THE JEANNETTE EXPEDITION

One of the less well known but certainly invaluable activities of the US Navy has been meteorologic, oceanographic, and geographic research.  Naval expeditions have surveyed the world’s oceans, reached both Poles and explored the Amazon River.  Navy submersibles have plumbed the depths of the Marianas Trench, and balloons carrying Navy personnel have pierced the upper stratosphere.  Indeed, LT Charles Wilkes headed a major scientific expedition in 1838-42 that is credited with charting nearly 300 Pacific islands and discovering the continent of Antarctica.

Similarly, knowledge that the Arctic was an ocean and concern over the illusive “Northwest Passage” led LT George Washington DeLong on an ill-advised 19^th century attempt to sail to the North Pole during winter.  On 8 July 1879, DeLong departed San Francisco in the steam bark JEANNETTE, which had been donated to the Navy by James G. Bennett, publisher of The New York Herald.  JEANNETTE’s hull had been specially reinforced against the crushing force of the Arctic ice, and Bennett retained exclusive rights to the story of her quest for the Pole.  DeLong sent his last message from St. Lawrence Island (then Siberia) on 27 August.  His all-volunteer crew of 31 passed through the Bering Strait in September.

Within days, however, JEANNETTE became locked in the expanding winter icepack.  More days passed, then weeks, until time stretched into months.  Through the winter of 1879-80 the ship remained fast.  JEANNETTE’s crew occupied themselves making scientific observations while the icepack drifted westward along Siberia’s coast.  Another winter passed.  Shortened rations only made the relentless freezing temperatures harder to bear until June 13^th, 1881, when the shifting ice finally crushed the bark’s reinforced hull.

Loading provisions into three whaleboats which were dragged like sleds, the crew set out to the west.  They reached the edge of the ice in September, but here a storm capsized one of the boats with the loss of all hands.  The other two boats were separated.  The largest group of 17 in DeLong’s boat made landfall on the uninhabited eastern bank of Siberia’s Lena delta.  This party pushed overland until the weakened condition of the men forced DeLong to make camp.  The two strongest continued on.

Meanwhile the other boat carrying Chief Engineer LT George W. Melville reached the western Lena delta, where they were aided by native villagers.  Eventually the two from DeLong’s party were united with Melville and thence mounted a rescue attempt.  But it was already too late.  On 23 March 1882 Melville found the frozen corpses of DeLong, the expedition’s surgeon James M. Ambler, and the rest of the party.  DeLong’s scientific data were recovered.

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CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. GPO, Washington, DC, pp. 509-10, 1977.

Guttridge, Leonard F.  Icebound:  The Jeannette Expedition’s Quest for the North Pole.  USNI Press, Annapolis, MD, 1986.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  USNI Press, Annapolis, MD, p. 86, 2002.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  As a result of his actions, Melville was considered for the Medal of Honor, but at the time only enlisted sailors and Marines were eligible for the award.  Instead, he was voted a special medal by Congress and advanced 15 slots on the promotion list.  JEANNETTE was Melville’s second of three polar excursions.  In 1873, he had served as Chief Engineer aboard USS TIGRESS in her rescue of 19 survivors of the Polaris expedition which became stranded in Baffin Bay.  In 1884 he returned to the Arctic on the rescue mission for the Greely Expedition.  He was eventually promoted to Rear Admiral and served as Engineer in Chief of the Navy.  He is remembered as much for his later work on warship design as for his Arctic trekking.  The WWI destroyer tender AD-2 and the oceanographic research ship MELVILLE (AGOR-14) both bear his name.

DeLong is remembered with the WWI-era torpedo boat DELONG (TB-28), the Rathburne-class destroyer DD-129, and by the DeLong Straits off the northeastern tip of Siberia (the region through which the icebound JEANNETTE drifted with the icepack).

The first ship to sail to the North Pole would not succeed for three-quarters of a century.  The nuclear submarine NAUTILUS (SSN-571) reached the North Pole on 3 August 1958.

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                                                          PT-31

Matters had run afoul for LT Edward G. DeLong and the 12-man crew of PT-31 soon after splitting company with PT-34.  The fuel strainers of his wing engines clogged, and the center engine failed shortly with an airlock in the cooling system.  They drifted dead in the water as an enemy 3″ gun on Ilinin Point opened some ineffective but pesky fire.  The powerless PT-31 next struck fast on a reef.  For three hours the crew labored to revive the engines and free the boat from an ebbing tide.  But when the reverse gear burned out and dawn threatened to reveal his boat, DeLong had no choice but to abandon ship.  The crew fashioned a raft out of mattresses and the cover of the engine compartment and slid over the side.  DeLong stayed behind to puncture the gas lines and rig grenades.  By the time he lowered himself into the water, his shipmates had drifted away.  The Lieutenant swam ashore alone.  PT-31 exploded and burned.

At first light, DeLong located his crew after following their tracks along the beach.  He was saddened to learn that three had become lost during the night without a trace.  Cloistered in the bushes along the shore, DeLong took stock of the situation.  They had but one rifle and six pistols, some scraps of canvas, no food, and no water.  Furthermore, their chance hideout was within earshot of some loud Japanese soldiers in the nearby jungle.  DeLong set a watch in the trees and instructed that any snooping Japanese be allowed into the hideout to be clubbed, as a gunshot was too risky.  DeLong’s first plan, that of walking along the beach to the American zone, was thwarted by the proximity of the fighting.  Then one of the crew spotted two bancas (native canoes) about a half mile away on the beach.  These bancas now held their only hope.

The nine crept from their thicket at twilight.  The smaller of the bancas proved more seaworthy, and the crew rigged a makeshift sail using canvas and barbed wire.  They shoved off at 2000, the smaller banca towing the larger.  Japanese voices could again be heard within a couple hundred yards, so DeLong deployed the sail only after having paddled some distance from the shore.  Again, fate frowned on the party, for within an hour both bancas capsized and their gear was lost.  Through judicious use of two makeshift bailers, the bancas were righted, and the party cleared Panibutujan Point.  About 0130 they rounded Napo Point only to be met by a strong headwind.  Making no headway after an hour of exhaustive paddling, DeLong put ashore near the point.  As luck would have it, they were spotted after dawn by Philippine Army forces and taken to a nearby US Army unit.  Harried and tired, they were nevertheless back at their base in Mariveles by 1730 the evening of the 20^th.

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CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Breuer, William B.  Devil Boats:  The PT War Against Japan.  Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1987, pp. 26-31.

Breuer, William B.  Sea Wolf:  A Biography of John D. Bulkeley, USN.  Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1989, pp. 40-43.

Bulkley, Robert J., Jr.  At Close Quarters:  PT Boats in the United States Navy.  Washington, DC: GPO, Department of the Navy, 1962, pp. 9-16.

White, W.L.  They Were Expendable.  New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1942, pp. 66-76.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  In March of 1942 Bulkeley used the remaining serviceable boats of MTB-3 to carry GEN Douglas MacArthur to safety.  Those squadron members for whom there was no room on that trip, including DeLong, were ordered to join a nearby Army unit on Bataan.  The surrender of American forces on 6 May 1942 resulted in the capture of DeLong and those unfortunate MTB-3 shipmates.  DeLong was beheaded by his captors on 2 July 1942.  LTJG DeLong received the Silver Star for his actions this night and the Navy Cross for his sustained performance with MTB-3 from February to April 1942.  (Three US warships have borne the name “DeLong,” TB-28, DD-129, and DE-684.  However, all three remember other heroes with the same surname.)

Devotees of Hollywood war movies will recognize this story and others about MTB-3 as the model for the 1945 John Ford production based on William White’s book above, They Were Expendable.  The film stars Robert Montgomery as “LT John Brinkley” (based on real-life LT Bulkeley) and John Wayne as his highly fictionalized XO, “LTJG Rusty Ryan.”  They Were Expendable was nominated for two Academy Awards, for best sound recording and best visual effects.

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