THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 751 



sea. To all his mother's pleading for him to adopt the profession 

 either of law, medicine, or the ministry, he uttered strong protes- 

 tations. In 1861, by the exercise of great persistence, he secured 

 a cadetship in the Naval Academy at Annapolis, from which he 

 graduated in 1865. His first assignment was as midshipman on 

 the U. S. steamer Canandaigua, on which he made a three years' 

 cruise along the coasts of Europe and Africa and in the Mediter- 

 ranean , and upon his return he was promoted to lieutenant. In 

 1871 he was married to Miss Emma J. Wotton, of Havre, France, 

 the ceremony being performed on the U. S. man-of-war lying in 

 that harbor. One year later he became executive officer of the 

 Nantasket, and in the following year was assigned to the com- 

 mand of the steam launch Juniata, which was attached to the 

 North Atlantic squadron, and dispatched to the relief of the 

 steamer Polaris, which vessel had been sent out on an expedition 

 to the North Pole under Capt. Hall. DeLong brought the Juni- 

 ata to harbor at Upernavik, and from that point conducted a 

 boat journey along the coast, in search of the Polaris, as far as 

 Cape York. This experience in the Arctic regions inspired him 

 with a passionate desire to command an expedition to search for 

 the North Pole, an ambition which was gratified, in 1876, by 

 James Gordon Bennett purchasing the steamer Pandora and 

 placing her at the disposal of DeLong. The Pandora was 

 thought to be fairly serviceable for the purpose of navigating 

 the Arctic sea, but she was nevertheless thoroughly overhauled, 

 to make her power of resistance to ice-floes as great as possible. 

 This was done at Deptford, after which she was taken to Havre, 

 where, on July 4th, she was rechristened the Jeannette, and 

 turned over to DeLong. Ten days later the vessel steamed out 

 of Havre harbor for San Francisco, which voyage occupied one 

 hundred and sixty-five days. At San Francisco DeLong received 

 his crew, which was recruited from the ranks of the navy, and 

 the officers designated by the Navy Department. 



The Jeannette left San Francisco July 8, 1879, and passed 

 through Behring's Strait the last of August, headed for Wran- 

 <rel Land. Two months later she was caught in an ice-pack 



