TheLady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881–1884 (a.k.a. theGreely Expedition[1]) toLady Franklin Bay onEllesmere Island in theCanadian Arctic was led by LieutenantAdolphus Greely, and was promoted by theUnited States Army Signal Corps. Its purpose was to establish a meteorological-observation station as part of the FirstInternational Polar Year, and to collect astronomical and magnetic data. During the expedition, two members of the crew reached a newFarthest North record, but of the original twenty-five men, only seven survived to return.
The expedition was under the auspices of the Signal Corps at a time when the corps' chief disbursements officer,Henry W. Howgate, was arrested forembezzlement. However, that did not deter the planning and execution of the voyage.
The Lady Franklin Bay Expedition was led by LieutenantAdolphus W. Greely of the Fifth United States Cavalry, with astronomerEdward Israel and photographerGeorge W. Rice among the crew of twenty-one officers and men. They sailed on the shipProteus and reachedSt. John's,Newfoundland, in early July 1881.[2] AtGodhavn,Greenland, they picked upJens Edward andThorlip Frederik Christiansen, twoInuit dogsled drivers, as well as physician Octave Pierre Pavy and Mr. Clay who had continued scientific studies instead of returning onFlorence with the remainder of the 1880 Howgate Expedition.[3][4]
Proteus arrived without problems atLady Franklin Bay by August 11, dropped off men and provisions, and left.[5] In the following months, LieutenantJames Booth Lockwood and SergeantDavid Legge Brainard achieved a newFarthest North record at83°24′N40°46′W / 83.400°N 40.767°W /83.400; -40.767, off the north coast of Greenland.[6] Unbeknownst to Greely, the summer had been extraordinarily warm, which led to an underestimation of the difficulties which their relief expeditions would face in reaching Lady Franklin Bay in subsequent years.
By summer of 1882, the men were expecting a supply ship from the south.Neptune, laden with relief supplies, set out in July 1882 but, cut off by ice and weather, Captain Beebe was forced to turn around prematurely. All he could do was leave some supplies atSmith Sound in August, and the remaining provisions in Newfoundland, with plans for their delivery the following year.
On July 20, Pavy's contract ended, and Pavy announced that he would not renew it, but would continue to attend to the expedition's medical needs. Greely was incensed, and ordered the doctor to turn over all his records and journals. Pavy refused, and Greely placed him under arrest. Pavy was not confined, however Greely claimed he intended tocourt-martial him when they returned to the United States.[7]
In 1883, new rescue attempts byProteus, commanded by LieutenantErnest Albert Garlington, andYantic, commanded by Commander Frank Wildes, failed, withProteus being crushed by pack ice.
In the summer of 1883, in accordance with his instructions for the case of two consecutive relief expeditions not reachingFort Conger, Greely decided to head South with his crew. It had been planned that the relief ships should depot supplies along theNares Strait, aroundCape Sabine and atLittleton Island, if they were unable to reach Fort Conger, which should have made for a comfortable wintering of Greely's men. But withNeptune not even getting that far andProteus sunk, in reality only a small emergency cache with 40 days worth of supplies had been laid at Cape Sabine byProteus.
When arriving there in October 1883, the season was too advanced for Greely to either try to brave theBaffin Bay to reach Greenland with his small boats, or to retire to Fort Conger, so he had to winter on the spot.
In 1884, Secretary of the Navy,William E. Chandler, was credited with planning the ensuing rescue effort, commanded by Cdr.Winfield Scott Schley. While four vessels—USS Bear,USS Thetis,HMS Alert, andLoch Garry—made it to Greely's camp on June 22, only seven men had survived the winter.[8] The rest had succumbed to starvation,hypothermia, and drowning, and one man, Private Henry, had been executed on Greely's order for repeated theft of food.[9][10] Of the seven rescued, Joseph Elison died on July 8 following multiple amputations. The relief party arrived at St. John's, Newfoundland on July 17, 1884, from which the news was telegraphed throughout the States, and a sketched portrait of the members of the Greely Expedition, both living and dead, was published. After a stay of ten days the ships left for New York.[11]
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Civil War heroDavid Lewis Gifford served as an ice master on HMSAlert.[12]
The surviving members of the expedition were received as heroes. A parade attended by thousands was held inPortsmouth, New Hampshire.[13] It was decided that each of the survivors was to be awarded a promotion in rank by the Army, although Greely reportedly refused.[14]
Rumors ofcannibalism arose following the return of the corpses. On August 14, 1884, a few days after his funeral, the body of Lieutenant Frederick Kislingbury, second in command of the expedition, was exhumed and an autopsy was performed. The finding that flesh had been cut from the bones appeared to confirm the accusation.[15][16][17] However, Greely and the surviving crew denied knowledge of cannibalism.[9] Brainard and Rice had devised a method of nettingsea-lice for food,[a] and Greely surmised that if flesh had been cut from the bodies of the dead, some group members who died before being rescued needed bait, so they cut into the bodies of those who had previously died.[19]
Ice Masters Francis Ash, J. W. Norman, and David L. Gifford gave me much assistance in discharging their duties; the two former came more immediately under my observation.
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