Farthest North: The Life and Explorations of Lieutenant James Booth Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic ExpeditionLanman, Charles
History
Farthest North: The Life and Explorations of Lieutenant James Booth Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic Expedition
Lanman, Charles
Arctic regions; Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881-1884); Lockwood, James Booth, 1852-1884
floes upon which they had drifted for many days, when found to be
cracking in one or two places, caused the party to move upon another
nearer the shore, and in a short time the floe previously occupied
was entirely broken up. On the 29th of September, the floe on which
they were floating, finally touched another toward the west, and
that another connected with the shore, by which means they were
enabled to reach the land, very thankful to be in a place of
security once more. The locality was really a rock forming a
promontory between two glaciers, and thought to be about thirteen
miles directly south of Cape Sabine. To that place a reconnoitring
party was at once sent, but the cape could not be reached on account
of open water near it, and the party was compelled to return. In the
mean time, arrangements were made for building out of stones and ice
the necessary huts for protection during the coming winter, should
it be their fate to remain there. While this work was progressing,
it was decided that the daily rations would have to be reduced.
Lockwood expressed the opinion that they had only three chances for
their lives: first, the chance of finding an American _cache_ at
Cape Sabine; secondly, a chance of crossing the straits, here
thirty-five miles wide, when their provisions were gone; thirdly,
the chance of being able to kill enough game for their support
during the winter. A second effort was made by Rice and a party to
reach Cape Sabine, which was successful. They not only brought news
about the wreck of the Proteus, but also a copy of the Army Register
for 1883, in which appeared Lockwood’s name as a first lieutenant.
Rice also succeeded in discovering the English _cache_ with two
hundred and forty rations, the _cache_ left by the Neptune in 1882,
and the stores brought from the wreck of the Proteus in 1883, all of
which information was hailed with delight by the party. Among the
stores left by the Proteus, a newspaper slip was picked up, from
which was gathered the news that President Garfield had died; that
the Jeannette had been lost; and that serious apprehensions were
felt in the United States about the fate of the Greely Expedition.
This latter intelligence gave Lockwood great pain, seeming almost
prophetic, except in the remark “lying down under the great stars to
die!” and induced him to make this record: “This article gives me
great pain, because of the alarm and sorrow which must be felt by my
dear father and mother and sisters on my behalf. Should my ambitious
hopes be disappointed, and these lines only, meet the eyes of those
so dear, may they not in thought add to my many faults and failings
that of ingratitude or want of affection in not recording more
frequently my thoughts regarding them!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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