The Indianapolis journal., 1884-07-18
GEORGE KEENAN,.
Views of a Veteran Traveller and Authority
in Arctic Matters.

Views of Veteran Traveller and Authority
in Arctic Matters.
WASHINGTON, July 17.-Mr George Kennan.
of this city the well-known arctic traveller and
author, who has taken an active interest in the
recent attempt to relieve Lieutenant Greely's
party, and who went before the arctic relief
board, last spring to urge the offering of such a
reward as would secure the cooperation of
whalers in the search, was asked by an Assoei
ated Press reporter, tonight, what he thought
of the news received from St Johns. He re-.
piled:
at is a story of remarkable and heroic
achievement in a field clouded by disaster due
to Incompetence in Washington. If Lieutenant
Greely and his party had all returned in safety
to the United States, as they might have done,
had they been properly supported, their
arctic record, in point of skilful man
agement and success, would have
been unparalleled No other arctic
expedition has ever spent two consecutive win
ters and part of a third in such high latitudes
and achieved such results without casualty or
a single case of serious sickness. If Lieutenant
Greedy had found at the mouth of Smiths sound
the shelter and food which he had a right to
tire party back to the United States in perfect
health, after three winters in the highest north
ern ATTITUDES that have ever been reached, and
after series of sledging campaigns which for
boldness and skillful execution, have rarely, if
ever, been surpassed
Gould the disaster which befell his party have
been averted with the knowledge available at the
time the relief expeditions were fitted out2"
"Unquestionably; and that is the pity of it. It
doubles the grief which must be felt in the face of
such terrible catastrophe to think that two ships
on, successive years, and probably third, were
in position to land stores which would have
saved the lives of those eighteen dead men.
Beebe, in 1882, anchored in Payer harbor, Just
north of Cape Sabine, with ship full of stores
Darlington, the next summer, anchored in the
same place, also with ship full of stores and
few days later the Yantic, with four months
provisions on board, was only thirty miles away.
Any one of these three ships might have landed
stores enough, exactly where Greedy afterward
made his winter camp, to have carried that brave
party through; but their commanding officers
we're not ordered to do so, and they did not
think of it.
Were Greelys movements those which it
was anticipated he would maker
They were precisely such as anticipated.
1t was thought at the signal Office that he would
remain at his station until Sept /, but as
pointed out in a letter to the New York Herald
on the 18th of last September, if he remained
until Sept. he could not get away at all that
year, account of the impracticability of sledg-
ing operations along that coast in the fall.
therefore thought he would abandon his station
in July or August 1883 and come down to the
mouth of Smiths sound in boats, as he was, in
fact doing at the very time my letter was writ
ten. 1t was of course, a terrible shock and dis
appointment to him when he failed to find the
shelter and food which he expected, but the
party seems to have faced the terrors of an
arctic winter without shelter fire OF adequate
food, in the most heroic way, and to have
held out to the last with unflinchng courage
and tenacity. If few hundred more rations
could have been saved from the wreck of the
Proteus they would have carried the whole
last spring after the 4th of April
WHERE THE STORES SHOULD HAVE BEEN
LANDED.
ssIf Lieutenant Darlington had landed stores
on his way north at Littleton island. in accord
ance with what were known as his supplement-
airy instructions, would such stores have been
of any use to Lieutenant Greelyp
GAS it turned out, not the slightest
'sThere were few hundred rations on Little
ton island, but Greedy could not get across the
tossing ice Of Smiths sound to avail himself of
pointed out by DR.. Hoadly, Mr.. Mer-
rriam and Others and as shown by
the example of the Mares expedition, was
the western coast Of the sound, the coast
that Greedy must come down, not the opposite
coast, which he might never reach. 1t is to the
caches made by the British expedition Of 1875,
on the Western coast, that few survivors of
Lieutspant Greely's party mainly owe their
livess'
How Important are the discoveries made by
Lieutenant Greely2n
From the point Of view Of an artic geogra-
pher they are of hrstc class importance Lieuten