In the winter of 1883 and 1884, under the personal direction of Secretary Chandler, two vessels, the _Thetis_ and the _Bear_, were bought and equipped for the relief of Greely. The _Thetis_ was commanded by Commodore W. S. Schley, and sailed from New York on May 1, 1884. On board the _Thetis_ was Chief Engineer Melville, who had made the heroic search for De Long of the ill-fated _Jeannette_. Melville himself had urged this relief expedition for Greely, and his energy and knowledge brought success. Congress offered a reward of $25,000 to any vessel not in the navy, which should first find the missing men, and many a whaler went north in the attempt to win the prize. These vessels, though unsuccessful in the search, did some good, for they helped to break a passage through the ice. The men of the _Thetis_, under Commodore Schley, did not delay a moment, or wait for favorable leads. When they could not advance in any other way, they tried to blast the ice in front and so force a passage. They fought the ice as they would fight a foe, never swerving from their one object――to reach Greely in as short a time as possible. Every possible effort was made, and by June 6 the _Thetis_ reached Melville bay. Little by little she forged ahead, and reached the neighborhood of Smith sound. Here all the men who could be spared were sent ashore to search for records, and at last one of the men came upon a cairn, which he opened. In it he found a bundle of Greely’s papers, photographs, and records. The most recent record was dated September, 1883, nine months before. It stated that the party had gone into camp four and a half miles west of Cape Sabine. Commodore Schley immediately ordered a party of men to take the steam cutter and find the camp. The _Thetis_ then blew her whistles to call the search parties back to the ship. The men of Greely’s party in the wretched tent at Camp Clay heard the whistles and knew that a vessel must be somewhere near, yet they were too weak to go in search of it, and too hopeless to believe that any one was near enough to find them. One man did crawl out and try to raise an oar with three rags on it, as a signal of distress, but the furious wind tore it down.