“necessary to increase our force”: San Francisco Examiner, July 9, 1879.
“to the protective care”: Hoehling, The Jeannette Expedition, 31.
“shaken us adrift”: Guttridge, Icebound, 6.
“Any draft of yours”: Emma De Long, Explorer’s Wife, 157.
“Thank God I have a man”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:40.
“wolves will all come down”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 39.
“picked band of resolute men”: Ibid., 22.
“see with eyes not material”: “Interview with a band of Spirits, interestd in Arctic Explorations,” June 30, 1879, Emma De Long Papers.
“hollow centre of the earth”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:38.
“one of the most difficult things”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 21.
“information their experience might afford”: Ibid., 29.
“How we envy Captain De Long”: see www.south-pole.com/aspp005.htm.
“ominously silent”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 29.
“one of the oldest”: Ibid.
“Gentlemen, there isn’t much”: Ibid.
“dirty weather”: New York Herald, July 9, 1879.
“She’ll have it devilishly thick”: Ibid.
“Nature relented”: Ibid.
“bristling back of a huge porcupine”: San Francisco Chronicle, July 9, 1879.
“The taut little bark”: Daily Alta California, July 9, 1879.
“gazing with sorrowful eyes”: San Francisco Call, July 9, 1879.
“I have the honor to inform you”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 19.
“quite a mob”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:164.
“black with people”: Ibid., 1:165.
“moved so slowly”: San Francisco Chronicle, July 9, 1879.
“if the wind is favorable”: Vallejo Times, July 9, 1879.
“right royal”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 2.
“a mortification to me”: Guttridge, Icebound, 6.
“shabby treatment”: Emma De Long, Explorer’s Wife, 164.
“fat lumps of white smoke”: New York Herald, July 9, 1879.
“solemn amen to the godspeeds”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 2.
“brazen throats”: San Francisco Call, July 9, 1879.
“Farewell, brave boys”: New York Herald, July 9, 1879.
“The hour is at hand”: Ibid.
“Will you be a close companion”: Emma De Long, Explorer’s Wife, 161.
“a fortitude that was fairly heroic”: New York Herald, July 9, 1879.
“stand by your captain”: Emma De Long, Explorer’s Wife, 162.
“few dry eyes”: San Francisco Call, July 9, 1879.
“The silence was oppressive”: William Bradford in the Boston Herald, quoted in Emma De Long, Explorer’s Wife, 162–63.
“the full force of my going away”: Guttridge, Icebound, 7.
“devout silent prayer”: Emma De Long, Explorer’s Wife, 163.
“I craved only solitude”: Ibid.
“The ship is now beginning”: Guttridge, Icebound, 7.
“long dark pencil of shadow”: San Francisco Chronicle, July 9, 1879.
PART THREE: A GLORIOUS COUNTRY TO LEARN PATIENCE IN
16: A CUL-DE-SAC
Nordenskiöld had become the first: For the navigator’s first-person account of the voyage, see Nordenskiöld, The Voyage of the Vega Round Asia and Europe.
“Somewhere in the fog-wreathed”: Guttridge, Icebound, 65.
“no recognizable branch”: Annual Report of the Superintendant of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey 15 (1883), 101–32.
“no real gate of entrance”: Nourse, American Explorations in the Ice Zones, 368.
17: NIPPED
“a miserable place”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:48.
“as a kind of earthly paradise”: Ibid.
“wallowed like a pig”: Ibid., 1:42.
“and some wretchedly poor”: Ibid., 1:49.
“we let him pun away”: Ibid.
“almost made me grow gray”: Ibid.
“Melville would take him ashore”: De Long to Emma De Long, August 18, 1879, Emma De Long Papers.
“like a corpse resurrected”: Ibid., 1:42.
“His puns died out for a few days”: Ibid., 1:43.
“fine animals, young and active”: Ibid., 1:48.
“I was greatly touched”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 24.
“overpowered with emotion”: Ibid.
“they affectionately parted”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 3.
“buried by the sea”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:51.
“I discharged the Chinese boy”: Ibid., 1:52.
“trusting in God’s protection”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 26.
“Stockholm professional beauties”: Danenhower, Narrative of the “Jeannette,” 3.
“all our hearts were thankful”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:57.
“our Arctic cruise had actually commenced”: Danenhower, Narrative of the “Jeannette,” 4.
“one mass of snow and frost”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:59.
“we distinctly saw land”: Ibid.
“received in action with the ice”: Ibid., 1:60.
“our ancient mariner”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 16.
“ice cut off all chances of retreat”: Ibid., 6.
“Man proposes but God disposes”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:61.
“stood the concussions handsomely”: Danenhower, Narrative of the “Jeannette,” 5.
“We banked fires”: Ibid.
“It would take an earthquake”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:64.
“glorious country to learn patience in”: Ibid., 1:60.
last sighting anyone ever had: See De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 26–27, and Hoehling, The Jeannette Expedition, 44.
18: AMONG THE SWELLS
“give the coach of gaiety a good start”: Newport Mercury, August 2, 1879.
one day in mid-August: My account of Candy’s prank at the Reading Room is largely drawn from Newport newspaper accounts from the summer of 1879, and also from John Hanlon, “The Cradle of Tennis Was Meant to Be Rocky,” Sports Illustrated, September 2, 1968.
cradle of American tennis: See International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum, Tennis and the Newport Casino (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2011), and C. P. B. Jefferys, Newport: A Concise History (Newport: Newport Historical Society, 2008).
19: IF BY ANY MISCHANCE
“for a long, long vigil”: Emma De Long, Explorer’s Wife, 171.
he had made nine trips to the Arctic: For more on Bradford’s biography and art, see Frank Horch, “Photographs and Paintings by William Bradford,” American Art Journal 5, no. 2 (November 1973), 61–70.
“There is no phenomenon”: Anne-Marie Amy Kilkenny, “Life and Scenery in the Far North: William Bradford’s 1885 Lecture to the American Geographical Society,” American Art Journal 26, no. 1–2 (1994), 106–8.
“began to enjoy myself again”: Emma De Long, Explorer’s Wife, 169.
“Half a dozen times a day”: Ibid., 177.
“lovesick as I was eleven years ago”: Ibid.
“We are now hoisting”: Ibid., 188–89.
20: A DELUSION AND A SNARE
“as in a mould”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 9.
“as if she were in a dry dock”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:77.
“no longer tenable”: Danenhower, Narrative of the “Jeannette,” 13.
“the much-boasted continent”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 9.
“a delusion and a snare”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:180.
“until the last trump blows”: Ibid., 2:448.
“So
me of us talked about the polar region”: Danenhower, Narrative of the “Jeannette,” 18.
“Make um more seal”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 280.
“quiet dignity”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:133.
“contented with each other’s society”: Ibid., 1:133.
“The less I had to do with him”: Melville, quoted in Hoehling, The Jeannette Expedition, 47.
“as happy as can be”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:43.
“getting up a choir”: Ibid., 1:44.
“everybody would be coming here”: Ibid., 1:99.
“more like a man-of-war”: Ibid., 1:43.
“More and more a treasure”: Ibid., 1:48.
“bright as a dollar”: Ibid., 1:43.
“a few barrel hoops”: Ibid.
“howled dolefully”: Ibid., 1:65.
“the monarch of the polar regions”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 7.
“the thing was soon over”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:65.
“turned into a holiday”: Ibid.
“all hands were jubilant”: Ibid.
“seven beautiful young gulls”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 280.
“You give me an earache!”: Newcomb, quoted in Hoehling, The Jeannette Expedition, 59.
placed him in “a trap”: Guttridge, Icebound, 75.
“is not worth a damn”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:82.
“I begin to fear”: Ibid.
“gone ‘where the woodbine twineth’ ”: Ibid., 1:77.
21: FOREVER, ALMOST
“a bootblack might understand it”: Stross, The Wizard of Menlo Park, 79.
“The electric light is perfected”: New York Times, October 21, 1879.
“only the rich will burn candles”: Thomas Edison: Life of an Electrifying Man, 14.
“Forever, almost”: New York Herald, October 12, 1879.
22: INVISIBLE HANDS
“A rumble, a shriek, a groan”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:85.
“a marble yard, adrift”: Ibid.
“distant artillery”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 9.
“than an old Turkish graveyard”: Danenhower, Narrative of the “Jeannette,” 8.
“howls most unearthly”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 284.
“We live in a weary suspense”: Guttridge, Icebound, 106.
“we watched its terrible progress”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 12.
“The ship is all right now”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 282.
“Her time had not yet come”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 13.
“The discipline of the ship’s company”: Ibid., 10.
“The pack is no place for a ship”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:94.
“I shall undress”: Ibid., 1:95.
“most awful beauty”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:472.
“simply a beautiful spectacle”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:81.
“highly prized by all of us”: Ibid., 1:105.
“books would run away with him”: Ibid., 1:94.
“One night with Venus”: See Flaubert, The Letters of Gustave Flaubert, 1830–1857, 1:239.
“accept the situation and fight it out”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:105.
“dreariest day I have ever experienced”: Ibid., 1:102.
the sumptuous menu: the bill of fare is reprinted in De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 284.
“a fine compound”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:101.
“Because it supports the house”: Ibid., 1:104.
“the fingers supple and delicate”: Ibid.
“we all felt satisfied with the ship”: Ibid.
PART FOUR: WE ARE NOT YET DAUNTED
“My dearest husband”: All excerpts selected here and elsewhere from the letters Emma De Long sent to her husband are found in the Personal Papers of Emma Wotton De Long, loaned to the author by the De Long family.
23: ON THE LONE ICEBOUND SEA
“On the lone icebound sea”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 296.
“a very comely young miss”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:495.
“bound by a closer band”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 15.
“Job was never caught in pack ice”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:196.
“as long as she sticks to us”: Guttridge, Icebound, 133.
“hardworking as a horse”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:44.
“Not since Adam sinn’d”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 297.
“rattled off in fine style”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:156.
“where we get all our punishment”: Hoehling, The Jeannette Expedition, 49.
“fat as dumplings”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:156.
“other dogs him plenty whip”: Ibid., 1:81.
“possible food for his murderers”: Ibid., 1:82.
“far from death as ever”: Ibid., 1:160.
“sinking gradually from view”: Ibid., 1:212.
“What a life this is”: Ibid.
“let out a lot of turbid fluid”: Guttridge, Icebound, 121.
“the nerve and endurance of Danenhower”: Ibid.
“very much use to himself”: Ibid., 125.
“he can run monotonously, like a clock”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:468.
“appreciate now his thoughts and feelings”: Ibid., 2:480.
“a wonderful amount of nonsense”: Ibid.
“all my labor and zeal”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 1:185.
“We are not yet daunted”: The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:500.
“a new leaf in our book of luck”: Ibid., 2:501.
24: THE DISCOVERED COUNTRY
“something, then, besides ice”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:544.
“We have discovered something”: Ibid., 2:545.
“to let a man realize where he is”: Ibid.
“a second Goshen”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 16.
“distinguish the buck from the doe”: Ibid., 17.
“the treasury without its debts”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:546.
“it has not melted away”: Ibid.
“a chaos of ice”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 19.
“It is hard as flint”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:561.
“as woebegone as possible”: Ibid., 2:562.
“the mad pursuit of those behind”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 19.
“as a basketful of eels”: Ibid., 18.
“great blast furnace”: Ibid., 19.
“it grieved him sorely”: Ibid., 20.
“herculean feats of strength”: Ibid., 21.
“challenging our strange advent”: Ibid., 19.
no scrap of terra firma: In 1979, Henrietta Island—“Genriyetty Ostrov,” in Russian—would serve as the embarkation point for a famous Soviet skiing expedition to the North Pole.
“in the arms of Morpheus”: Ibid., 22.
“eats of it unsparingly”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:559.
“What use is it”: Ibid., 2:560.
a copper cylinder: This bleak memorial would remain undisturbed for fifty-seven years. In 1938, a team of Russian biologists attached to a Soviet icebreaker climbed Melville’s Head and found the case and cylinder lying beside a toppled cairn. The cylinder had been gnawed by polar bears, but inside, De Long’s account, written in his elegant spidery hand, was still faintly legible, though the parchment was ruined by water. Nearby, the Russian scientists located the flagstaff that Erichsen had planted, and an assortment of spent shotgun shells—no doubt remnants from Sharvell’s guillemot hunting. The artifacts were sent on to St. Pe
tersburg.
“flushed with the success of the undertaking”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 22.
“enduring the agonies of the lost”: Ibid., 24.
“a delight to us”: Ibid.
“to make the snow hiss”: Ibid.
“Away ran Bruin”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:562.
“a perilous journey has been accomplished”: Ibid., 2:566.
“the dogs yelling lustily”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 25.
“I am glad to see you back”: Ibid.
25: TIDINGS
“a ground work of truth”: Calvin Hooper, Report of the Cruise of the U.S. Revenue Steamer Thomas Corwin, 1881, 9.
“a symptom of success”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 38.
“I hope the silly prophecies”: Emma De Long, Explorer’s Wife, 192.
“as if he sat by her side”: Guttridge, Icebound, 148.
“Arctic exploration is marked”: Ibid., 155.
“he was in pure white”: Ibid., 148.
“bring back some tidings”: Muir, Cruise of the Corwin, xxi.
“looking at the biggest picture”: Bill McKibben, in his foreword to Muir’s Cruise of the Corwin, xv.
“fine icy time”: Muir, Cruise of the Corwin, xxxviii.
“they go to ruin generally”: Ibid., 15.
“perfectly nude in the severest weather”: Ibid., 33.
“generous nature of the natives”: Calvin Hooper, Report of the Cruise of the U.S. Revenue Steamer Thomas Corwin, 1881, 18.
“women are freely offered”: Ibid., 42.
“worth coming far to know them”: Muir, Cruise of the Corwin, 70.
“the story had traveled”: Ibid., 31.
“with many grains of allowance”: Ibid.
“nearly one quarter slang:”: Ibid., 105.
“manufactured on the spot”: Calvin Hooper, Report of the Cruise of the U.S. Revenue Steamer Thomas Corwin, 1881, 10.
“like a perennial mountain spring”: Muir, Cruise of the Corwin, 57.
“one of the worst old rascals”: Calvin Hooper, Report of the Cruise of the U.S. Revenue Steamer Thomas Corwin, 1881, 10.