Aftermath
Before leaving Siberia, Melville made an attempt to find the remains of Jeannette's third boat, even though the chance of survivors was slim. He returned disappointed to Irkutsk, the capital of Siberia on 5 July 1882, almost three years since his departure from San Francisco in Jeannette. The results of the expedition, both meteorological and geographic, were important. Melville was rightly honored for his courage and tenacity, and the name of George Washington DeLong is considered among the ranks of the Navy's explorer heroes.
Search and rescue efforts included those with the revenue cutter Thomas Corwin and former steam whaler, Rodgers. They established that the Jeannette had been seen, in good condition and steaming west; that she had not landed parties on Herald or Wrangell Island; and that no survivors had come ashore within reach of their shore searches. A party from the Rodgers, upon reaching Srednekolymsk received word of the landing of the Jeannette survivors in the Lena delta; this party then traveled to join the Jeannette survivors.
On June 18, 1884, wreckage from Jeannette was found on an ice floe near Julianehåb (now Qaqortoq) near the southern tip of Greenland (60°43′20″N 46°02′25″W / 60.72222°N 46.04028°W / 60.72222; -46.04028). This suggested to Fridtjof Nansen the hypothesis that the ice of the Arctic Ocean was in constant motion from the Siberian coast to the American coast. To prove this, Nansen planned and executed the Fram expedition 1893-1896, which confirmed the motion of the Arctic sea-ice.
Read more about this topic: USS Jeannette (1878)
Famous quotes containing the word aftermath:
“The aftermath of joy is not usually more joy.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)