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Jeannette Expedition

The Jeannette Expedition of 1879-1881 was led by George De Long to try to reach the North Pole by sailing through the Bering Strait into an hypothesized "Open Polar Sea." The expedition's ship, the USS Jeannette, became trapped in polar ice for nearly two years before being crushed and sinking north of Siberia. Over half of the crew died, including De Long, during the attempt to reach land by boat and sled. Although the expedition failed to find an open polar route, it made discoveries and collected data that influenced future Arctic exploration.

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28 views1 page

Jeannette Expedition

The Jeannette Expedition of 1879-1881 was led by George De Long to try to reach the North Pole by sailing through the Bering Strait into an hypothesized "Open Polar Sea." The expedition's ship, the USS Jeannette, became trapped in polar ice for nearly two years before being crushed and sinking north of Siberia. Over half of the crew died, including De Long, during the attempt to reach land by boat and sled. Although the expedition failed to find an open polar route, it made discoveries and collected data that influenced future Arctic exploration.

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aditya
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The Jeannette Expedition of 187981 was an attempt led byGeorge W.

De Long to reach the North


Pole using a route through the Bering Strait to the fabled temperate Open Polar Sea. The expedition
was financed by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the proprietor of the New York Herald, and based on
the ocean current theories of the German cartographer August Petermann. The attempt failed; the
expedition's ship, USS Jeannette (pictured), drifted in the polar ice for nearly two years before being
crushed and sunk, north of the Siberian coast. De Long then led his men on a journey by boat and
sled to the Lena Delta. Before ultimate rescue, more than half of the ship's complement died,
including De Long. During Jeannette's long drift the expedition discovered what were later called
the De Long Islands, and collected significant meteorological and oceanographic data. Although the
ship's fate demolished the long-standing Open Polar Sea theory, the appearance in 1884 of debris
from the wreck on the south-west coast of Greenland indicated that an Arctic current carried the ice
from east to west. This discovery inspired Fridtjof Nansen to mount his Fram expedition nine years
later.

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