"But 'tis not mine to tell their tale of grief,
Their constant peril and their scant relief,
Their days of danger and their nights of pain;
Their manly courage e'en when deemed in vain."
|One of the interesting things about our trip to the Arctic Seas was
the possibility of seeing Greely or of possibly finding him or something
about him. I shall here give a brief outline of what had been done up
to this time towards rescuing the gallant explorer and his intrepid
followers.
Every one I met in Newfoundland appeared to know a great deal about
Greely, because he had started from there three years before in a St.
John's ship, and because both of the previous relief expeditions had
been in St. John's ships, and a great many of the Newfoundland men had
been with them, and several of our crew at the sealing had been on the
_Proteus_. One heard the Greely expedition and its relief discussed
every day. The consensus of opinion was that as the navy had the matter
in hand now, they would succeed. The Newfoundlanders, being a maritime
people, could not understand how soldiers could be expected to make a
success of a voyage of discovery or relief, and the two previous relief
trips had been unfortunate. The _raison d'etre_ of the Greely expedition
was briefly as follows:
At a certain scientific conference held in Europe a series of
circumpolar stations had been decided upon, from which, owing to their
proximity to the revolutionary axis of our globe, interesting and useful
observations could be made of physical phenomena. As these observations
were to be made at the same time in a great many different places, they
would probably prove of greater interest and value than those supplied
intermittently by expeditions. Now the United States was to have two
stations, one at Point Barrow on the Behring Sea side, and one at Lady
Franklin Bay on the Davis Strait side. A young officer in the American
army, Lieutenant Greely, had volunteered for and been selected to take
charge of the Lady Franklin Bay expedition. The steamer _Proteus_, a
Newfoundland sealer, had been chartered to convey the party north. She
was a Dundee-built ship, about the size of the _Aurora_, and her captain
and crew were St. John's men. They left St. John's on July 7,1881,
having on board Lieutenant Greely and twenty-four men, with supplies for
three years. They made the most unprecedented time going north. Crossing
the dangerous Melville Bay in thirty-six hours and getting to within a
few miles of her destination on August 4th, a few days later she landed
the explorers, and having successfully accomplished her mission she
returned to her home port.
Melville Bay, the bugbear of many Arctic voyages, is a very different
thing when crossed in June by whalers from what it is in July and
August; but the whalers must reach their northern station by the end of
June, so cannot wait for the ice to drift south.
It was arranged that a relief expedition should go north in 1882 and
another in 1883, while the third in 1884 should convey the party
back. Now these two previous relief expeditions formed the topic
of conversation in St. John's when the inhabitants became tired of
discussing seals and politics, and I soon heard a good deal about them.
For the first, in 1882, our friend and late neighbor, the _Neptune_,
had been chartered. She was splendid in every way and did as much as any
ship of the period could have done towards making the thing a success;
but the orders were to leave two hundred fifty rations at Littleton
Island and two hundred fifty at the furthest point reached if the ship
failed to get to Lady Eranklin Bay, and that should they fail to reach
the Bay, the balance of the stores were to be brought back to St.
John's. A private in the army had been selected to take charge of this
expedition. As he had been accustomed to obeying orders to the letter,
he deposited the two hundred fifty rations at Littleton Island, and two
hundred fifty at Cape Sabine, the most northern point reached. Then, as
they were unable to reach Lady Franklin Bay, he carefully brought back
all the balance of the cargo of food sent up for the starving Greely,
twenty days' provisions only having been left in the Arctic and this
according to orders and probably--"Well, though the soldier knew some
one had blundered."
The authorities were a little anxious now about the brave lieutenant, so
they began to make preparations for the 1883 relief, and this time
they chartered the _Proteus_ and also sent a small navy ship called the
_Yantic_, a craft rather unfitted for Arctic work. The _Proteus_ was
commanded by Captain Pike (the St. John's man who had made such a record
taking Greely up) and had her Newfoundland crew. This expedition was in
charge of a soldier, Lieutenant Garlington, as the Government wished it
all to be an army affair. Owing to an accident, a sergeant selected to
go on the _Proteus_ was disabled, and Lieutenant Colwell, U. S. N.,
was added to the expedition in his place. This was fortunate, as things
turned out. One of our quartermasters on the _Aurora_ during the first
sealing trip had been one of the crew of the _Proteus_, and he gave me a
lot of interesting information about it. They left St. John's about the
end of June and had a nice passage to Disco. In fact, they found the
road so open that they reached Cape Sabine in about twenty-five days.
As they were in a hurry to reach their destination, Lady Eranklin Bay,
little time was spent here and no stores were landed. When the ship
moved out into Kane Sea she was caught almost at once in heavy polar
ice. The officers soon realized that the ship's position was serious, so
began to take supplies out of the hold. While so engaged the side of
the ship burst in and she filled. The pressure of the ice kept her from
sinking for a few hours, then some change of wind or tide opened the ice
and down she went. A great lot of provisions and stores had been thrown
overboard on to the ice, much being lost in so doing. After the ship
went down her crew took their own boats and the soldiers took theirs.
Colwell, with the help of both parties, succeeded in landing a lot of
provisions and stores at Cape Sabine, and here he cached five hundred
rations. It was said that many of the soldiers did not know how to row,
and that some members of the crew of the _Proteus_ behaved very badly
after the loss of the ship. They probably did not consider that the
saving of government supplies was any of their business, and some of
them even are said to have looted these supplies. After a rest at Cape
Sabine, the entire party proceeded south to meet the _Yantic_, the
supporting vessel. Very little attention had been paid to her, as she
was slow and ill adapted for the ice, and it was thought that she
probably would never attempt Melville Bay. However, she had crossed this
and was following them well, and the series of misunderstandings and
misinterpretations of orders which prevented the _Proteus_ people going
south from meeting the _Yantic_ coming north, makes a most remarkable
story.
[Illustration: 0140]
Lieutenant Garlington and his party, being separated from the crew of
the _Proteus_ for a time, crossed over to Littleton Island and left
a record of the loss of their ship. They then joined the others and
proceeded to Cape York. It was here decided to push on to the Danish
settlements as they did not think the Y antic would come as far north
as Cape York. In the meantime, the _Yantic_ had passed up to Littleton
Island and picked up Garlington's record. She then zigzagged about
looking for the boats, and passing Cape York on her way down without
calling, she proceeded to Upernavik. As the boats were not there, her
captain decided to push on home as the season was getting late, so
sailed to Disco. The boat party at Cape York having decided to go south
divided. Lieutenant Colwell, taking a whale boat and crew, struck across
Melville Bay, and after a most difficult and dangerous passage succeeded
in reaching Upernavik the day after the _Yantic_ had left. He followed
her, however, for a week, and overtaking her at Disco, brought her back
to Upernavik, where the balance of the _Proteus_ people had arrived, and
from there they returned to St. John's. Now the result of all this had
been, in 1882, the deposit of ten days' provisions at Littleton Island
and ten days' provisions at Cape Sabine, the remainder being brought
back. In 1883 the _Proteus_ had not deposited anything during her life,
but after her destruction Lieutenant Colwell had succeeded in caching at
Cape Sabine five hundred rations or twenty days' supplies saved from the
_Proteus_. The _Yantic_ had been up to Littleton Island and back without
leaving anything behind. Another year had passed and now the rescue of
Greely became imperative. The affair had been handed over to the navy,
and Commander Schley was taking command. The Dundee ship _Thetis_ and
the sealer _Bear_ had been bought and added to the navy. A collier, the
_Lough Garry_, had been chartered to take coal up for the expedition,
and the _Alert_, given by the British Government, was also going. At
the same time a reward was offered for any whaler picking Greely up. The
relief ships, except the _Alert_, were coming to St. John's and would
sail about the same time as the whalers, and as we all knew a good deal
about the circumstances, we were certainly all deeply interested in the
outcome. It was generally believed among our people that Greely would
now be at Cape York or Carey Islands, and the _Aurora_ stood as good a
chance as any other ship of getting there first. Commander Schley
had charge of the expedition and would sail on the _Thetis_, while
Lieutenant Emory would command the _Bear_, of which ship Lieutenant
Colwell would be an officer.
The whalers going to Davis Strait were--
Arctic, Narwhal, Aurora, Nova Zembla, Cornwallis, Polynia, Esquimaux,
Triune, Jan Mayen, Wolf of St. John's.