George W. De Long

Recording by William Tomko.

Chapter twelve, George Washington DeLong and the Siberian Arctic Ocean.

Of all the routes followed by explorers attempting to extend northward our knowledge of unknown lands, there is one which, more than all others, seems to have been closed by nature to the daring enterprise of man.

While successful voyages to the northward of America and along the meridian of Spitsbergen have been a frequent occurrence, yet it has been the fortune of one expedition only to penetrate the vast ice pack that covers the Arctic Ocean to the north of Siberia, and give an account thereof.

This expedition, organized through the munificence of James Gordon Bennett Jr., and known to the world as the Jeannette Expedition, was commanded by DeLong, then a lieutenant commander of the United States Navy.

George Washington DeLong was born in New York City, March 22, 1844, and entered the United States Navy by graduation from the Naval Academy in 1865.

He rose to be a lieutenant commander and rendered ordinary naval service until 1873, when special duties fell to his lot which turned his thoughts to Arctic research.

The rescue of the drift party of the Polaris naturally caused great alarm as to the safety of the remainder of her crew, and with the dispatch of the Tigris into the waters of Smith Sound came orders for the Juniata, to which DeLong was attached, to visit the coasts of Western Greenland for additional search for the missing explorers.

The Jeannette voyage, um, a lot of th...

We're gonna get into it and all the things that happened, but one of the things that happens is, uh, afterwards, some number of years afterwards, a pair of George DeLong's pants, seal skin pants, wash up on the shores of Greenland.

Mm.

And, um, Nansen finds out about this and realizes those pants went up and over the top of the world and went from the Bering Strait, you know, basically all the way over to Greenland.

Oh, stop.

Yeah.

DeLong did not make it to the North Pole, but his pants apparently did.

[laughs]

The events which led up to this memorable cruise of the Corwin in 1881 had their origin in the widespread interest which North Polar exploration was exciting at this time all over the world.

In 1877, Lieutenant George W. DeLong, an American naval officer, was searching among the northern ports of England for a whaling vessel adapted to the requirements of Arctic exploration.

DeLong had commanded the Juniata, which was sent out for the relief of the Polaris, and through this experience had grown enthusiastic over his own plans for reaching the North Pole.

The whaling industry was at that time a very profitable one, and few owners of whalers and sealers were willing to part with their vessels.

Though Sir Allen Young's steam yacht Pandora, which DeLong finally selected, had already made two Arctic voyages, she appears to have been chosen more because she was available than because of her superior fitness for ice navigation.

In any case, she was purchased by James Gordon Bennett, patron of the proposed expedition, was fitted out at Deptford, England, and renamed the Jeannette.

Though the new name evaded the suggestion of a box of evils, she proved to be one for those who sailed in her.

Commander DeLong himself brought her around Cape Horn to San Francisco.