The Iola register., 1883-01-12
Lieutenant DeLonx's Report.

WASHINGTON, December q.
lieutenant DeLons's report found beside
his dead body, has been made public. 1t makes
5000 words, and details the incidents of the
cruise from the departure from San Fran
cisco. in 1873, to January, 1881. Its principal
feature is an elaborate account of belongs
views in regard to the expedition. He consid-
cred it good judgment to head for wrangell
Land. His idea was to adopt that land as tho
support of the first winters campaign: he en-
bodies the story of how the land was sighted,
and how he expected TO reach it. He graphic
ally described how, on the next day, the
Jeanette became beset In the ice, never again
to be relieved, and says: ''The party was COM
PEELED to maho virtue of necessity and stay
where we were. Sometimes all night and
sometimes all day and night, from January ~
to February 4, 7Sweetman and Ninderman
stood down in the forepeak, the icy water flow
ing around them nearly to their knees, work
ing faithfully until their work was accom-
plished and the good results of that work were
evident in the gradually reduced amount of
water coming into the ship, and our ability to
control the leak without such rIinous expend-
iture Of fuel as had been necessary thereto
fore. 1t is for these reasons that 1 have had
the honor to recommend these two men to you
for medals of honor as a recognition of heroic
conduct under the most trying circum-
stances"
Captain De Long's record Of the remainder
of the winter and summer Of 1880 is, for the
most part, q monotonous record of storms,
ice-mountalns, constant anxiety, and almost
unbroken disappointment. As the short Arc
tic summer drew to close without setting the
Jeanette free, and another dreary winter ap
preached, Captain De Long evidently began to
revolve in his mind the question whether IL
would not be better to abandon the ship and
make for the northern coast of Siberia over
the ice than 10 run the risk Of q second winter
in the pack.
Under date of September 90 1880, he says:
81 dislike naturally to dwell on the idea of the
abandonment of the ship. We hive come
through SO much II gives me hopes of surviving
more. So lorg as enough of the ship remains
to shelter us. sticking by that fragment is pref
ceive of no greater forlorn hope than an at.
tempt to reach Siberia (say go miles distant)
over the ice that surrounds us, and with win
ters cold sapping ones Life at every step. OF
course, IL we were to lose Our ship. we would
make an effort to get there, but our chances
of success would be extremely probIenatical"
The last entry in the record f dated Decem,
ringing in the New Year In latitude - degrees
IS minutes north, longitude l17 degrees 81
minutes east During the last sixteen months
had been in straight line. to carry us to and
beyond the pole. but we are yet only go mi es
northwest of where we were hrst beset. We
have suffered injury, end danger has often
confronted us. We have been squeezed and
jummed, tossed and tumbled. We have
pumped a leaky ship for year, but we are
not yet daunted. and are as ready TO dare ev-
erything as we ever were. And we face the
new year firmly, hoping to do something
worthy of ourselves, of Bennetts enterprise,
and of the flag above u.s."
In less than ten months after these wor Is
were written the Jeanette was at the bottom
of the Arctic Ocean and De Long lay dead in
the Lena Delta