HORRORS OF THE "JEANNETTE" EXPEDITION 329 



Lieutenant Danenhower says : "It was dark, in the long night, 

 and there was no chance of working the pack had it been good judg- 

 ment to do so. We reckoned that she had drifted at least forty 

 miles with the ice in her immediate vicinity. Previous to this time 

 the ship had stood the pressure in the most remarkable manner. 

 On one occasion, I stood on the deck-house above a sharp tongue 

 of ice that pressed the port side just abaft the forechains, and in the 

 wake of the immense truss that had been strengthened at Mare 

 Island, by the urgent advice of Commodore William H. Shock. The 

 fate of the "Jeannette" was then delicately balanced, and when I saw 

 the immense tongue break and harmlessly underrun the ship I gave 

 heartfelt thanks to Shock's good judgment. She would groan from 

 stem to stern; the cabin-doors were often jammed so that we could 

 not get out in case of an emergency, and the heavy truss was im- 

 bedded three-quarters of an inch into the ceiling. The safety of the 

 ship at that time was due entirely to the truss." 



Recording the experiences which have been just named, De 

 Long says: "This steady strain on one's mind is fearful. Seem-' 

 ingly we are not secure for a moment, and yet we can take no meas- 

 ures for our security. A crisis may occur at any moment, and we can 

 do nothing but be thankful in the morning that it has not come 

 during the night, and at night that it has not come since morning. 

 Living over a powder mill, waiting for an explosion, would be a 

 similar mode of existence. . . . Sleeping with all my clothes 

 on, and starting up anxiously at every snap or crack in the ice out- 

 side, or the ship's frame inside, most effectually prevents my get- 

 ting a proper kind or amount of rest, and yet I do not see anything 

 else in store for me for some time to come." 



Christmas day was passed, drearily enough, and at midnight 

 on the 3 ist all hands were called together on the quarter-deck to 

 give three cheers for the New Year and for the "Jeannette." But 

 the New Year brought no good fortune in its trail. On the I9th of 

 January there was a loud noise, as if the ship's frame was cracking, 



