In the Lena Delta: A Narrative of the Search for Lieut-Commander De Long and his Companions, Followed by an Account of the Greely Relief Expedition and a Proposed Method of Reaching the North Pole

by George W. Melville, Melville Philips (Editor)

Overview

George W. Melville (1841–1912) was a member of an 1879 American Arctic expedition seeking a northern passage from the Bering Strait to the Atlantic. Its ship was trapped in ice for nearly two years, and was eventually crushed and sank. The crew, stranded in three small boats, were left with few provisions and little hope of rescue. Melville was the only boat commander to bring his men to safety, assuming leadership of the survivors after landing in Siberia in 1881. He returned to search for other survivors, trekking over a thousand miles, but found only the bodies of his former companions in a frozen campsite, from which, however, he recovered the expedition's records. This account also includes details of Melville's role in the Greely Relief Expedition of 1884, from which he returned shortly before the book's British publication in 1885, and a detailed proposal for reaching the North Pole.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108041737
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/15/2011
Series:	Cambridge Library Collection - Polar Exploration
Pages:	546
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.22(d)

Table of Contents

1. Off for the Pole; 2. Drifting; 3. Cast upon the ice; 4. Retreating over the pack; 5. Voyage of the whale-boat; 6. On the Lena Δ; 7. Up the Lena; 8. At Jamaveloch; 9. Siberian life; 10. Kusma to our rescue; 11. A step forward; 12. At Belun; 13. Searching for De Long; 14. Losing the trail; 15. A trip to the Arctic shore; 16. Struggling with Boreas; 17. End of my first search; 18. From Belun to Verkeransk; 19. From Verkeransk to Yakutsk; 20. At Yakutsk; 21. North again; 22. Storm-bound; 23. Finding the bodies; 24. The burial; 25. Searching for Chipp; 26. My final search to the Jana River; 27. Through Siberia; 28. Homeward bound; The Greely Relief Expedition: 1. Northward once more; 2. Racing in the Arctic waters; 3. The rescue; 4. The return voyage; A proposed method for reaching the North Pole; Appendix.