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A PUBLICATION OF THE BUREAU OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY (BUMED) ● JAN-FEB 2007 ● VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 TTThhheee GGGrrroooggg RRRaaatttiiiooonnn::: Contents: The Harrowing Tale of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition The Harrowing Tale of 1-6 the Lady Franklin Expedition By Leonard T. Guttridge Raising Kane: Notes 6-8 on Elisha Kent Kane’s Early Years F ew if any enterprises in the It overlooked Lady Franklin Bay, named Tragedy at Lena Delta: 8 -11 history of polar exploration for the widow of the lost British explorer Voyage of the tell a more bizarre story than Sir John Franklin. The expedition Jeannette the 1881-1884 Lady Franklin Bay Ex- reached full strength off Greenland when pedition. It was one element in a plan it was joined by two Eskimo hunters and Scuttlebutt: Maritime 12 that involves a dozen nations and it a surgeon, Dr. Octave Pavy. All hands History Happenings marked the first direct participation by worked to build wooden living quarters the United States in an international and a makeshift observatory. With a nod The Polar Physicians program. to one of the few American political sup- Conceived by a prescient Austrian porters of polar exploration, Greely chris- explorer named Karl Weyprecht, it tened his base Fort Conger. The time would not be a race to see which coun- was August 1881. try reached the North Pole first, but an Throughout an unforeseen develop- effort to encircle it with scientific sta- ment of appalling tragedy Greely’s party tions that would observe and record dutifully recorded auroral displays, winds meteorological, auroral, botanic, tidal, velocities, tidal changes, and more. Its magnetic and other phenomena: in accomplishments included a foray that brief seek out solutions to what the beat the 300-year-old British “farthest media of the day called the “Arctic north” record. And the men were encour- Octave Pavy Question.” Thus was born the First aged by expectation of a relief ship to (1844-1884) International Polar Year. reach them after one year. Commanded by Lieutenant Adol- None arrived. Ice had forced it back to Arctic explorer, physician, naturalist, and adventurer, Dr. phus Washington Greely, the Ameri- St. Johns, Newfoundland. A second re- Octave Pavy could not be ac- can party numbered twenty-five, all lief vessel zig-zagged about the northern cused of a humdrum existence. but three being soldiers of the United waters of Baffin Bay before the captain, In 1870, Pavy organized a States Army. A converted steam facing an impenetrable ice fold, also Zouave corps composed of whaler took them to their appointed turned for home. It hardly helped that his Civil War soldiers and sailors of French parentage to fight in location, a coastal tip of remote north- crew had been equipped with clothing the Franco-Prussian War. eastern Canada. Of the circumpolar made for the tropics. A third ship chain of scientific outposts, Greely’s reached halfway to Lady Franklin Bay was farthest north, closest to the Pole. then sank with all its supplies and mail Page 2 intended for the men at Fort Conger. Pole. He first got as far as Greenland. Two years had passed when a deeply Indeed, if Octave Pavy’s medical exper- Polar Physicians (Cont’d) anxious Greely, supplies run- tise isn’t easy to ning low and his men increas- evaluate, it is safe ingly demoralized, decided to to presume that he leave Fort Conger and head knew more about south, by foot, dog-sled, and life and conditions ice-capped water, hoping to above the Arctic meet a rescue ship. For water Circle than anyone travel they had a steam else in the Lady launch with two whaleboats Franklin Bay Expe- in tow. Too weakened by dition, except, of hunger and physical effort to course, Greely’s James Markham Ambler haul the launch repeatedly Eskimo hunters. ( 1848-1881) over pack ice they soon aban- Surgeon Pavy doned it. Yet they pressed on made no effort to See page 8 for more on Ambler. in the whaleboats, carrying SS Proteus conceal his sense of their scientific records and superiority over the Frederick A. Cook selected instruments including a soldiers. They had been recruited for the ( 1865-1940) boxed pendulum weighing 100 mission by the U.S. Army’s Signal Corps Isaac Israel Hayes pounds. and much of the expedition’s misfortunes (1832-1881 ) After seven weeks of incredible can be blamed on the War Department hardship, over a distance totaling 500 indifference, especially that displayed by miles since they were often helplessly Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln, adrift on ice floes, the party made son of the late president. land on Cape Sabine, Pim Island. Greely and Pavy were chronically at Greely named their new base Camp loggerheads with each other. Once Clay. Winter had begun. Beset by Greely even placed the physician under personal conflicts no less than the arrest, only to return him to duty when brutally frigid elements, above all by Pavy argued that thus situated he was no starvation, the expedition started to longer obliged to act as the party’s doc- flounder. When in June 1884 a relief tor. The two men detested each other. party finally reached what was left of On the descent from Fort Conger, while Greely’s command. It found ten dead Greely slept in the steam launch, Pavy Elisha Kent Kane men covered by a thin layer of icy proposed to a whaleboat crew that he for- (1820-1857) gravel, eight others missing, and mally declare Greely insane and transfer seven, including Greely, huddled and command to Lieutenant Frederick Kis- See page 6 for more on Kane. barely conscious beneath a collapsed lingbury, originally the expedition’s sec- John Rae tent. ond in command but such no longer since ( 1813-1893) The medical aspects of the Lady a clash with Greely immediately on arri- Franklin Bay Expedition are curious, val in Lady Franklin Bay. John Richardson sometimes harrowing. Its physician Once settled in at Camp Clay, the doc- (1787-1865 ) was born in New Orleans, had stud- tor was accused by Greely and others of Edward Wilson ied medicine in Paris, and fought in stealing Sergeant Joseph Elison’s food. ( 1872-1912) the Franco-Prussian War. But once in Elison was Pavy’s most suffering patient, the United States he showed a princi- having lost use of hands and feet from pal interest in getting to the North frostbite. But enduring the darkness and January- February 2007 Page 3 sub-zero temperatures of its second Arctic winter, the own physical and mental strength permitted he might expedition had still to depend on Pavy for treatment. have intervened in the affairs. But he died that same He was assisted by Private Henry Biederbick, who evening, his death, Greely recorded, “hastened by nar- was designated “hospital steward.” cotics. It would seem he fancied the ergot iron.” On Pavy’s advice, Greely ordered periods of outside The hospital steward Biederbick had to take care of exercise. This at least gave welcome if bone-chilling Sergeant Elison. On June 9 he wrote how he treated moments of relief from Elison’s case in the be- their cramped and lief that such detail smoke-filled hut of rock “will be very interest- whose only ventilation ing to the medical pro- above the iron stove fession.” He mixed hauled from Fort Conger salicyclic acid with lard was a hole in the up- to form an ointment for turned whaleboat that some of the affected served as a roof. But parts. Then he cut off Pavy’s issuance of spir- portions of Elison’s feet its of ammonia and that were rapidly brandy failed to save sloughing. A bone saw Sergeant William Cross was among other equip- who succumbed to what ment in Dr. Pavy’s in- Pavy diagnosed as strument box, buried scurvy. too deep in snow for Cross was the first to die. Others followed as diet retrieval. Biederbick severed the ligaments with a pair was reduced to tiny shrimp, black lichen and sealskin of scissors. He also removed two fingers from Eli- scraps boiled in water melted from ice. Greely be- son’s left hand. came severely asthenic until unable to squirm out of Pressured by national concern over the fate of his sleeping bag without help. On May 19, 1884, Greely’s party, the U.S. government had bought two Pavy drafted a statement attesting to his value as the Scots-built steam whalers, Thetis and Bear. They expedition’s physician. cleared New York harbor in April and were off Cape “We, the undersigned members of the Lady Franklin Sabine by the end of June. The captains, Winfield Bay Polar Expedition, desire to take this means of ex- Scott Schley and William H. Emory, went ashore and pressing our acknowledgement and professional skill made their horrifying discovery. displayed by Dr. Octave Pavy in discharge of his Foul air in the stone hut had forced the expedition’s medical duty during the full length of the expedition. remaining seven men to struggle out of it and build a During the past winter his medical skill has contrib- tent. And when it collapsed on them they were too uted in preserving the lives of the party to the present weak to lift the pole. When they found they were day.” beneath sodden canvas, in their sleeping bags awaiting Fourteen signed. Certainly not the semi-conscious the end. Ensign Charles Harlow of the Bear photo- Greely who was outraged when sufficiently alert to graphed the tent, the burying ground, a ridge behind it, learn about it. Greely was still in command when Pri- and the winter hut. Lieutenant Emory saw to the ex- vate Charles Buck Henry was convicted by an impro- humation of the dead for transport home. vised court-martial for stealing food he ordered the Six were missing. One of the Eskimos had drowned soldier’s execution. “Decide the manner of his death while fishing for seal. Five, including Dr. Pavy, who by two balls and one blank cartridge.” were carried to the ice fort when their comrades were Three of the stronger sergeants led Henry away, out too weak to drag the bodies up to the burial ridge, of sight. The men in the hut heart two shots. The ser- were presumed to have been washed out to sea. Men geants returned without Henry. Had Octave Pavy’s from the rescue ships gathered what relics and per- Page 4 sonal effects could be found and brought them on rule issued from the quarterdeck. In the privacy of his board. Wrapped in blankets and tagged for identifi- cabin Commander Schley worked on his confidential cation, the dead were taken by boat through a rising report for the Secretary of the Navy. It would contain sea to the Thetis carefully stowed in one of the ship’s this: while preparing the dead for immersion in the dories, and covered with ice. tanks “it was found that six, those of Lieutenant Kis- Some confusion occurred near midnight at the ice lingbury, Sergeant Jewell and Ralston, Private Whisler fort. Lieutenant John C. Colwell of the Thetis came and Ellis, had been cut and the flesh removed.” upon human remains that Ensign Harlow, wrote later The arrival of the relief ships at St. John’s set tele- in his journal were “identified from a bullet hole as graph wires humming. Greely’s immediate words to those of Private Henry.” These Secretary of the Navy Wil- were taken to the Bear. But Harlow Items collected during the Greely Relief Ex- liam E. Chandler, were up- also wrote that “the bon es of Dr. pedition and displayed in the Naval Museum beat. “For the first time in of Hygiene, Washington, DC. Pavy were gathered in a bag and three centuries England sent off to the Bear.” Considering yields the honor of the far- ♦ Sledge Box, used in the Greely Relief Ex- the grim business under way mis- thest north.” Schley’s tele- pedition. takes were perhaps inevitable. Har- gram to Chandler was of a ♦ Alaskan Indian Casket, for holding the low was more accurate when he incinerated remains of the dead. darker shade. “I would ur- noted that his captain intended to gently request that the bod- have caskets made “that are to be ies now on board be placed hermetically sealed, never again to be opened.” in metallic cases here for sale and better transportation. The ensign added that preparing the dead for trans- This seems to me imperative.” portation home was “a hideous task. I refrain from The ships were eight days at St. John’s awaiting the details thinking it best not to put in writing the horri- caskets Schley ordered. The delay was brightened by ble discoveries we made.” dinner parties on both ships. Noted Ensign Harlow, The crew of the Thetis shifted an oil tank from the “Society is making quite a demand on the officers. engine room to the forecastle. A snow-melting tank Every evening there is something going on.” Celebra- on the Bear was swabbed clean. Salt water and alco- tion ended with the arrival of the caskets. Made of hol were poured into each. The bodies were tightly boiler iron painted black, lids secured by 52 large screw swathed in cotton cloth, five carefully lowered into bolts, each weighed 200 pounds. Schley had a silver the Thetis’s tank, the others into the Bear’s. plate with the name and date of death of the soldier While off Greenland during the voyage south, Sur- mounted on each. geon Howard Ames of the Bear helped Surgeon Ed- The ships received an elaborate welcome at Ports- ward Green of the Thetis tranquilize a delirious Eli- mouth, New Hampshire. Chandler attended. He had son with morphine injections. Both his feet had gone, telegraphed his cabinet colleague Robert Lincoln, the ends of the tibia and fibula protruding and the “Trust you will be present.” The Secretary of War de- stumps suppurating. His hands were partly finger- clined. less. Green removed the remaining fingers with Greely and his fellow survivors were still under the bone pliers. On the fourth of July the surgeons de- care of Dr. Christopher J. Cleborne of the Portsmouth cided to amputate. They reasoned that “his blunted Navy Yard and the Navy Surgeon General Francis M. mind will prevent mental shock.” They made doubly Gunnell. Families of the dead awaiting the caskets did sure with ether and whisky. Dr. Ames sawed off the not include those of Privates Roderick Schneider nor left footless limb, Dr. Green the right. Elison died Private Henry. Schneider’s body would be shipped to three days later, ending an extraordinary personal relatives in Germany. Henry’s remains were taken to saga of endurance. Weighing 78 pounds, the soldier Brooklyn for interment in the Cypress Hills soldier’s was sewn in a blanket and placed in a tank with his plot. comrades. The Queen’s County, NY, health office and Brook- On both ships, lower deck scuttlebutt concerning lyn’s sanitary department had given permission for the discoveries at Camp Clay was silenced by a gag Henry’s body to be conveyed through crowded streets January- February 2007 Page 5 in the belief he had died of starvation. Now a different body, declined to make a report unless asked to by au- story circulated. The county coroner James Robinson thorities. No such request was made and avid newspa- wanted to hold an inquest. “The law makes it manda- pers had to content their readers until testimony from tory upon me to local observers that all what re- have the body ex- mained of the soldier was little humed for post- more than a skeleton. mortem examina- The nightmarish press orgy might tion.” A woman have been subdued by a court of in Nebraska inquiry or congressional hearings. claiming to be None were held. Secretary Lin- Henry’s sister coln left explanations to a morti- asked for an au- fied Lieutenant Greely. “It is topsy. By then news, horrible to me...I can but the dam on ap- repeat that if there was any canni- palling front page balism, and their now seems to be stories had burst. no doubt about it, the man-eating The relief squadron of 1884 off of Godhavn, Greenland. Led by The New was done in secrecy...Every survi- York Times with a vor has solemnly sworn that he headline “Horrors of Cape Sabine,” the press ran col- was innocent of the dead. I cannot tell whether they umns claiming to expose what the government was told me the truth or not.” trying to cover up: a soldier’s execution in the distant The closest to a formal airing on questions was the Arctic and, even worse, rampant cannibalism. court-martial of General William Hazen, Chief Signal Even before the caskets were delivered, the Secre- Officer, accused of slandering the Secretary of War by tary of War had telegraphed regional quartermasters blaming him for the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition that under no circumstances were they to be opened. disaster. Hazen was convicted, his punishment a “The sooner they are put into the ground the better.” presidential reprimand. Schley and Emory dodged interviews. After a private In 1935, on his ninety-first birthday, General Adol- conference with the secretaries of war and navy, phus Greely was awarded the Congressional Medal of Schley’s report was published complete with reference Honor. Its citation emphasized his “long life of splen- to six bodies found cut but amended to continue “the did service” but said nothing of polar achievement. fleshly parts removed no doubt to use as shrimp bait.” He died in October of that year . General David L. At their home in Rochester, NY, Fred Kislingbury’s Brainard also rests there. He lived to be 88. A ser- grieving family wished to be left alone. Urged by The geant at Cape Sabine he was the man Greely believed Rochester Post Express editor seeking a scoop, the most loyal to him. lieutenant’s three brothers agreed to an exhumation. Greely had ordered Henry shot; Brainard com- At the Mount Hope Cemetery two Rochester doctors, manded the firing squad. The expedition’s two last Charles A. Buckley and Frederick A. Mandeville, con- survivors, they are buried in Arlington National Ceme- ducted a 45-minute examination of the casket’s con- tery. Henry isn’t but his Brooklyn funeral was no less tents and in a sworn affidavit stated that skin and mus- honored. Thousands lined the streets to watch the cle had been cut away from the left shoulder to the military cortege pass and at Cypress Hills his final sa- lower ribs. “The pelvic bones were completely de- lute was three salvos of artillery. And the cemetery nuded.” The work was apparently done by a practiced records have remained unchanged. On August 9, hand. This might have focused suspicion upon Dr. 1884, the soldier died of starvation. Pavy, but he had died before Kislingbury. Though culminating in tragedy and stained by scan- The news from Rochester prompted a disinterment dal, America’s contribution to the First International in the Rockfield Cemetery, Delphi, Indiana where two Polar Year was far from total failure. Valuable log doctors, after studying Private William Whisler’s books, charts, photographs, and instruments were Page 6 brought back by the survivors. Considering the astonishingly adverse circumstances that plagued the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition from its very inception, its achievements were remarkable. They are sure to be dis- cussed at the 125th anniversary events planned for 2007-2008. Karl Weprecht did not live to see the results of the First International Polar Year. If he had he would surely have agreed that in the circumpolar chain of scientific stations which he had so boldly shaped, the northern- most link had not altogether broken. Leonard Guttridge is a noted author based in Alexandria, VA. His books include The Commodores (1969); Icebound: The Jeannette Expedition's Quest for the North Pole (1986); Mutiny: A History of Naval Insurrection (1992); Ghosts of Cape Sabine: The Harrowing True Story of the Greely Expedition (2000); and My Country Right or Wrong: The Life of Stephen Decatur, the U.S. Navy’s Most Illustrious Commander (2006). Raising Kane: Notes on Elisha Kent Kane’s Early Years I n 1849, a Russian radical stood before a firing squad flames of certitude. His destination was the arctic, a geo- waiting for winged Azrael to come. But fate had other graphic region which then, as now, held many mysteries plans for this upstart, diverting him from an untimely end. and served as the stage for almost as many tragedies. At the very moment of the call to fire, an imperial messen- In 1850, Kane quested north as part of the Grinnell Expe- ger arrived to announce that Czar Nicholas I had commuted dition in search of the “lost” explorer, Sir John Franklin the young man’s sentence. This gift of “borrowed time” who had gone missing in his search for the Northwest Pas- was exactly what the intellectual needed. For the next 32 sage. Three years later, Dr. Kane headed his own expedi- years of renewed life, this tion. Though this journey was equally as unsuccessful in its man, also known by the search for Sir Franklin, it was viewed as a grand achieve- name Fyodor Dostoevsky, ment for science. Dr. Kane charted the coasts of Smith served the world well, writ- Sound (now known as the Kane Basin) in northern Canada ing some of the most sig- and journeyed to 80 degrees 10 minutes, closer to the North nificant novels ever to be Pole than any explorer had yet reached. Even after being written, including Crime stricken with scurvy and being forced to abandon his ship, and Punishment and The Kane both ministered to the sick and led them to safety af- Brothers Karamazov. ter an epic 83-day trek across the ice. It was a feat that Though living many miles stands in the annals of arctic achievement. away from Dostoevsky, Dr. Dr. Kane spent his few remaining years writing of his Elisha Kent Kane was not adventures in the two-volume Arctic Explorations. They far removed from the Rus- were published in 1856 from then on became an instant sian author’s personal story. classic. A year later Kane was dead. His funeral proces- In 1849, Kane was on the sion traveled from New Orleans through Louisville, Co- cusp of a journey that lumbus, Baltimore, and finally Philadelphia where his body would bring him interna- Early image of Elisha Kent lay in state at Independence Hall. Each stop attracted large tional superstardom. But it Kane as a Navy surgeon. cults of followers wishing to pay their final respects. Biog- could be argued that this raphers and newspaperman rushed to tell of Kane’s great- fateful expedition was done on borrowed time. In 1838, ness in poetic tomes and inspirational articles. Dr. Kane’s when he was just 18, Kane developed a life threatening image was reproduced in form of collectible lithographs case of endocarditis.* His prognosis was dim. Physicians and tobacco cards. Even a march was written in his honor. reminded Kane, “Elisha, you may fall as suddenly as a *** musket-shot.” With little hope for a future, Kane set his Elisha Kent Kane was born on 4 February 1820 in Phila- sickly life afire and, like a phoenix, took flight from the delphia, PA. He was the first of seven children born to *Endocarditis is also called bacterial endocarditis or infectious endocarditis. It is a rare but serious disease. January- February 2007 Page 7 Judge John Kintzing Kane, a ing five neighborhood bul- jurist and literary scholar, and Elisha Kent Kane’s Philadelphia lies shooting “putty-wads” Jane Duval Leiper.* Philadel- from atop a two-story back- phia at the time of Kane’s birth 1820 —-American Journal of the Medical Sciences is founded by Dr. Na- building onto young girls thanial Chapman (1st President of the American Medical was the second largest city in passing on the street below. Association). The most popular medical periodical of the the country, recently losing the Seeing this injustice, and time, this journal was a forerunner of the American Medical distinction of largest to New without missing a step, the Association journal. York. Notable citizens in- evidently agile Kane cluded the one-eyed financier, 1821 — Philadelphia College of Pharmacy is founded. climbed up the rainspout Stephen Girard, a penniless and confronted the torment- orphan from France who on 1823 — Surgeon Thomas Harris establishes the first Navy post- ers with fists of fury. Once graduate medical school in the United States. his deathbed was the wealthi- they were sufficiently hum- est man in the United States; bled, Kane dragged them 1825 — Dr. George McClellan, father of General McClellan, es- William Strickland and John each to the edge of the roof tablishes Thomas Jefferson Medical College breaking the Uni- Haviland who fathered the re- versity of Pennsylvania’s monopoly over medical education in and ordered that they apolo- birth of classical architecture the city. gize to the young lasses for in America; Rebecca Gratz, their misdeeds. Another 1825 — Loud Brothers of Philadelphia develop the 7 1/2 octave founder the Philadelphia Or- story has the young Kane piano (with a strain of 20 tons). This piano would become a phan Asylum, who purportedly sitting in class with his favorite of Franz Liszt who used this instrument to further his served as the model for the younger brother Thomas. reputation as the “Musical Mephistopheles.” character of “Rebecca” in Sir When Thomas Kane dis- Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe; and 1826 — John Haviland designs Eastern State Penitentiary. This rupted the class with some the Peale family, who painted prison, with its panoptical layout, becomes the architectural act of mischief, the school- some of the finest portraiture model for prisons throughout the world. master called the boy to the in the world. front of class to be 1831 — The wealthiest man in America, Stephen Girard, dies. Growing up, Kane was sur- whipped. Elisha purport- rounded by the finest publish- 1832 — Cholera epidemic reaches the Quaker City. Carey and edly shouted to the master ing firms, medical schools, Lea, the nation’s leading publisher of medical books, pub- “Let him go! And take me museums, theaters, and archi- lishes the Cholera Gazette. instead. Thomas is such a tecture the country had to of- little fellow.” The teacher fer. And perhaps this proved a 1833 — William Strickland’s Naval Asylum is completed. ended up satisfying his distraction for the young Kane wrath by whipping them 1837 — Edgar Allen Poe moves to Philadelphia hoping to find a who was said to have been a both. job in publishing. Over the next six years in the city he would “restless” child of a resilient *** write The Fall of the House of the Usher and The Red Masque, among nature. other literary classics. In 1836, Kane entered the His schoolmasters found him University of Virginia to be a difficult and stubborn pupil. It was said that Kane studying natural sciences and mathematics. It was a short- sought to study only what interested him. Fortunately, his lived experience. Less than two years later he was struck by interests were vast. He liked chemistry, geography, geol- rheumatic fever. His health declined to such a state that his ogy, sketching, reading (his favorite books were The Pil- father traveled to Virginia and brought Kane home wrapped grim’s Progress and Robinson Crusoe) and he was fasci- up in a bundle of blankets like some pitiful package. Kane nated by animals, especially dogs and horses. One of his would never graduate from the University of Virginia, and, major dislikes was classical studies. And according to one remarkably, never obtain a bachelor’s degree. For a time, source, his deficiency in the subject prevented his accep- Kane joined the legions of self-educated that included such tance to Yale College. 19th century luminaries as Abraham Lincoln and Matthew Perhaps related to his unbending nature was a sense of Fontaine Maury. But perhaps what Sir Walter Scott stated duty and honor which Kane exhibited at a precocious age. is true that “the best part of every man’s education is that A common story conveyed by his biographers has the 10- which he gives himself.” year-old Elisha returning home from school and encounter- Persevering in his self-study, and in spite of his illness, *The Kane biographies say very little about Jane Duval Leiper other than “she was one of the most beautiful women in Philadelphia.” Such a claim, however valid, does not pass the test of time. Page 8 he was determined to make his mark on the world. In October 1839, he applied and matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. A year later he was a resident physician at Philadelphia Hospital, also known as “The Blockley.” To his fellow physicians it was obvious that Kane was not the healthiest of persons. Due to his weakened heart, it was said that his sleep was difficult and uneasy. Kane was required to sleep sitting up in bed with his head and shoulders propped up on pillows. According to his roommate, Dr. William McPheeters, Kane never closed his eyes without feeling conscious that he would die in the night. With this in mind it is difficult for the logical mind to fathom why the perpetually infirm Kane would seek out a commission in the U.S. Navy upon graduation in 1842. *** In Jean Luc Godard’s film Breathless, a journalist (played by Jean Seberg) asks a famous film director (played by Jean-Pierre Melville) “what is your goal in life?” The Melville character curtly answers, “I wish to become immor- tal, then die.” This one line could summarize Kane’s life-motive the year he graduated from medical school. He knew his time on earth was limited and dying young, and being forgotten, held little appeal. Kane’s mission was to seek immortality through adventure and its resulting glory. His vehicle to this precipice was the Navy. In 1843, Kane took the exam to become a surgeon in the U.S. Navy, and despite his ever present health issues, (or perhaps because of Judge John Kane’s political influence) he was accepted for duty. In his remaining 14 years of life, while in the Navy, Kane journeyed to China, Mexico, throughout Europe, and, on two occasions, the arctic. ABS Life and Death on the Lena Delta: The Voyage of the Jeannette Jan Kenneth Herman F or many casual and serious students of exploration life. Yet the quest continued. the names Kane, Greely, Nansen, Amundsen, LCDR George W. De Long made the next attempt. The Peary, and Byrd are forever linked with the Arctic. Naval Academy graduate had served aboard several war- But how many remember George De Long, George Mel- ships before getting his first arctic experience helping ville, James Ambler, and the voyage of the Jeannette? search for the missing exploring steamer Polaris. His de- Outside the Rotunda of BUMED Building Two rests a termination to return to the Arctic translated into a corre- massive bronze tablet that once hung in the Naval Medical spondence and a friendship with James Gordon Bennett, School library. It commemorates the tragic fate of Passed owner of the New York Herald. Would Bennett be inter- Assistant Surgeon James Markham Ambler and his fellow ested in funding an expedition if the Navy supplied the offi- crewmen of the arctic steamer Jeannette. Their story, al- cers and men? The answer was an emphatic “yes.” The though but a footnote in history, is worth retelling. It reads controversial and somewhat eccentric publisher was one of like a classic novel with all the essential ingredients— the wealthiest and most powerful men of his time. When discovery, adventure, sacrifice, heroism, and the struggle to the news lagged, he created it. It was the Herald that sent survive against the odds. The story of the Jeannette began Henry Stanley to Africa in search of the missing Dr. David in the 1870’s with a young naval officer’s ambition to con- Livingston. quer one of the Earth’s last frontiers—the North Pole—and Bennett wasted no time. He purchased the Pandora, a ended along the frozen banks of Siberia’s Lena River in 142-foot barque-rigged steamer in England, renamed her 1883. the Jeannette, and brought her to San Francisco for refitting. Wielding power and influence, he engineered a bill Birth of an Expedition through Congress that converted the ship into a U.S. Navy By the last quarter of the 19th century many nations, in- vessel. The act also authorized the Secretary of the Navy to cluding the United States, had already tried and failed to detail line officers and crewmen to the Jeannette. LCDR reach the North Pole. Some explorers were forced to turn De Long would head the expedition. back when polar ice blocked the way. Others who believed Refitting began at a San Francisco yard. Shipwrights the pole might be accessible by ship ventured too far and buttressed portions of the Jeannette’s wooden hull inside became entrapped in the ice, suffering frightful losses of the bow with solid Oregon pine. They sheathed the steam January- February 2007 Page 9 with wrought iron and straps bolted to her outer planking. the ship on Wrangel Land’s south coast and continue the From the waterline to below the turn of the bilge, American trek to the pole by dog sled. elm planks were added which gave the hull a new thickness Ice Prisoners of over 19 inches. Workmen bolted massive wooden Just 2 months after leaving San Francisco, the Jeannette beams altwartship for lateral strength and installed new suddenly encountered heavy ice. De Long carefully boilers. Felt insulation was applied to the insides of the threaded her through the floes but on 5 September 1879 all wardroom and forecastle. By July 1879 the work was com- progress ceased. The following morning captain and crew pleted and 3 years’ worth of coal awoke to find themselves stuck fast. “As far as the eye can and provisions were loaded range is ice, and not only does it look as if it had never bro- aboard. Few doubted that the ken up and become water, but it also looks as if it never Jeannette was as ready for arctic would,” wrote De Long in his journal. The expedition and cruising as any ship had ever its hopes were imprisoned for an indeterminate sentence. been. The men could only hope to survive a winter in their Bennett and the Secretary of greenless, white, monochromatic world and wait for spring. the Navy exercised much care in Monotony and isolation coexisted with challenge and dis- picking the crew. LT Charles W. covery. During the day the men left the ship and hunted Chipp, second in command, was seal, walrus, and polar bear to augment their diet of canned trusted officer and first-rate sea- chicken and turkey, a fare the crew described as looking man. The navigator was LT John like “a railroad accident.” At dusk the brilliant ice glare W. Danenhower. Chief Engineer often gave way to breathtaking auroral displays and skies George Melville, an experienced drenched with stars. As ice pressured the hull, one could Civil War ironclad veteran, was in hear the snapping and crackling of bolts and timbers. James Gordon Bennett charge of the ship’s engines and Windless nights were ghostly quiet but for the barking of other machinery. Ice pilot William Dunbar, an ex-whaler, the dogs. And each succeeding day the ice pack drifted was said to have cut his teeth on the polar ice. Raymond northwestward with its prisoners. They days grew shorter Lee Newcomb, the expedition’s naturalist and taxidermist, until the pale sun disappeared altogether and the tempera- hoped to study and bring home specimens of arctic flora ture dropped to –45◦ . and fauna. Bennett himself appointed Jerome Collins, New On 19 January 1880 the Jeannette’s fragility became York Herald staff weather reporter, as meteorologist. more evident. Skipper De Long described “aloud noise as The Jeannette’s physician was 31-year-old James Mark- if the cracking of the ship’s frame from some great ham Ambler. Ambler had begun his career as a 16-year-old pressure.” His worst fears were confirmed as icy water Virginia cavalryman fighting for the Confederacy. After suddenly poured into the bilges. Only heroic efforts at the the war he studied medicine at the University of Maryland pumps kept rising water in check. For months crewmen and joined the Navy in 1874. While stationed at the naval manning hand hospital in Norfolk, the passed assistant surgeon received a pumps worked telegram from De Long asking him to join the crew. For around the clock Ambler, the prospect of arctic adventure was irresistible. just to keep ahead of the water; steam On to the Pole pumps alone were On 8 July 1879, festooned with signal pennants and with not enough to keep appropriate ceremony, the Jeannette weighed anchor, the ship afloat. steamed through the Golden Gate, and set her course for the The persistent North Pole. leak and the The ship put in at several Alaskan ports to take on sleds, heaving of the ice dogs, other supplies, and two dog-drivers. After crossing were indeed the Bering Strait and stopping at Kolyuchin Bay on the Si- worrisome. “The Jeannette berian coast, the Jeannette headed north toward Wrangel noise was not Island. De Long, like many of his contemporaries, hy- calculated to calm pothesized that Wrangel Land, as it was then called, was one’s mind,” De Long wrote. “I know of no sound on part of a continent that traversed the pole and became shore that can be compared to it. A rumble, a shriek, a Greenland on the other side. If necessary, he would anchor groan, and a crash of a falling house all might serve to Page 10 convey an idea of the noise which this motion of ice-floes spars toppled and she slipped beneath the ice with but her is accompanied.” foremast still upright. At 77 degrees 15 minutes North and Through the long months of aimless drifting, Dr. Ambler 155 degrees East, the crew was alone in the middle of the continued to practice his profession with utmost skill. His frozen East Siberian Sea. vigorous brand of preventive medicine kept the crew What followed must be one of the most epic journeys in healthy. The men received their daily ration of lime juice the history of arctic exploration. De Long and his 33-man and scurvy was never a problem. Neither did the young crew began the long trek over the ice, dragging their boats surgeon let down on sanitation and hygiene. He saw that and supplies with them. Their destination was the garbage details removed the ship’s refuse and he settlements thought to lie along the Lena River on Siberia’s periodically sampled the ship’s below-deck atmosphere for northern shores. Oak runners shod with whalebone and had toxic gases and excessive dampness. been affixed to the boats. One cutter weighed 3,000 The procurement of fresh water was the biggest concern. pounds; the second 2,300 pounds; the whaleboat weighed “Should we be so fortunate as to return without having the 2,500 pounds. The five sleds with their provisions weighed scurvy break out among us, I think it will be because we close to 6,600 pounds. Ambler harnassed two starving had pure water to drink… ,” dogs to a sled upon which he wrote Ambler. The ice pack and lashed surgical instruments, snowfall in no way insured a medical stores, and records and ready fresh water supply, being then took his turn on the tow far too salty for drinking or ropes. Fissures and massive cooking. The ship’s distilling blocks of ice were in the way. unit worked overtime to keep up The boats were so heavy that the with the demand. entire crew first had to drag one, Ambler’s one chronic patient then another. They walked many was LT Danenhower, who miles back and forth just to gain suffered a serious eye affliction, but a mile or two nearer their a symptom of undiagnosed goal. And only De Long knew syphilis. For many months the that even as they trudged navigator was confined to his southward the ice was moving bunk in great pain. even faster northward. The weather worsened—sleet, rain, and fog alternated Retreat with blinding glare. The men were always wet and The first winter gave way to spring but the ship remained Ambler’s sick list grew. On 29 July 1881, after 42 days of stuck in the ice, no closer to the North Pole than months terrible trials, they landed on solid ground, raised the before. A second winter came followed by another spring. American flag, and named the uncharted island Bennett in The routine wore on De Long and the crew. “There can be honor of their benefactor. They rested several days and no greater wear and tear on a man’s mind and patience than then continued their voyage south until they reached the life in this pack. The absolute monotony; the unchanging New Siberian Island. There they hunted and rested, round of hours; the wakening to the same things and the embarking from Semenovski Island on 12 September. same conditions that one saw just before losing one’s self That night a terrible gale from the northeast separated the in sleep; the same faces; the same dogs; the same ice…” boats. LT Chipp’s cuter foundered with the loss of all The Jeannette’s skipper faced the reality of inevitable hands. The remaining two boats under the commands of defeat. “A ship having the North Pole for an objective De Long and Chief Engineer Melville became separated point must get to the pole, otherwise her best efforts are a and the former’s craft nearly swamped. The “gale failure.” increased, carried away our mast at the foot & we became a On 12 June 1881 the ice ended the stalemate. The wreck, taking in water, wallowing in the trough of the sea Jeannette broke free and lay in open water between two the whole night…” wrote Ambler. Several days later the floes. All cheered to the possibility of continuing the two boats came ashore miles apart on the Lena Delta. voyage. Suddenly the ice shifted, the channel narrowed, and the ship’s once stout hull gave way like an egg shell in Lost in the Delta a vise. Water slowly rose in the hold and the men Melville’s band, although exhausted and frostbitten, abandoned ship, taking with them two small open cutters, a worked its way south for several days subsisting on tea. whaleboat, and 60 day’ provisions. One by one Jeannette’s De Long’s party fared poorly. Provisions ran low even