NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



turned early in June with two of the officers, 

 eight of the crew, anil nine Esquimaux, five of 

 whom were children, all in good health. . 

 persons were at once summoned to Washing- 

 ton, and were there examined tiv a board of ex- 

 aminers, consisting of Secretary Robi>><>n. Com- 

 modore William Reynolds, the senior officer 

 nf the Navy Department, Prof. Spenc r F. 

 Baird of the Smithsonian Institution, and Cap- 

 tain II. \V. Ilowgate, of the Army Signal 

 Service. 



From the evidence taken on this examina- 

 tion, and the report submitted by Secretary 

 Robeson to the President of the United States, 

 it appears that the Polaris left Tessinsac on 

 the 24(h of June, and, proceeding northward 

 nnder steam, passed through Smith Sound and 

 Kennedy Channel with very little delay or 

 obstruction from the ice. On the 30th of 

 August the vessel reached the highest northern 

 latitude that has been attained by any Arctic 

 Expedition, viz., 82 16'. In this strait or 

 channel, which Captain Hall named Robeson 

 Straits, the ship was met by heavy floating 

 ice, extending entirely across the straits, and 

 barring her farther progress northward. On 

 the 3d of September the Polaris entered her 

 first winter quarters in Polaris Bay, so named 

 by Captain Hall, in latitude 81 38' north, and 

 longitude 01 44' west. 



Soon after Captain Hull made a sledge 

 expedition northward as far as latitude 82 2'. 

 Having returned to the ship, October 24th, 

 apparently in his usual fine health, he was 

 attacked with sickness of the stomach and 

 vo niting, and died on the 8th of November. 

 Rumors having been set afloat that Captain 

 Hall's death occurred under mysterious cir- 

 cumstances, giving grounds tor suspicion that 

 he had been unfairly dealt with by some one 

 or more of his associates, Secretary Robeson, 

 after taking testimony on this point, reported 

 that " a very particular questioning of every 

 one of the oflicers and crew of the Polaris, and 

 of the scientific corps (except the three persons 

 as yet unexaminod) has completely satisfied 

 my associates and myself that his death oc- 

 curred from purely natural causes; that his 

 medical treatment was judiciously adapted to 

 his case, anil that he was tenderly nursed and 

 cared for to the last." 



On the death of Captain Hall, Mr. Rmldintr- 

 ton succeeded to the command of the Polaris 

 as had been provided for in the instructions 

 for the voyage issued by the Secretary of the 

 Navy. The vessel remained in winter <iu :: 

 until August, 1872. On the lftthoftli.it month 

 it was made fast to a large floe of ice in lati- 

 tude about 80" north, and longitude 68 west, 

 and while still fast to this line drifted south 

 through Smith's Sound nearly to Northumber- 

 land Island. On the night of the 15th of 

 October, in latitude 79 53' north, during a 

 violent gale of wind and snow, the ship was 

 suddenly beset by a tremendous pressure of 

 tho ice which was driven against her from 



the southward, and forced under her, pressing 

 her up out of tho water, and, by successive 

 and violent shocks, finally throwing her over 

 on her beam -ends. 



A portion of the crew, consisting of Captain 

 Tyson and eighteen others, were ordered to 

 carry provisions to a safe place on the ire. 

 While so engaged, in the darkness of an arctic 

 nifrht, in the midst of a fierce gale and driving 

 snow storm, the hawsers of the Polaris tailed 

 to hold her, and she broke adrift from the floe 

 Mid in a few minutes was out of sight of the 

 party who were at that moment busily at 

 work on the ice. " It is the uniform opinion 

 of the witnesses," says Secretary Roheson, 

 " and our unanimous conclusion from tin 

 timony and from tho circumstances' detailed, 

 that this separation of the ship from the men. 

 women, and children upon the ice-floe was 

 purely accidental." 



From October 15, 1872, until April 1, 1873, 

 these nineteen men, women, and children, re- 

 mained through the whole of the dark and 

 dreary winter 187 days upon the field of float- 

 ing ice which was originally about five miles 

 in circumference. On the 1st of April, finding 

 their icy quarters much reduced by the break- 

 ing up of tho floe, and that the current was 

 then setting them to the southward and to 

 sea, they launched their boat into open water 

 and pulled toward the west, in order, if pos- 

 sible, to gain the coast. They had now reached 

 about latitude 59 north. On the 31st of April 

 they were rescued by the British soaling- 

 steamer Tigress abont forty miles from the 

 coast of Labrador. 



Of tho Polaris herself nothing more was 

 known until September 19, 1873, when the ar- 

 rival of tho British Healing-steamer Arctic, at 

 Dundee, Scotland, with six of the officers and 

 three of her crew on board, was telegraphed 

 to the Department of State by the United 

 States consul at that port, with tho further in- 

 formation that the remaining officer and tho 

 other two seamen would soon follow ; all 

 hands of the Polaris were picked up by the 

 British whaling-steamer Ravenscraig on the 

 23d of June, south of Cape York, off the Green- 

 land coast, while on their way in boats to the 

 southward, the Polaris having been aban- 

 doned as a wreck. 



In tho mean time, however, the Tigress, nn- 

 der command of Captain James A. (Jreer, had 

 boon fitted out and dispatched in search of tho 

 Polaris; while the .Tmiiata, under command of 

 D. L. Braine, was sent to assist tin- 

 The latter sailed from New York, July 14th. 

 and after a search in the Arctic regions arrived 

 at St. John's October Mill, wh. ttion 



of the rescue of the Polaris crew was re- 

 ceived. The Tigress reached New York, No- 

 vember 9th. 



The rescued officers and crew of the Polaris 

 were summoned to Washington for examina- 

 tion, tho results of which were not reported 

 at the close of the year. 



