George W. DeLong

George W. DeLong ( George Washington DeLong, born August 22, 1844 in New York City; † to the October 30, 1881, at the mouth of the Lena, Siberia ) was an American sailor and Arctic explorer.

DeLong joined 1861 in the United States Naval Academy and in 1869 lieutenant. In 1873 he took part in the expedition in Baffin Bay to conduct research in the Melville Bay for the missing crew of Polaris.

North course

DeLong first went on whaling ships, most recently as captain. On 8 July 1879, he broke out in San Francisco ( United States) with the ship Jeannette and 32 -man crew to a project funded by the publisher James Gordon Bennett Jr. North Polar Expedition to clarify the fate of the used and missing of Adolf Erik, Baron Nordenskiöld ship Vega on. After a stopover in Alaska he passed on August 29, 1879, the Bering Strait and reached the Chukotka. Here told DeLong that Vega had continued their journey after a successful winter. He then made ​​the decision to reach the North Pole with the Jeannette.

Frozen in the Arctic Ocean

On September 5, 1879, the Jeannette froze near Herald Island into the ice of the Arctic Ocean. After a short time the ship struck leak. During the next ice drift DeLong discovered named after him De Long Islands. However, after two years his ship ran into heavy ice pressure and sank on June 13, 1881 about 800 km from the Lena Delta. DeLong and his crew were able to save themselves first. During their march to the coast of Siberia, but they were more devious of the ice drift north. Since changing the direction and intensity of the ice drift in the following days, the castaways reached in September 1881, the New Siberian Islands. On September 12, the castaways decided with their three boats translating the Lena Delta. A boat under the leadership DeLong, one under the leadership of engineer Melville (the actual skipper Lieutenant John Wilson Danenhower ( 1849-1887 ) failed due to a chronic eye condition its mission not perceive ) and a boat under the command of Lieutenant Chipp took the course on. They soon fell in a storm and were separated. The boat under the command of Lieutenant Chipp is lost forever.

In the Lena Delta of Siberia

One group was rescued by Yakut hunters. From the second group, the DeLong himself had done, initially there was no sign. After a few days, however, two men of the DeLong group ( Nindermann and Noros ) reached the camp of the Yakuts and met their comrades. In November 1881 they were again made ​​to the extent that the survivors were able to move to the place where the DeLong group was obviously gone ashore. From DeLong and his men they found traces. 1882 was the search party under the leadership of the ship's engineer G. W. Melville ( leader of the boat of Jeannette, which Siberian settlements reached ) the last camp of the group of DeLong. A camp was found on a river bank a Lenaarms. There, a fire pit, they found the bodies of Lee, Kaach, Iverson, Dressler, Goertz and Collins. About 500 meters further saw the viewfinder a rigid, frozen hand sticking out of the snow. It was the hand DeLong, who made the " last camp 'attention. There, they found the bodies of DeLong, Dr. Ambler, and Ah Sam. Close beside the corpse of DeLong was also his diary. The search expedition erected a tomb, on a cross, the names have been attached to all those who had died from the boat DeLong. In particular, the entries of the last days of the unfortunate group DeLong in his diary have been published several times, the last page as " copy of the original." The Internet allows access to the scanned original and shows that it is a counterfeit "original". The text of the last few days but authentic. We learn there that the members of the group DeLong are starving to death.

Late discoveries off Greenland

1884 remains the Jeannette were found on the east coast of Greenland. Due to the ice drift clothing had been transported from Noros and some wreckage over 2900 km. This finding led Fridtjof Nansen to the idea, understand the drift of the effects on a ship, which was finally implemented during the Fram expedition ( 1893-1896 ). The diaries of DeLong survived and were later published by his wife.