The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-01-06
belongs Record.
WASHINGTON. Dec

WASHINGTON, December 20
Lieutenant belongs report, found beside
his dead body, has been made public 1t makes
9Q,1Co words, and details the incidents of the
cruise from the departure from San Fran
cisco, in 1879, to January, 1881. Its principal
feature is an elaborate account of belongs
views in regard to the expedition. He consd-
cred it good judgment to head for wrangen
Land. His idea was TO adopt that land as the
support of the first winters campaign; he EN-
bodies the story of how the land was sighted,
and how he expected 60 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 20 make virtue of necessity and stay
where we were. Sometimes all night and
sometimes all day and night, from January 10
TO February 4, Sweetman and Ninderman
stood down in the forepeak, the Icy water flow
ling 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 .ruinous expend-
iture of fuel as had been necessary thereto
FORE 1t is for these reasons that l 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 Longs record of the remainder
of the winter and summer of 1880 is, for the
most part, monotonous record of storms,
ice-mountans, constant anxiety, and almost
unbroken disappointment. AS the short Arc
tic summer drew to a close without setting the
Jeanette free, and another dreary winter APP
preached, Captain De Long evidently began to
revolve 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 a second winter
in the pack.
Under date of September 20, 1880, he says:
:" dislike naturally to dwell on the idea of the
abandonment of the ship. We hive come
through SO muchit 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 on the ice, and can con-
ceive of no greater forlorn hope than an at
tempt to reach Siberia (say $40 miles distant
over the ice that surrounds us, and with win
ters cold sapping ones life Mt every step. OF
| course, If we were to lose our ship, we would
make effort to get there, but our chances
of success would be extremely problematical."
The last entry in the record il dated Deem
/ Der 81, 1850, and is as follows: "Minstres are
/ ringing in the New Year in latitude 10 degrees
| As nutes north, longitude III degrees 81
| minutes east. During the last sixteen months
| we have drifted 1900 miles-far enough, If it
! uttI bttH III a sll llHc. W carry W duu
| beyond the pole, but we are yet only go miles
/ northwest of where we were first beset We
! have suffered injury, and danger has often
| confronted us. We have been squeezed and
! iammed tossed and tumbled. We have
pumped leaky ship for year. but we are
/ not vet daunted, and are as ready to dare ev-
/ erythlng 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 MS"
! In less than ten months after these words
! were written the Jeannette was at the bottom
of the Arctic Ocean and De Long lay dead in
| the Lena Delta.