35: REMEMBER ME IN NEW YORK
“tough as well-tanned leather”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 298.
“I can’t go on!”: Nindemann testimony before the Committee on Naval Affairs, Loss of the Steamer Jeannette, 180.
“His condition is serious indeed”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:761.
“do you know anything about frostbites?”: Loss of the Steamer Jeannette, 181.
“I saw something drop from my foot”: Ibid.
“cut off close to the neck”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:763.
“an important question”: Ibid.
“I cannot leave them”: Ibid.
“And when the dog is eaten—?”: Ibid., 2:758.
“By strategy unsurpassed”: Ibid., 2:765.
“We can remain here a day”: Ibid.
“surprise for the next visitor”: Ibid., 2:767.
“fresh embers and meat scraps”: Ibid., 2:774.
“the chart reconcile with the country”: Ibid., 2:769.
“If Chipp or Melville got through”: Ibid., 2:774.
“God grant that our smoke”: Ambler, “Private Journal,” 214.
“more or less used up”: Ibid.
“like tarpaulins over merchandise”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:762.
“some tidings of the two boats”: Ibid., 2:772.
“he may have to amputate”: Ibid., 2:772.
“If we can find a settlement”: Ambler, “Private Journal,” 214.
“Removed four toes”: Ibid., 214.
“May God pity us”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:778.
“contrabandists”: Hoehling, The Jeannette Expedition, 125.
“caught in a trap”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:775.
“intervene and carry him off”: Ibid., 2:776.
“weak and tremulous”: Ibid., 2:784.
“his life is in danger”: Ibid., 2:776.
“simply useless”: Ibid., 2:782.
“these records will go with me”: Guttridge, Icebound, 225.
“plan of running the machine”: Ibid., 210.
“a nauseating mess”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:787.
“There were some men”: Loss of the Steamer Jeannette, 190.
“such a dreary, wretched night”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:787.
“Peace to his soul”: Ambler, “Private Journal,” 215.
“What in God’s name”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:790.
“wandering in a labyrinth”: Ibid., 2:792.
“you would not get five miles”: Hoehling, The Jeannette Expedition, 130.
“I trust in God”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:791.
“just the clothes we stood in”: Loss of the Steamer Jeannette, 194.
“You see the condition we are in”: Ibid.
“my duty required me”: Ambler, “Private Journal,” 215.
“When you get to New York”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 137.
“God give them aid”: Ambler, “Private Journal,” 215.
36: IF IT TAKES MY LAST DOLLAR
“escaped curiosities”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 72.
“man shall reach that supreme spot”: Ibid., 75.
“We are not so hopeful”: Chicago Tribune, November 12, 1881.
Among the crew of the Rodgers: For a thorough first-person account of the voyage of the Rodgers in search of the Jeannette, see Gilder, Ice-Pack and Tundra.
“The American people may be assured”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 80.
“all the civilized nations of the earth”: Ibid., 81.
“There is nothing like it”: Newport Daily News, July 29, 1880.
first tennis tournament ever held: 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). See also Hanlon, “The Cradle of Tennis Was Meant to Be Rocky.”
invited her up to Newport: See Emma De Long, Explorer’s Wife, 199.
“Have no fears”: Ibid.
37: FRANTIC PANTOMIMES
marched over the Lena wastelands: My account of the southward march made by Nindemann and Noros is primarily derived from Nindemann’s testimony before the Committee on Naval Affairs, found in Loss of the Steamer Jeannette, 196–211. See also De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 130–38, and George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:801–26.
“the whisper of the stars”: See Middleton, Going to Extremes, 50.
coldest temperature ever recorded: See Riordan and Bourget, World Weather Extremes, 27.
“Everybody stopped and looked”: Loss of the Steamer Jeannette, 206.
“they felt sorry for it”: Ibid., 207.
“did not understand a word”: Ibid., 205.
“My God, Mr. Melville”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 164. See also Loss of the Steamer Jeannette, 211.
38: INCUBUS OF HORRORS
storm-tossed Laptev Sea: My narrative of the Melville party’s journey across the Laptev Sea to safety is based on George Melville’s lengthy account in In the Lena Delta, 65–164, as well as his testimony before the Committee on Naval Affairs, Loss of the Steamer Jeannette, 126–34. See also Danenhower, Narrative of the “Jeannette,” 65–93, and Newcomb’s account in De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 318–31.
“spanking rate”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 65.
“nothing but enhance our misery”: Ibid., 71.
“Bitterly we cursed Petermann”: Fleming, Ninety Degrees North, 222.
“entirely bereft of feeling”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 77.
“If you don’t obey me”: Guttridge, Icebound, 213.
“a bond which bound us all”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 78–79.
“chanced upon a modern metropolis”: Ibid., 81.
“We all smiled and laughed”: Ibid., 88.
“leaving us in the lurch”: Ibid., 94.
“wondrously dirty”: Ibid., 93.
“a game of mock heroics”: Ibid., 143.
“determined the risk too great”: Ibid.
“weeping over our miseries”: Ibid., 113.
“in spite of their ugliness”: Danenhower, Narrative of the “Jeannette,” 87.
“a modicum of rancid deer tallow”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 111.
“plenty good little old woman”: Ibid., 129.
“What I most feared”: Ibid., 128–29.
“Gangrene had apparently set in”: Ibid., 127.
“My dear mother”: Leach’s letter home is reprinted in De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 138–39.
“bright, intelligent looking man”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 135.
“lying is not considered a sin”: Ibid., 138.
“never was an absent lover”: Ibid., 143.
“Arctic steamer Jeannette lost”: Ibid., 144.
“mongrels of every hue”: Ibid., 150.
“out of the question”: Ibid., 165.
39: WHITE GLOOM
“without great torture”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 279.
“mutilations of wild beasts”: Ibid., 209.
“The face of the country”: Ibid.
“a fine specimen of Cossack”: Ibid., 170.
“yet fearing the worst”: Ibid., 172.
“seemed to have forsaken them”: Ibid., 174.
“out of the jaws of death”: Ibid., 181.
“a congregation of islands”: Ibid., 216.
“vehemence of my delivery”: Ibid., 189.
“crossing themselves in terror”: Ibid., 185.
“A more motley or odoriferous”: Ibid., 192.
“Whoever finds this paper”: Ibid., 193.
“monuments of the Druids”: Ibid., 228.
“so much plunder i
n one heap”: Ibid., 202.
“a load of worthless stones”: Ibid., 206.
“where it took fire and burned”: Ibid., 207.
“most pitiful to think”: Ibid., 198.
“a long line of thin vapor”: Figuier, Earth and Sea, 225.
“existed like an animated dead man”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 220.
“come what might”: Ibid., 218.
“I should die too”: Ibid., 221.
“It is my desire”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 122.
The following telegram was received: Melville’s telegram is reprinted in its entirety in De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 84–85.
“Omit no effort”: Ibid., 86.
“A dispatch from Mr. Hoffman”: Ibid.
40: THE RUSSIAN NATION AT YOUR BACK
“straight as a spear-shaft”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 273.
“He was a soldier”: Ibid., 274.
“you may have anything you want”: Ibid., 276.
“They seemed comfortable”: Ibid., 272.
“I always hope for the best”: Danenhower’s letter home to his mother was published in the New York Herald, December 30, 1881.
no American had visited here: For an excellent account of John Ledyard’s improbably adventurous life, see Gifford, Ledyard: In Search of the First American Explorer.
“intelligible at Constantinople”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 145.
burrowed like a mole: Ibid., 96.
“cadaverous-visaged young man”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 247.
“a pillar of hope”: Ibid., 248.
“here I saw youth”: Ibid., 250.
“Eluding their pursuers”: Ibid., 251.
“On this night”: Ibid., 279.
“ingenuity for avoiding work”: Ibid., 282.
“I pitied the poor exiles”: Ibid., 276.
41: THEY THAT WATCH FOR THE MORNING
Melville left Yakutsk: The account of Melville’s search leading up to the discovery of De Long’s final camp is derived primarily from Melville’s In the Lena Delta, 283–331, as well as Melville’s testimony before the Committee on Naval Affairs, Loss of the Jeannette, 145–56. See also Nindemann’s testimony in Loss of the Jeannette, 217–23.
“All hands weak and feeble”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:796.
“Everybody getting weaker”: Ibid.
“We cannot move against the wind”: Ibid.
cause of death as “exhaustion”: Ambler, “Private Journal,” 215.
“One hundred thirty third day”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:797.
“Mr. Collins dying”: Ibid., 2:800.
“as though the arch-fiend himself”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 336.
“shrunk into great cavities”: Ibid., 335.
“his clothes scorched through”: Ibid., 338.
“He was lying on his back”: See Hoehling, The Jeannette Expedition, 163.
“winter winds had blown it down”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 333.
“on duty, on guard, under arms”: Ibid., 335.
“My Dear Brother”: Ambler, “Private Journal,” 216.
The following dispatch has just reached: Melville’s telegram is reprinted in Henry Llewellyn Williams, History of the Adventurous Voyage, 70.
42: A WILD DIRGE THROUGH TIME
The ten bodies were carefully: My depiction of Melville’s monument to his comrades is based in part on my own travels to Amerika Khaya in the summer of 2012. See also Melville, In the Lena Delta, 340–45; Nindemann’s testimony in Loss of the Steamer Jeannette, 221–22; and De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 371–73.
“In memory of the officers”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 372.
“In the awful silence”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 344.
When I visited the site of Amerika Khaya in the summer of 2012, Melville’s memorial was still there. A group of Russian scientists had recently spruced up the site and repaired the large cross, which, on clear days, is visible all the way to the Arctic Ocean.
EPILOGUE: AS LONG AS I HAVE ICE TO STAND ON
a crisp autumn day: My description of Melville’s arrival in New York is primarily based on accounts in the New York Herald, September 14, 1882.
“the rigor of our climate”: Melville, In the Lena Delta, 412.
“you will not again tempt fortune”: Ibid.
“bevy of rustic maidens”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 398.
“spoke only with their eyes”: New York Herald, September 14, 1882.
“You have lost a son”: Ibid.
“he had lost a little flesh”: Ibid.
all but lost her mind: See Guttridge, Icebound, 264–65.
“as if the seas had closed over me”: Emma De Long, Explorer’s Wife, 220.
“the gift of suffering”: George De Long, The Voyage of the Jeannette, 2:869.
“the unfortunate woman”: Melville to Emma De Long, August 24, 1882, Emma De Long Papers.
“I will stand by you”: Emma De Long, Explorer’s Wife, 225.
“we did our whole duty”: De Long and Newcomb, Our Lost Explorers, 476.
“brave men who will come home no more”: Ibid., 476–77.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
JEANNETTE EXPEDITION JOURNALS, DIARIES, AND OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS
Ambler, James Markham. “The Private Journal of James Markham Ambler, M.D., Passed Assistant Surgeon, United States Navy, and the Medical Officer of the Arctic Exploring Steamer Jeannette.” Published in the United States Naval Medical Bulletin, Navy Dept. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (Volume 11). Washington: Government Printing Office, January 1917.
Danenhower, John Wilson. Lieutenant Danenhower’s Narrative of the “Jeannette.” Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882.
De Long, George Washington. The Voyage of the Jeannette: The Ship and Ice Journals of George W. De Long, Lieutenant-Commander U.S.N. and Commander of the Polar Expedition. Edited by Emma De Long. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1883–84.
Harber, Giles. Report of Lieut. Giles B. Harber, U.S.N., of His Search for the Missing People of the Jeannette Expedition, etc. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1884.
Jeannette Inquiry. Before the Committee on Naval Affairs of the United States House of Representatives, Forty-eighth Congress. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1884.
Loss of the Steamer Jeannette: Record of the Proceedings of a Court of Inquiry Convened at the Navy Department, 1882. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1882.
ARCHIVES, MUSEUMS, AND PERSONAL PAPERS
Dartmouth College Library, Hanover, NH. George Wallace Melville Papers, 1881–82, including his Arctic journal.
National Archives, Washington, DC. Official U.S. Navy papers of the USS Jeannette Arctic Exploring Expedition, Naval Records Collection, records groups 24, 43, and 45.
National Archives at San Francisco, San Bruno, CA. Letters sent to the Bureau of Steam Engineering on the outfitting of the USS Jeannette.
Personal Papers of Emma Wotton De Long. Includes photographs, correspondence, and manuscripts. Loaned to the author by De Long descendant Katharine De Long.
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, Papers of Thomas Alva Edison.
Thomas Edison National Historic Park, West Orange, NJ.
United States Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, Maryland. The De Long Family Papers and the Jeannette Expedition Artifacts Collection.
University of Erfurt Gotha Research Library, Gotha, Germany. The Correspondence of August Heinrich Petermann, Perthes Collection.
Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum, Vallejo, CA. Collected papers on the reconstruction and launch of the USS Jeannette.
PAMPHLETS AND MONOGRAPHS
Annual Report of the Superintendant of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. Vol. 15, 1883.
Bent, Silas. An Address Delivered Before the St. Louis Mercantile L
ibrary Association, January 6th, 1872, upon the Thermal Paths to the Pole, the Currents of the Ocean, and the Influences of the Latter upon the Climates of the World. St. Louis: R. P. Studley Co., 1872.
Geographical Society of the Pacific. An Examination into the Genuineness of the “Jeannette” Relics: Some Evidence of Currents in the Polar Regions. San Francisco: John Partridge, Printer and Publisher, 1896.
Hooper, Calvin. Report of the Cruise of the U.S. Revenue Steamer Thomas Corwin, in the Arctic Ocean, 1880. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1881.
———. Report of the Cruise of the U.S. Revenue Steamer Thomas Corwin, in the Arctic Ocean, 1881. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1884.
Hooper, Samuel L. Occasional Papers of the California Academy of Sciences: The Discovery of Wrangel Island. San Francisco: Academy, 1956.
Knorr, E. R. Papers on the Eastern and Northern Extensions of the Gulf Stream. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1871.
Melville, George. “Remarks on Polar Expedition.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 36 (October 29, 1897): 454–61.
Nelson, Edward W. Report upon Natural History Collections Made in Alaska Between the Years 1877 and 1881. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1887.
Petermann, August H. The Search for Franklin: A Suggestion Submitted to the British Public. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852.
Rosse, Irving C. The First Landing on Wrangel Island—with Some Remarks on the Northern Inhabitants. New York: 1883. Reprint, Lexington, KY: Filiquarian Publishing, 2012.
NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES CONSULTED
Chicago Tribune
Daily Alta California
Newport Daily News
Newport Mercury
New-York Commercial Advertiser
The New York Herald
The New York Times
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Public Ledger
The San Francisco Call