Description

George W. De Long (1844-81) was a US Navy officer who set out to find a new route to the North Pole via the Bering Strait. During his voyage, which left San Francisco in 1879, he claimed the De Long Islands for the USA. But when his vessel, the Jeannette, sank, the crew abandoned ship, and he eventually died of starvation in Siberia. Compiled by his wife from his journals and the testimony of the survivors, these two volumes document De Long's doomed expedition. First published in 1883, they record De Long's early years and preparations for the expedition, the crew's experiences in the perilous Arctic, the wreckage of the Jeannette and the crew's escape in smaller boats, and the eventual discovery of De Long's records and remains. Providing a vivid account of nineteenth-century polar exploration, these volumes remain of great interest to scholars of geography and maritime studies.