76 THE VOYAGE OF THE JEANNETTE. 



belonging to the San Francisco Yacht Club, Commander 

 C. H. Harrison leading them in his yacht Frolic ; by 

 the tug Mellen Griffith, hired by J. C. Morison, our 

 shipping agent ; by the tug Governor Irwin, carrying 

 his Excellency Governor Irwin, of the State of Cali- 

 fornia, who did us the honor to pay us a visit on board 

 just before sailing, and a party of merchants; the tug 

 Rabboni, with a large number of San Franciscans, and 

 several small steam-launches loaded down with people,. 

 The wharves w^ere crowded with enthusiastic friends; 

 Telegraph Hill was black with people who had climbed 

 up there to cheer us and wave adieux ; and every ship 

 we passed dipped her colors to us, while shouts, steam- 

 whistles, and yachts' cannon shots kept the air filled 

 with noise. Upon passing Fort Point a salute of 

 twenty-one guns was fired in our honor, while the gar- 

 rison of the fort cheered us enthusiastically. Astern 

 of us might be seen our consort, the schooner Fanny 

 A. Hyde, laden with one hundred tons coal and such 

 provisions as we could not convenientl}^ carry. The 

 refusal of the Navy Department to send a man-of-war 

 with us as far as Alaska to start us as favorably as was 

 the Polaris, Captain Hall, in 1871, when the Congress 

 was sent to Disco, in Greenland, to help her along, 

 made the chartering of this schooner necessary at Mr. 

 Bennett's expense. I may here add that not a sign 

 of a naval officer was seen in tlie departing ovation. 

 The Alaska, Tuscarora, and Alert lay at the navy yard, 

 only twenty-six miles away ; and though the navy yard 

 tug Monterey lay at a wharf in San Francisco when 

 we started, having brought the commandant down that 

 morning, she made no move toward participation. On 

 the contrary, when fifteen minutes later she left her 

 wharf, she crossed our wake a mile astern without 



