The Portland daily press., 1883-09-14
GREELEY RELIEF EXPEDITION.
Arrival of the Yantic at st. Johns, N. F.
mo Tidings from Lieut. Greeley and
Party-The Relief Steamer Crushed in
the Ice Last July.

4uufcudy udto fopOEt5 ludb buo OEcciOy tolkOA
steamship Yantic has just arrived there with
lamentable tidings. No word, it appears, has
been heard from Lieut.. Greeley or his party.
The Proteus, having ON board the relief party,
was crushed in foe of ice at the entrance Of
Smiths Sound on the 23d of July last. Capt.
Pike, his crew, and the scientific party on
board the Proteus are passengers on the
Yantic.
This second failure to reach the Greeley
party with supplies and succor will cause the
gravest apprehensions for its safety. In ac-
cordance with the international plan for a
series of circumpolar stations for scientific
observations, Lieut.. Greeley and party of
observers, selected in part or wholly from the
Signal Service, were despatched in 1881 to
Lady Franklin Bay. There they were to
establish themselves, and to remain until re-
called. Arrangements were made to COM
municate with them in accordance with the
scheme outlined below in letter addressed
by Lieut.. Greeley to the Chief Signal Officer
of the army in August, 1881:
If the party does not reach here in 1882 there
should be sent in 1888 capable, energetic
officer with ten men, eight Of whom should
have had practical sea experience, provided
with three whaleboats and ample provisions
for 40 persons for Is months. The list of all
provisions taken by me this year would answer
exceedingly well. in case the vessel was
obliged to turn southwark she should not leave
Smith Sound, near Cape Sabine, before Sept.
10. IL should feave duplicates OF depots A
and of 1882 at two different points, one of
which should be between Cape Sabine and
Bache Island, the other to be an intermediate
depot between two depots already established.
Similar rules as to indicating locality should
be insisted on. Thus the Grinnell
Land coast would be covered with
seven depots of ten days provi-
sions in less than three hundred miles,
not including the two months supplies at Cape
Hawes. The party should then proceed to es-
tablish winter station at Polaris, winter quar-
ters at Lifeboat Cove, whore their main duty
would be to keep their telescopes on Cape Sa-
bine and the land to the northward. They
shonld have lumber enough for house and OBJ
servatory, 80 tons Of coal and complete meteor
illogical and magnetic outfit, being furnished
with dogs, sledges and native driver A party
of at least six men should proceed, when prac-
tieable, to Cape Sabine, whence q sledge party
northward of the two best fitted men should
reach Cape Hawks, if not Cape Collinson. Such
action from advice, experience and observation
seems to me all that can be done to insure our
safety. No deviation from these instructions
should be permitted. Latitude of action should
not be given to a relief party, who, on a known
coast, are searching for men who know their
plans and orders.
On July s, 1882. relief expedition sailed
from st. Johns, N. f., in the Neptune, under
the charge of Mr.. w. NJ. Beebe, Jr Every
effort was made to penetrate to the point agreed
upon, but Smith Sound was packed with ice,
and it was found impossible to get farther
northward than Cape Sabine. Here stores
were landed, and placed securely in cache,
together with a whaleboat; a cache was also
found, and supplies left at the northern end of
Littleton Island; and another whaleboat was
placed on Cape Isabella. This having been
done the expedition returned to Newfoundland,
reaching st. Johns on the Oath of September.
DR.. Hoadley, who accompanied this expedi-
tion, in letter published while the expedi-
tion, which has just failed of its purpose, was
being prepared, pointed out the varying and
uncertain conditions of the undertaking in
these words:
The voyage of the supply ship Neptune
bound Tor Lady Franklin Bay, to bear relief to
the Greeley Arctic colony, shows most conclus-
lively how little dependence is to be placed on
the conditions of the ice in the far North. 1t
was expected here that the Neptune would
have little difficulty in penetrating Smith
Sound and Kennedy Channel and landing
stores at Discovery Harbor for the colony loca-
ted there. The Proteus during the previous
season had made an extraordinary run to lati-
tude Slo 40', returning without. risk or delay
in September. The Neptune, leaving st.
Johns as early as July 8, 1882. found on July
20 an impossible barrier of ice extending from
Cape Sabine to Cape Ingles6eld, and after
waiting until September for an opening in
the pack (never being able to penetrate it far
ther than latitude 79o 2Q) returned to St.
Johns warned by the formation of new ice,
which was inches thick, that the attempt to
reach the colony must be deferred until anoth-
or season. The winter quarters of DR.. Kane
were nearly degree farther south than this.
The Release and Arctic in 1856 had their pro-
gress arrested in 78o 32. DIR. Hayes ship was
frozen in degree and half south of the Nep-
tunes farthest. The Pandora in 1876 could
scarcely more than enter Smith Sound, al
though the Alert and Discovery came down
from Lady Franklin Bay the same year. Cap.
tain Hall in 1873 with the Polaris, Sir George
Mares in 1875 with the Alert and Discovery,
and Lieutenant Greely in 1881 with the Pro-
teus, have gone beyond this barrier.
DR.. Hoadley made these facts the basis of a
warning, which has been justified by the re-
sult that what happened last year was likely
to occur again this year, and that the ice might
be found impenetrable.
The second relief expedition, under COM
mand of Lieut.. Darlington of the Seventh
Cavalry, and comprising fourteen men, sailed
from st. Johns, n. F.. about the 1st Of July in
the Proteus, commanded by Capt. Pike. 1t
carried sbundant supplies and was expected to
reach Smith Sound before the 1st of August
This it seems TO have done, but at the mouth Of
he Sound, at distance of 200 nautical miles
from Lieut. Greeley's station, 1t was crushed
in the ice, and the party on board
found refuge in the Yantic, and have
now returned to st. Johns. The failure is
even more deplorable than that of last year,
both because it is later and because no
supplies were landed. 1t was part Of the
plan that if Smith Sound should be blocked up
with ice, a relief party should be landed at
Iife-boat Cove, opposite Cape Sabine, and
there go into winter quarters. As early as
practicable 1.-THE effort was then to be made to
organize sledge party, cross the sound, and
proceed up the coast of Grinnell Land to Lieut..
Greeley's station In the meantime it was ex.
pected that Lieut.. Greeley and his party would
have started on their retreat down the same
coast, so that the two parties would meet. The