ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

Patea Mail, 2 June 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

LOSS OP THE S.S. JEANNETTE

SUFFERINGS OF THE EXPLORERS. St. Petersburg, Dec. 20, 1881. News has reached the Government of Jakutsk, in Eastern Siberia, that on the 14th September last, three natives of the village of Onions, near Cape Barhay, situated 140 versts to the north of Cape Bickoff, discovered a large boat containing eleven strangers, who stated that they belonged to the crew of the Arctic exploring steamer Jeannette. They had undergone terrible suffering. On hearing the news, the Deputy-Governor of the district was immediately despatched with a doctor and a supply of medicine to the help of the shipwrecked sailors, whom he was instructed to bring to Jakutsk. He was also to do all in his power to recover the remainder of the crew. A sum of 500 roubles was placed at his disposal to defray the first expenses. Engineer Melville has telegraphed that the Jeannette was surrounded and crushed by the ice on June 28rd, in latitude 77 north, longitude 157 east. The crew left the vessel in three boots, which, about fifty miles from the mouth of the Lena, were separated by violent winds and thick fogs. Boat No. 3, which Mr Melville commanded, arrived on September 29 at the eastern mouth of the Lena, where it was stopped by blocks of ice near the village of Bolonenza, a hamlet inhabited by idolators. Boat No. 1 also reached the same spot. The men in these boats state that Lieut. Delong, Dr. Ambler, and twelve other shipwrecked sailors landed at the northern mouth of the Lena, and are in a fearful condition, several being frost-bitten. A party of the inhabitants of Bolonenza started off immediately to their assistance. Nothing is known of boat No. 2.