actual crime.
There is no such stain in the story of the
crew of the Jeanette. De Long
seems to have maintained his authority
unquestioned to the last, and his men
evidently shared his generous spirit.
For days they dragged sick comrade
with them lashed to sled, and never
! seem to have thought of abandoning
him in order to increase their own
chances OF reachinga settlement. The
officers and men never manifested the
slightest hesitation between duty and
selfishness. They clung together and
helped one another Loyalty while living,
and so long as the survivors had
strength their dead comrades were
given Christian burial. There was ap-
parently no difference in the bearing
and devotion of De Long, the Ameri-
can, Erickson the Dane or All Sam the
Chinaman. Every man of the little
band was hero. knowing how to do his
duty and doing it with unflinching faith
fulness.
In their distress the shipwrecked
men turned for help to God. In De
Longs diary there is constant mention
of religious services. When the faith
ful AleIy wes dying the surgeon bap-
tized him, and when all hope had gone
we are told that call hands united in
saying the Lords prayer and Creed"
The humble, cheerful trust in God and
submission to His will, of which De
| Longs diary gives constant evidence,
show us that it was band of Christian
heroes that perished in the Siberian
snow.
Bitterly as we may at first sight re-
gret that so many noble lives have been
lost, the men of the Jeannettes crew
did not die in vain. Their fate suggests
that beautiful passage in the prayer
book where we thank God for those
who have departed this life in His fear.
DeLong and his men have made us
prouder of our humanity. They have
shown us to what sublime heights of
heroism educated officers and ignorant
seaman can alike attain. They have
given an example of calm and cheerful
performance of duty which is without
price. They have shown us once more
that faith in God can survive all suffer
ing. Let us thank God for the life and
death of these heroic men. 1t is i'm
possible that their heroism can fail to
bear its priceless and perennial fruit.
But let US have no more costly sacri-
fees of life in the vain search for the
pole. 1t is idle rs we'll as ungenerous
o blame the prof of the Jeanette
expedition for it's disastrous failure.
The vessel was to follow route hither-
to untried, and there was ample justifi-
cation for testing the question whether
the pole could be reached by that route.
Exploration becomes upjustifiable only
when it is demonstrated that the end
sought cannot be attained in spite OF
every effort and sacrifi ;e. When the
Jeanette sailed it had not been de-
monsiratel that the pole could not
be reached by steering northward
from Wrangell Land. Her experience
has now proved that the ice barrier is
as impenetrable in that direction as it is
wherever else it has been attacked.
The chances that the pole can never be
reached are now so infinitesimally small
that We are not justified in wasting any
more lives in polar expeditions. To
send out another expedition would
show a reckless indifference to human
life of which any nation ought to be
ashamed. Let us close the record OF
hopeless hefoism ard useless suffering
in the frozen sea with the story of the
noblest Of all the Arctic heroes, George
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