SAILING OF THE RELIEF SQUADRON. 57 



again. His return, alone and empty-handed, cut off all hope 

 from the despairing party ; nothing remained, but to die by 

 a gradual process of starvation. 



At the time Greely was carrying out his plans and doing 

 his meritorious work at Fort Conger, the Government at 

 home were taking measures to fulfill their part of the agree- 

 ment, to dispatch supplies in both the following years. The 

 I^eptune, in 1882, was fitted out with supplies for the 

 station at Fort Conger, but she found Smith's Sound an 

 impassable barrier of ice, and after battling with the pack 

 from July until September, she turned back and returned 

 to St. Johns. 



In June of 1883, another Relief Expedition was fitted out, 

 under Lieut. Garlington, bound for Fort Conger and points 

 south, where supplies were to be cached. But misfortune 

 awaited the trial. Not far from Cape Sabine the Proteus was 

 crushed in an ice nip and sank. Her crew were rescued by 

 the Yantic and returned to St. Johns, with nothing accom- 

 plished for the men whose lives were already in peril. Blame 

 is attached to the management of the Expedition on account of 

 the failure of the Proteus to land a greater quantity of sup- 

 plies at Cape Sabine or Littleton Island, before attempting to 

 go farther north in the ice pack, thereby risking the loss of 

 nearly all the stores, which caused the suffering that soon 

 followed, when Greely and his men returned to Cape Sabine, 

 where they expected to find sufficient supplies. 



Notwithstanding the ill-fated results of the former expedi- 

 tions, and the general opinion that the Greely party could not 

 have survived the last hard winter. Congress promptly appro- 

 priated another large sum for making one more attempt to 

 find the lost explorers. England kindly offered the use of 

 the steamship Alert to aid in the search, and expressed great 

 sympathy. The Expedition was commanded by Commander 

 W. S. Schley, and consisted of three ships, the Thetis^ the 

 Bear and the Alert. At no previous time had an expedition 



