CHAPTER V. 



SEARCHES FOR THE JEANNETTE 1881. 



(CRUISE OP THE ALLIANCE.) 



THE sending out by the Secretary of the Navy of a 

 United States ship to cruise in the waters of Spitzber- 

 gen in search of the missing expedition, was one of the 

 results of the labors of the Jeannette Relief Board. It was 

 supposed that if DeLong had landed on Wrangel Land 

 and sledged his way to the Pole, he would return by the 

 way of Smith's Sound or Spitsbergen, where he would be 

 likely to meet whalers and walrus-hunters much sooner than 

 he would if he returned to Wrangel Land, as the first- 

 named places are several hundred miles the nearest to the 

 Pole. An expedition in that direction, to ask the co-opera- 

 tion of the whalers and walrus-hunters, and to bring homo 

 the Jeannette's men if they were found, was accordingly 

 decided on. 



The steamship Alliance, having been designated for the 

 service, was hastily equipped at the Norfolk navy yard, and 

 started on her long voyage June 16th, 1881 the same day on 

 which the Rodgers left San Francisco. Drawing away from 

 abreast the famous frigate Kearsarge, which fought the rebel 

 cruiser Alabama outside Cherbourg, she passed gracefully 

 down the stream, while the sailors of the receiving-ship 

 Franklin and other war-vessels manned the rigging and 

 cheered her adventurous crew. The officers of the Alliance 

 were as follows : 



Captain George H. Wadleigh, Commander; Lieutenant C. H. West, 

 Executive Officer; Lieutenant C. P. Perkins, Navigator; Lieutenant 

 Elliott, Master Schwenk, Chief -Engineer Burnap, Surgeon Eckstein. 



The crew numbered nearly two hundred men. Mr. Hany 



(71) 



