The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1909-10-27
FOR CENTURIES RECORD OF ARCTIC ExPlO-
RATION HAD Been MARKED BY FAILURE.
Greatest Tragedies Of he Far North Were the Loss Of Capt John
Franklin and All His Men In 1845 and The Disaster 10
the De Long Expedition, In Which twenty Out
Of Thry-thres Men Perished.
pEARY MOST PERSISTENT OF ALL LATTER-DAY EXPLORERS.
Andss Tried In Balloon and Was Never Heard After M Had Started
Northwest Passage Made by Capt Amundsen 10000

| Inc EngllSn government In l14S pro
claimed an award of 100000 for the
discovery of the Northwest Passage.
In 1776 an act Of Parliament offered
reward Of $4,000 to any captain who
should first penetrate to within one
degree OF the Pole. Additional awards
were added later for explorers who
should attain lesser latitudes from 8s
degrees upward.
| After the outburst Of voyages In the
early part Of the seventeenth century
there was lapse of nearly 200 years
before hardy explorers plunged again
into the frozen north. The English
have the credit for the revival Of ex-
ploration. They started out two ex-
petitions In 1878, still searching for
Northern Passages across the top OF
the world. Peary and Ross took two
ships westward under orders to make
the northwest passage along the up
per part Of the American continent
Buchan and Franklin took two other
ships to the northeast to attempt the
Polar passage, by way of Spitzenberg.
Both expeditions got short distance
past the 8Oth parallel on their way
North, but did not succeed in reaching
the Pacific.
In 1927 this same energetic Capt
Parry started out on a voyage toward
the Pole using for the first time the
plan of the dash across the ice on
sledges. All previous explorers had
Il. hi, rhi Darr WI
Spitzenberg in a vessel. There ne
mounted two twenty-foot boats on
runners and loaded number OF dog
sledges and supplies. With these he
set out over the ice and Travelled 290
miles, only to be blown back nearly
half the distance gained by the
southerly drift of the ice. His farthest
north was so degrees, As minutes,
which set a record for the time.
Franklin and His Men Lost.
Next in order of time comes the Eng
lish expedition of Sir John Franklin,
the greatest tragedy of the Arctic, one
that aroused the interest and SYM
pathy of the civilized world. Franklin
sailed in 1S45 with two ships, the Ere
bus and Terror, containing 134 officers
and men. They went up the west coast
of Greenland and were last seen In
Bafin's Bay, latitude IA degrees, AZ
minutes.
After three years of complete silence
search was begun. In the ensuing six
years fifteen expeditions of various
kinds set out from England and Am
erica to hunt for Franklin and his men
but all in vain. In 1859 skeletons and
relics of disaster were found along
the coast of ing Williams Land, far
to the westward. In pile OF rocks
was this record of the voyage, the only
word from the dead:
April 25, 1S4S, H. M. ships Terror
and Erebus were deserted on April ~
five leagues N. N. w. of this, having
been beset since Sept. IL, 1886. The
officers and crew consisting Of 105 souls
under the command of Capt. F. r. M.
Crozier landed here in latitude 6s de-
grees 81 minutes AZ seconds NJ, longi-
tude SO degrees Al minutes w. Sir John
Franklin died on June II, 1S47, and
the total loss by deaths in the expedi-
ton has been to this date nine officers
and fifteen men,"
De Longs Attempt Fatal.
The next thrilling tragedy was the
loss of the American expedition under
Commander De Long in the steamer
Jeanette in 1881. The party went up
the Pacific coast through Behring
Strait and attempted to push their way
through the ice toward the Pole. The
ship was crushed and sank off the
north coast of Siberia. The men put
off in three boats. One commanded by
Lieut.. Chip was never heard OF. The
second, unG Engineer G. w. Melville,
!. reached lar safely, and with the AID
of natives searched for the others.
Commanf De Long and his party
of the thirt beat we're discovered by
relief exper tion in miserable huts on
the Siberian shore at the mouth OF the
, Lena river. Only two of this party
survived, and they were In the last
stages of starvation. In all twenty out
of the thirty-three men in the expedi-
, ton were lost.
: Soon afterward another expedition
under Lieut. Greedy started up the
= Greenland route. 1t had a horrible
l experience fdom cold and starvation.
When rescuers reached them in 1884
: in their last camp on desert island
north of Greenland only nineteen men
we're left alive out OF the twenty-four
that started out.
/, Peary Made Many Trials.
The most persistent explorer of re-
, cent years has been Commander Robert
' E. Peary, Of the United States navy.
: His first experience was in 1886, when
! he did some Greenland exploration.
Ever since then he has been working
: at the polar problem, making half
, dozen voyages under auspices OF geo
graphical and scientific societies. Each
I time he succeeded in forcing further
: north, reaching "a degrees II minutes