Description

On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette left San Francisco under the command of Lieutenant George Washington De Long. Its mission was to try to reach the North Pole via an ice-free polar sea that some geographers theorized might exist. The ship entered the Arctic Ocean on August 29; on September 6 it became stuck in pack ice north of the Chukotka Peninsula and began drifting in a northwesterly direction. On January 19, 1880, the ship began leaking as it was crushed by the ice. With great effort the crew ...