Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-01-11
Lieutenant DaLong,s~Rsoorr.
wAsHINGroE. December

WASHINGTON, December -
Lieutenant belongs report, found bes de
his dead body, has been made public. 1t makes
go GO words, and details the incidents of the
cr,iisa=from the departure from San Fran
| cisco, IN 1ST9, to January, 1881. Its principal
| feature is an elaborate account of belongs
views in regard to the expedition. He consid-
Iered it good Judgment to head for WrangeiI
| Land. His idea was to adopt that land a the
sippofeof the first winters campaign; he en-
bodies thetstory of how the land was sighted,
and how he expected to reach it. He graphic
ally described -hows on the next day, the
Jeanette became beset ip the ice peysr again
PEELED to make virtue of necessity and stay
where we were. Sometimes al night, and
sometimes all day aud hight, from January 10
to February f. Sweeffian and Nindermanf
stood down in the forepeak, thefs.y- winter flow
ing around them nearly to their knees, work
ing faithfully until their wock was accom-
plshed, and the good results of thai work were
evident in the gradually reduced amount of
water coming into the ship, and our ability to-
control the leak without such ruinous expend-
iture of fuel as had been niece ssary thereto
fore. 1t is for these reasons that 4 b I'VE had
the honor to recommend these two men to you
for medals of honor as Il recognition of heroic
conduct under the most trying circum-
stances"
of the winter and summer of 1850 is, for the.
most part, monotonOus record of storms,
ice-mountans, constant anxiety, and almost
unbrokcn disappo; ntment. As the short Arc
tie summer drew to a close without setting the
Jeanette free, and another dreary winter APP
preached, Captain De Long evidently began to-
reyolve in his mind the question whether it
would not be better to abandon the ship and
make for the northern coast of Siberia over
the ice than to run the risk of second winter
in the pack.
Under date of September 20, 1880, he says:
"I dislike naturally to dwell on the idea of the
abandonment of the ship. We b We come
through so much it gives me hopes of surviving
more So long as enough of the ship remains
to shelter us, sticking by that fragment is pref
cradle to camping the ice. and can con-
ceive of no greater fOrlOrn hope than an at
tempt 10 reach Siberia SAY 30 miles distant)
over the ice that surrounds u.s. and with win
ter's cold sapping ones life at every step. OF
course, if we were to lose oar ship, we would
make an effort to get there, but our chances
The last entry In the record i, dated Decem-
Der 81, 1870, and is as follows: Ministries are
ringing in the New Year in latitude - degrees
IS minutes north, longitude 177 degrees b
minutes east. During the last sixteen months
we have drifted 1900 miles-far enough, if it
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 first beset We
have suffered injury, and danger has often
confronted us. We have been squeezed and
pumped leaky ship for Il year, but we are
not vet 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 Bennett's enterprise,
and of the flag above us"
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.