McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-10-30
THE RELTEF OF GREEDY.
The Rescue as Detailed by Commodore Sch

The report of Commodore Winfield Scout
Schley, of the expedition under his commano
for the relief of the Greedy party. has peen
submitted to the secretary of the navy IL
cites the orders under which the expedition
was organized and then enters upon graphic
narrative of the events Of the voyage but
by far the most interesting portion or the re-
port is that describing the discovery anu Ieh-
cue of Greedy and his men. COmtnouOre oon-
lev relates as follows the impressive scenes
inside of Greely's tent: Lieutenant GreSy
was found in his sleeping bag, his Dooy inc Iae.
ed forward and his head resting upon ms IeIt
hand. A book of common prayer WAS open
and held in his right hand. He appeared "
be reading the prayers to Private C9,m i,,i
whose condition was most desperate ana criL-
cal. He was terribly cold, all sensation nav.
ing gone and he was speechless. ana almost
breathless. His eyes were nxed ana gassy
Indeed his weakness was such that III WIS
with difficulty he swallowed the sttmulants
given him by Doctors Green and Ames. ms
jaws had dropped: his heart was barely puisa-
ting, and his body temperature was getting
low This tender scene OF the helpless, almost
furnished officer cOnsOling his diving compan-
ion was In itself one that brought tears 10 tne
ewes of the strongest and stoutest or those
who stood about them on the merciful errand
of relief. Sergeants Brainard and Frederick
and Hospital Steward Brierback. were ex-
tremely weak and hardly able to stand. Tney
we @ no longer able to venture away from
their camp to seek food nor to prepare their
simple diet of sealskin; nor to collect iicnens'
nor to catch shrimps. on which they had 10
depend TO a great extent to sustain life. Their
face, hands and limbs were swollen 10
such an extent that they could not pc
recognized. This indicated that the entire
party had but short lease on life, probably
not more than forty hours at the most. ms
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 amongst them forever. Poor Ser
m
where he had lain helpless and hopeless for
months with hands and feet frozen on
Strapped to one of the stump5 was found
spoon, which some companion had strapped
there to enable him to feed himself. His
physical condition otherwise appeared to DO
the best of any of the survivors and this may
be attributed to the fact that each of his COM
panions had dOled out to him from their small
allowance of food something to help him. on
account of his complete helplessness to add
anything to his own by hunting about the
rocks for lichenS or catching ShrimpS. He
suffered no waste of strength by the eXertlnn
incident thereto. This care of Ellison was
such as only brave and generous men, suffer-
ing with each other under most desperate cir
cumstances, could think Of The remainder
of the report is taken up with statement of
the condition of the other survivors, descrip-
ton of the eShumatiOn of the dead bodies,
getting them on board ship and the measures
adopted for their preservation. In this con-
nectiOn il is stated that in preparing the
bodies of the dead for transportation it WAS
found that six of them had been cut and the
heshy parts removed to q greater or less eX-
tent. All the other bodies were found intact.
Commodore Schley speaks in terms of tn
highest commentator of all the officers and
men of his command.