New-York tribune., 1882-04-11
AATAL BOARUS REPORT.

1t is an unpleasant surprise to find that Engi-
neer Melville's apprehensiOns in regard to the
Jeanette were shared by the Naval Board
which examined her in june 1879. The
official report, which we published yesterday
from the files of the Navy Department, shows
that while the vessel had been repaired,
strengthened and put in condition so far as was
practicable, she was not fitted for the danger
ous errand on which she was dispatched. The
work of reconstruction is described in detail.
and it is plain that everything that could be
done to make her seaworthy was done. But
the glaring fact remains that the Naval Board
expressed on the eve of her departure from San
Francisco deliberate conviction that she was
not fitted for the work that lay before her.
For an extended cruise in the Arctic regions,
they said, it was not possible, in our opinion,
" to make her particularly adapted for such
service 1t does not appear, therefore, that
Engineer Melyille's judgment was at fault
when he confessed in his letters to his wife
that the vessel was worse than the Tigris and
would never do for such voyage, adding
Some of us may weather it, but | am sure the
Jeanette will never weather it, she will
"never stand the ice." He had an official war
rant for his secret misgiyings and gloomy fore
bodings.
The unfavorable judgment of Engineer Mel
vile and the Naval Board had been anticipated
by one of the most experienced and successful
of Arctic navigators. When Professor Nor
denskiold was organizing his expedition for the
Northeast passage, the selection of ship was
made with great delberation. Captain Pa
lander, who had accompanied him IN previous
expeditions to Iceland and the mouth of the
Yensej, inspected a large number of vessels,
and finally made Journey to England to look
at the Pandora, Sir Allan Young's famous YES
sci, which had recently returned from Smith
Sound. He condemned her at once as untitled
for extended service in Arctic waters. Captain
Palander would not buy her because, as Lieu
tenant Hovgaard explains in his account of
the Vegas voyage, he "required more of the
ship which should accomplish the Northeast
passage than the Pandora could accomplish"
The vessel which was condemned by that ex-
perienced explorer was chosen for a new drift
ing expedition in the wake Of the Tegetthof.
" REPAIRED and placed in condition so far as
practicable" she was sent out to winter in the
open pack, when not only her brave engineer
but the Naval Board of Examiners knew that
it "was not possible to make her particularly
adapted for an extended cruise in the Arctic
regions.
The advantages derived from the Jeanette
expedition are all of a negative kind The
voyage of the Tegetthoff demonstrated the ter
rible risks incurred in wintering in the open
sea, but the Importance of the discoveries that
were made in Franz-Josef Land seemed to JUS
tify the undertaking. At all events The ship
was strong enough to resist the tremendous
pressures of the ice, and the officers and crew
escaped. The Jeanette leaked from the mo-
ment she entered the ice and she finally went
down after the crew had been mt the pumps
for nearly twenty months In future explora-
tons, wintering in the pack should be entirely
out of the question. Moreover, vessels should
not he bought suddenly for Arctic service, and
then repaired under the supervision Of a Naval
Board of Examiners. They should be pur-
chased or built under the direction of compe-
tent examiners, and sent toward the Pole, not
because they can be bought cheap" but be-
cause they are "particularly adapted" fer
cruising IN high ATTITUDES.