Greely. Adolphus Washington.

[john sefton]

Adolphus Washington Greely (1844 – 1935)

Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, he left school at the age of sixteen to join the 19th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Rising through the ranks he commanded the troops at New Orleans, with the rank of brevet major.

In March 1867, he joined the 36th Infantry, Signal Corps with the rank of second lieutenant. Here he learnt telegraphy and trouble-shooting the telegraph lines in Wyoming and Utah. During this time he took an interest in meteorology, especially the accurate forecasting of storms and their impact on the local economy.

He then helped to set up the United States Weather Bureau and in May 1873, was promoted to first lieutenant.

In 1875, lieutenant Karl Weyprecht of the Austrian navy proposed a concerted international one-year programme of Arctic exploration at a meeting of the German Scientific Association.

Twelve countries with direct polar interests expressed an interest with 1882-3 being designated an International Polar Year, whereby co-ordinated research could be carried out with the results being shared. With the exceptions of the Greely and the Dutch expedition under Maurits Snellen in the Varna, which became trapped in ice in the Kara Sea and sank , most of the expeditions were relatively uneventful and returned with useful data.

The United States agreed to send out two teams, one to Point Barrow, Alaska and one to Lady Franklin Bay (=Lady Franklin Sound) at the northern tip of Ellesmere Island. This latter expedition, under Greely, would be known as the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition.

The United States Government had awarded funding of $25,000, but a new president, James A. Garfield, had been elected. Both he and his secretary of war, Robert Todd Lincoln, seemed reluctant to part with the money and it took a meeting between Greely and Lincoln to obtain the funds.

Greely was instructed to find a suitable location for a United States Army signal Station and remain there for two years to make scientific observations. Ships would be sent annually with supplies.

Greely was ambitious and he saw this as an opportunity to advance his career prospects and also attain the farthest north set by Albert Hastings Markham, who was part of George Strong Nares’ Expedition in ?????.

The other 23 members of the expedition were all soldiers except two Inuit hunters. All but six would die before the end of the expedition.

The expedition left St. John’s, Newfoundland on 7th July 1881 in the USS Proteus, a commissioned whale-ship . After stopping at Upernarvik they reached Lady Franklin Bay on 12th September 1881. Here a prefabricated blockhouse was erected on the shore of Discovery Bay and the place named Fort Conger .

Initially all went according to plan including the over-wintering. April 1882 saw the start of the attempt on the farthest north. This was achieved on 15th May 1882 at Lockwood Island by Greely’s second-in-command James Booth Lockwood, when latitude 83° 24’N was reached breaking Markham’s record by a few kilometres. Lockwood would later perish and never lived to celebrate his achievement with his family.

Greely also undertook along the northern coast of Ellesmere Island, finding butterflies and bees amongst the flowers. Lockwood also made two journeys into the interior of the island discovering Lake Hazen and Greely Fjord. Greely also discovered and named the United States Range and Mount Arthur.

Meanwhile, the supply ship Neptune, under the command of Lieutenant Beebe was unable to penetrate beyond Cape Sabine at Smith Sound. He left a paltry 250 man-day rations and to make matters worse, the ship’s captain, another Army man, left another cache of food on Littleton Island – the wrong side of Smith Sound. The remainder of the stores, some 2,000 man-day rations returned to Newfoundland!

Fortunately, Greely had sufficient supplies of food, thanks largely to the Inuit hunters shooting seals. However, another problem, that of deteriorating discipline was starting to emerge. Nevertheless, important meteorological data was still being collected and the surveys covered over 2,500 miles of new ground.

The winter of 1882-3 passed and the Proteus didn’t arrive to relieve the party by August 1883, against his better judgement, but following his orders he abandoned Fort Conger on the 9th August 1883 and using the expedition’s steam launch headed south.

The Proteus, under the command of a cavalry officer, Lieutenant Ernest Albert Garlington (who was more at home fighting Indians and was eventually promoted to Brigadier-General), had no polar experience and after small supply of food at Cape Sabine saw the Proteus sink due to his incompetence. Taking to open boats, they eventually reached Newfoundland and raised the alarm. The powers that be in Washington, appeared not to care about the fate of Greely and his companions and did nothing to assist in his rescue.

Meanwhile, Greely was making his way south losing boats, equipment and food supplies eventually arrived at Cape Sabine to find the meagre rations left for them.
The stone-built cabin collapsed, leaving them to live in a tent. Due to the shortage of food, it was rationed and one soldier, Private Charles B. Henry was executed on Greely’s orders for repeatedly stealing food. Whilst they were there, sixteen of the party died and another drowned.

Greely’s wife, appalled by the lack of action, forced the government into action by writing to newspapers, congressmen and anyone else with influence on the government. It took several, sometimes acrimonious debates, before a bill was passed in February 1884 granting funds and a bounty of $25,000 to the person(s) who found Greely.

The US Navy now took command and Captain Winfield Scott Schley took three ships, USS Thetis, Bear and Alert to search for the survivors. They were found on at Cape Sabine on 22nd June 1884. Of the twenty-three who set out only seven , including Greely, survived and one of those died three days later. It was later discovered that some of the survivors had resorted to cannibalism to survive.

Their recover on the Thetis was very quick and they were able to walk ashore on 2nd August at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Greely wrote a report amounting to some 1,300 pages. However the aftermath of the debacle put an end to government funded expeditions.

Greely was promoted and eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier-General . He worked in Alaska, the Philippine islands, Cuba and Puerto Rico installing telegraph systems. He also attended international conferences on Telegraphy.

In 1906, following his promotion to Brigadier-General he took command of the Pacific Division, based in San Francisco. He oversaw the relief work following the earthquake in April 1906. Some of his biographers consider this to be his greatest achievement. He retired in 1908 and after a trip round the world became a co-founder of the National Geographic Society. He wrote many articles for magazines and books. He also was chair of the George Washington University, an unsalaried position. He died in October 1935.

1.The crew successfully reached the mainland.
2. References refer to the Proteus as a whale-ship, but the records appear to show that she was only used as a sealer.
3. Discovery Bay (81V44’N / 64°45’W) , named after one of George Strong Nares ships, which wintered there six years earlier.
4. Fort Conger named after Omar Conger the Michigan Senator who supported the cause.

Source

Encyclopedia of Exploration Volume 3, 1850 – 1940 – The Oceans: Islands and Polar Regions by Raymond John Howgego, Hordern House 2006, ISBN 1-875567-41-0.

This article was written by Richard Hindle.

See also http://www.shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewt ... f=2&t=9516
http://www.shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewt ... f=2&t=7776