THE GREELY EXPEDITION

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 395, 26 September 1884, Page 5

THE GREELY EXPEDITION-

!= v. .. t^-f. w . — & ■ ■ - y .yy.:: .:_-.-" '"• 3 .':^!r'"^*-.«. ;;1^ CHAEGES ,0F- CAKI&BAI.im "AGAINST THE , STJBVIVOEB. • j^ffef ' created a profound Sensation -niy pubhshing along account, going to show that the .survivors of the j.Grpely Arctic Expedition sustained Me .&byfeann|balising their dead companions, and-^hat the graves'found contained' only* c_eSi_'4pic-:ed bones.' .'This horrible stater of things was brought to light, according to the 'Times' as, follows: — When the rescuing jjarty discovered the '' lialf-'sta#vedoc_i_rvivors their first duties were to look after two men ,who were' insensible. from cold and privation even to the 1 poirii of death. One of them (a German) was well in his delirium, " Oh," he shrieked, as the sailors took hold of ' '____." '-'to lift him tenderly, " don't let them, shoot me as they did poor Henry. Must Ibe killed and eaten as Henry was? = Don't let them. do it— don't, don't.'V.,, Henry, it appears, was a young German/ who, driven wild by hunger, sought to steal a little more than his rations, and being found .out, was shot, and his ' companioiis after* wards stripped his flesh ' frpin his bones in their hunger, and even -ate his heart and lungs. Fragments of human flesh were also used- for shrimp bait. The officials have put in a general denial of the 'Times' narrative, but otherwise maintain reticence and. refuse investigation. There is a general impression that the paper's statement is substantially true. On August 16 the "' Time* ' gave the following additional particulars :— " Until the death of Surgeon Pavy, of the Greely party three weeks before the rescue came, the flesh cut from most of the dead bodies for use by the survivors as food and bait : was removed by a hand skilled., in dissection. A few of the bodies had fleshy portions cut away entire, ; but 1 : with the i majority the work had, been; so. well donthat a casual observer would , not have suspected, without other ; evidence — of which there was plenty, however — that the'surfivors had; been reduced to eanni- , balism,, and had been for. a long time subsisting principally on tne"'bodies of , their dead companions. Is it not a coinci- : dencethat the body of Surgeon Pavy, with thoseitwo others who diedaf ter him, should have been repotted as' washed awayP "With the surgeon gone, the scalpel could not be Used as: before. The bodies had been left with- but! little mark of the, terrible work done. After his f death'. the survivors ; were forced to dismember the bodies,- and denude'f them of flesh in a way that left nothing but bonts. .So - these unfortunates . were, . reported as buried in an ice floe and washed away. On most of the bodies iricisien was made from the clavicle downwards below the ribs. The scalpel- was. passed along under the skin, and the flap was carefully laid back on either' side. The flesh was then removed from the ribs. The skin. was pulled back, in its place , and the edges were carefully joined,! so that there :was. no ■ external r evidence of the ghastly work but a dark line. The thighs were treated in the same manner, the -skin being replaced; ;a.pout the fleshless bones. The legs were stripped to the ankle joints, and the arms to the -wrists// The hands*, ? /feetpand face were not mutilated. sThis5 This Svas a work requiring skill, and must have been a long and careful operation. No one in the pariy V except .^aurgeo^P^vy, could ao skilfully remove flesh from the human body and leave |the skin intact. How Payymet. his, / .de^th;,has NJ not been explained, but Jhis skiliiul "lcnife being gone, and every day the pangs of hunger growing more unbearable, caution was relaxed, and the survivors ate of human flesh however they could secure it. In the last few days before relief came to the wretched men it was a doctrine of the survival of the strongest that ruled. All sense of honor or feeling had been lost. It was Sergeant Long who first saw the. steam launch, and slid down upon the snow and ice from the distress signal to greet the rescuing party. His face and beard i were covered with blood from a duck which he had shot and ■ had been eating as is stated. He stopped to conceal half the body of the bird before sliding down the snow. He was the strongest of the party, andi despite;, a frightful gale, was able to walk to the launch. j Sergeant Fredericks also had considerable strength left, and clambered aboard the Thetis almost unaided. After so many months in; the desolate Artie regions, after so much suffering and passing through such scenes of horror, it was seldom that-the men stood upright. They crawled about on their hands and knees over the rocks, and when Sergeant Bramer was undressed on board the Thetis his knees were found cal--1 loused to the thickness of over half an | inch. In the midst of such horrors it was wondered by the rescuing party how Greely and his few companions kept their reason. About the camp were scattered the bones of the dead, and the dissected and mutilated bodies reposed in a little burial plot at the back of the tent. It was a scene at which the rescuers shuddered. The bodies of those who died were not mutilated where death had been caused by disease. It is reported that sevenj teen died by starvation. Several died Iby scurvy, and Henry was shot. All | did not died of starvation. Indeed it is feared that others met their death as Henry did. It was known that courtI martials were of frequent occurrence in the Greely Camp. There were dissensions among the men, and as their condition became more desperate they increased. Until weakened in body and mind by privation, each did all he could for the other ; but at' last the struggle for life became single. It was each man I for himself." mmmmmmam^atmaat^mKmmmmmmm