News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-11-13
THE GREELY EXPEDITION.
REPORT OF COMMODORE SCHLEY
OF THE RELIEF PARTY.

REPORT OF COMMODORE sCHLEY
OF THE RELIEF PANTH'
Desperate Situation of the Explorers on
Arrival of the Rescuers.
The report of Commodore Winfield
Scott Schley. of the expedition under
his command for the relief of the Greedy
party, has been submitted to the Secre-
tary of the NAVY. It cites the orders
under which the expedition was organ
lied, and then enters upon a graphic
narrative of the events of the voyage.
Commander Schley describes as follows
the impressive scene inside Greely's tent
when finding the party:
Lieutenant Greedy was found in his
sleeping bag, his body inclined forward
and head resting upon his left hand. The
Book of Common Prayer was open and
held in his right hand. He appeared
to be reading prayers to Private Con-
nell, whose condition was most desper-
ate and critical. He was cold to the
waist; all sensation of hunger gone !;
was speechless and almost breathless ;
his eyes were fixed and CLASSY. Indeed,
his weakness was such that it was with
difficulty he swallowed the stimulants
given him by Drs. Green and Ames :;
his jaws had dropped, his heart was
barely pulsating and his body tempera-
ture very low.
This tender scene of helpless, al
most famished officer consoling a dying
companion, was in itself one that
brought tears to the eyes of the strong
est and stoutest of those who stood about
them on the merciful errand of relief.
Sergeants Brainard and Fredericks,
and Hospital Steward Bierderbick were
extremely weak and hardly able to stand;
they were no longer able to venture away
from their camp to seek food nor to pre-
pare the simple diet of boiled sealskin
nor to collect hchens, nor to catch
shrimps, upon which they had to de-
pend to a great extent to sustain life.
Their faces, hands and limbs were sWol-
len to such an extent that they could
not be recognized. This indicated that
the entire party had but short lease Of
life-probably not more than forty eight
hours at most. This fact was recognized
by them all, and had come to them from
their experience during that long and
desolate winter, in watching their dying
companions as one after another passed
away from among them forever.
Poor Sergeant Ellison was found in
his sleeping bag, where he had lain
helpless and hopeless for months, with
hands and feet frozen off. Strap ped to
one of the stumps was found a spoon,
which some companion had secured
there to enable him to feed himself.
his ply steal condition otherwise APP
peared to be the best of any of the sur
vivors, and this may be attributed to
the fact that each of his companions
had doled out to him from their small
allowance of food something to help
him, on account of his complete help
lessness to add anything to his own by
hunting about the rocks for hchens or
shrimp. He suffered no waste Of
strength by exertion incident thereto.
This care of Ellison was such as only
brave and generous men, suffering with
each other under the most desperate
circumstances, could think of.
Sergeant Long was very much re-
duced, though in somewhat better con-
dition than some Of the others. His
office of hunter for the starving party
had made it necessary to increase
slightly his pittance of food to maintain
his strength, that he might continue the
battle for food and life to the helpless.
In his case, however, the effect of this
continued effort had told its story in his
wasted form. Shorter and shorter jour
neys were made in good weather, while
in the frequent bad weather of that re-
gion his strength was so much impaired
that when the joyful signal whistle was
heard he had only strength enough left
to stagger out to the rocks overlooking
the water to see if the signal heard had
proceeded from ships in sight. His first
visit was bitter disappointment, as he
saw nothing. A second visit, fifteen
minutes later, brought him within fifty
yards of the Bears steam cutter and in
view of the relief ships coming around
Cape Sabine. When the steam cutter
seen, he rolInSown the ice-covered
fnforH lDtsn that the
location - 10 was just above the
cliff.
In the case of Sergeant Ellison the
medical officers were fearful from the
first that his chances of life were very
small. As soon as healthful food was
available and the digestive functions
should be re-established fully the health
full round of blood circulation would
begin its distribution of new life to the
injured parts, and Inflammation would
naturally occur. If Ellison's strength
should increase more rapidly than the
inflammation, amputation of the injured
parts would perhaps save his life. Sew
eral days after his rescue, June IS, Dr.
Green reported that Ellison was threat
ened with congestion Of the brain. The
symptoms increased rapidly until the
poor fellow lost his reason. AT Godhaven
his condition was so critical that the
surgeon of the expedition, after consul
tation, determined to alnputate both
feet above the ankle as the only chance
of life left the sufferer. Disease, how
ever, triumphed, and amid the bleak
scenes that had surrounded him for
three years in his heroic sacrifice, and
within the desolate solitude of that
region of everlasting ice and snow, sur
rounded by his sorrowing comrades, he
passed away about three a. m. of July
7, three days after the amputation.