HORRORS OF THE "JEANNETTE" EXPEDITION 335 



bed, but was notified to come on deck, and the captain carefully 

 supervised the operations, quieting down all haste or consternation 

 among the men and moving about the deck in a manner as uncon- 

 cerned as if they were in the midst of an ordinary operation. The 

 necessary articles, including the personal effects of officers and 

 men, were safely landed on the ice, but there was difficulty in getting 

 out a barrel of lime-juice, an article necessary to prevent scurvy 

 on the proposed march. To rescue it seaman Starr waded into the 

 forward store-room at the risk of his life. 



By eleven o'clock that night the situation had grown perilous 

 in the extreme. The ship's water-ways had been broken in and 

 the iron- work around the smoke-stack buckled up and its rivets 

 sheared off, so that it was supported only by the guys. The order 

 was now given to leave the ship, three boats being lowered the 

 first and second cutters and the first whale-boat while the ship's 

 company of thirty-three landed on the floe, where they encamped 

 in six tents. 



Here they were far from safe. Shortly after the watch was 

 set and the order given to turn in, and as they were getting into 

 their sleeping bags, the ice cracked under Captain DeLong's tent, 

 and it became necessary to move the stores and boats to another 

 part of the floe. Erickson, one of the captain's party, would have 

 gone into the water but for the fact that the Mackintosh blanket 

 on the middle of which he was lying was held up by the weight of 

 others who lay on its sides. 



At 4 A. M., June 3d, a loud cry came from the watch: "There 

 she goes ; hurry up and look ; the last sight you will have of the old 

 'Jeannette' !" The ice so far had held together sufficiently to pre- 

 vent her sinking. It now opened and down went the gallant ship, 

 with her colors flying at the masthead, the ice stripping her yards 

 upwards as she sank. A visit on the next morning to the spot where 

 she was last seen, showed nothing afloat but a cabin chair, a signal 

 chest, and some smaller articles. 



The watery grave of the poor "Jeannette" lay in latitude 77 



