Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-01-12
Lieutenant BELONGS Report.
.wAsHINcroN nacewr

WASHINGTON, December g.
Lieutenant belongs report found beside
his dead body, has been made public. II makes
0'uco words, and details the incidents of the
sruise from the departure from San Fran
DISCO. in 1879, to January, 1881. Its princinal
feature is an elaborate account of belongs
views in regard to the expedition. He cousid-
cred 1t good Judgment to head for wrangell
Land. His idea was to adopt that land IA the
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: 1.-THE party was COM
PEELED to make virtue of necessity and stay
where we were. Sometimes all night, and
sometimes all day and night, from January 10
10 FEBRUARY 4, Sweetman 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-
pfished, 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 suoh ruinous expend-
iture Of fuel as had been necessary thereto
fore. 1t is for these reasons that / 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
or the winter and summer of 1880 is, for the
most part, a monotonous record of storms.
ice-mountains, constant anxiety, and almost
unDroken disappo ntment. 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
revoive In his mind the question whether IL
would not be better to abandon the ship and
make fer the northern coast Of Siberia over
the Ice than TO run the risk OF O second winter
in the pick.
Under date of September 20. 1880. he saws:
dislike naturally to dwell on the idea of the
Abandonment Of the ship. We h We come
through so much it gives me hopes of surviving
more. So 10 as enough of the ship remains
TO shelter US. st cking by that fragment is pref.
cradle to cam ing on the ice, and can con-
tempt to reach Siberia SAY go miles distant,
over the 1 Q that surrounds us and with a win
ters cold sapping ones fe at every step. OF
course, II we were to lose IT ship, we would
make an effort to get there but our chances
OF su cess would he extremely problematicaL"
~, The last entry tn the record + dated Decem
Der 81, IL o, and is as follows: "Minstrels are
ringing In the New Year in latitude % degrees
~ IN nut north, longitude III degrees 81
minutes east During the last sixteen months
we nave drlfted 800 miles-far enough, If IL
nad been In straight line, to carry us to and
beyond the pole, but we are vet only go mi ee
uoItuWesI Ot Wnere we were nrSt DeSet. We
have suffered injury, and danger has often
confronted us. We have been squeezed and
damned, tossed and tumblad. We have
notyet daunted. and are as ready to dare ev-
erything as we ever were. Aud 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 worls
were written the Jeanette was at the bottom
OF the Arctic Ocean and De Long lay dead in
the Lena Delta.