The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-21
TERRIBLE PLIGHT
 OF EXPLORERS Sad Experience of GreoIy's Party of Pole Seekers AT DISCOVERY HARBOR The Party Lived on Skins and Old Shoes for Months-Relef Ship
 Is Delayed-Rammed ..
 in Ice.
AT DISCOVERY HARBOR
From the Detroit News Tribune.

From the Detroit News Tribune
 Lieutenant Greedy and a party of 24 officers and men were landed by the seal CT Proteus in July, 1881, at Discovery Harbor, where winter quarters were es- abolished, and the vessel then left them to return to Newfoundland. The cold | during the first winter was intense, but useful work was done, and health main- ! tained by a plentiful diet, exercise and ! amusements. Lieutenant Lockwood and Sergeant Brainard were especially active and made several daring and important sled trips, their efforts being crowned with success, for in May, 1882, they at l tained the farthest north then reached by man. I dined with Colonel then Ser geanD Brainard in New York only re- i gently and the reader may therefore rely on the accuracy of the following brief account of the Greedy expedition and it's ! lamentable termination.
 i In the summer of 1882 the entire party reached Ft. Conger Cor a stone cairn so named), whence sled journeys were Acon- tinued northward the leader penetrating Grinnell Land, and ascending it's high est peak. 450O feet above the sea. Thus Greedy, Lieutenant Lockwood and Ser geant Brainard opened up altogether about 5000 square miles of new land and discovered fertile valleys supporting herds of musk oxen (which, by the way, Com mander Peary told me he intended to utilize as food in his forthcoming dash ! for the pole).
 | But notwithstanding these satisfactory results, Greedy now began to feel uneasy, for the relief ship Proteus had not ar rived as arranged and, as subsequently transpred, for a very good reason, having been damned in the ice far away to the southward Before the return of the sun in 1883 stores were laid down at Cape Baird to enable the expedition to retreat if the ship again failed them the fol- lowing spring.
 And what was dreaded came to pass, for throughout that summer they watched in vain for the welcome smoke of a steamer. However. on August 29 a landing was effected between Capes Sa- bine and Isabella. with men in fairly good health, but shelterless, and with rapidly failing provisions. Then, slowly but sure ly. appeared the two fiends that too often beset the Arctic explorer-cold and hun l ger, followed by the gray hag, despair
 The long polar night had already be- gun, when on October 15 the last camp ing ground was reached, with clothing in rags. no fuel, and only 40 days rations, although no vessel could be expected for at least 250 However, a shanty of stones and canvas was constructed, and here the men law in cold, filth and semi da rkness, throughout that terrible winter, the stronger ones securing the coast for game and seals, which grew so scare that food gradually failed and the men began to die off. one by one, from scurvy. starva- ton and nnsanitary surroundings "This hut will be our grave" wrote Greedy d week after it was built, and the prophecy was, to a great extent. fulfilled.
 \ Yet the month of June came, and found 14 still alive, Greedy and Brainard among among them. Now, however deaths oc- cured more frequently, for summer, with it's dense mists and chilly gales, was even harder to bear than the intense but healthier cold of winter.
 But there were tragedies worse than those-one of the men, Private Henry, had been repeatedly caught pilfering the miserable store of rations, and was 1 warned that death by a rifle bullet would 1 quickly follow a repetition of the offense. l But it was soon repeated by the poor wretch, probably maddened by hunger, and he was caught red-handed, and sum- marily shot by three of his comrades. 1 Private Henry will be executed today was Greelys written order, which must | have seemed almost unnecessary when men were dying every day from natural causes. The desperate straits to which the few survivors had now come is shown by the assertion of one man accused by another of stealing some rancid seal meat As l am a dying man., said the poor fellow it is untrue;' I only ate a boot and part of an old pair of pants, and they belonged to mel
 All were quietly waiting and longing for the end, when suddenly a steamer $ whistle was faintly heard above the roar ing of the wind The relief had come at last in the shape of the Thetis dhe vessel, by the way, which conveyed my Paris-N New York expedition across Boring Straits), which had risked 10 days of inn minent peril to gain this almost inacces- sible spot A few minutes later strange voices were heard, and it gradually dawned upon the seven half-unconscious survivors of the Greedy expedition that
 they were saved. A bit of soaked seal
 skin had been their only food for the 4s
 hours before, and their appearance was
 so terrible to look upon that strong mer ] gave way to tears.