The subject of exploration in the arctic and antarctic regions either by official expeditions of our Navy, or by officers and men of the Navy as leaders or members of private expeditions is one that has been to a large degree neglected by the naval historian. Yet, from the standpoint of the extent and importance of geographic and scientific discovery, it constitutes one of the most prominent chapters in the history of the exploration of the globe. Among the principal achievements in the field of polar exploration in which officers and men of the Navy have participated may be included the virtual discovery of the Antarctic Continent; the discovery of the North Pole; and air flights over both the North and South Pole. Many important additions to the maps of the world have been made, and scientific knowledge of vast importance has been accumulated by the enterprise of the United States Navy in this field. All of this work has been done within a little more than the span of a century, for prior to 1836, the Navy had not taken any part in polar exploration.
The first and one of the most important of all exploring expeditions was that made under the leadership of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, U. S. Navy, which resulted in the determination of the existence of a land mass in the region of the South Pole of possibly continental proportions. This expedition was not primarily for the purpose of polar exploration but rather for a geographic study and survey of an extensive area of the Pacific Ocean and its shores. Its official title was “The Pacific Exploring Expedition.” It was a strictly governmental project, authorized by a special act of Congress on May 18, 1836, and was one of the few voyages of polar exploration carried out by a purely naval squadron. It was not until over two years after the passage of the Congressional Act that the expedition was able to set out. This delay was in great measure due to the intrigues and disputes in regard to the organization of the expedition and the selection of the one who was to lead it. Jealousy among the officers being considered and other difficulties finally led to the selection of a fairly junior officer, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, U. S. Navy, and he was accordingly placed in command. The expedition is more commonly referred to as the “Wilkes Expedition” than by its long official title.
The selection of Wilkes was not entirely a happy choice. He was junior in rank for so important a command and had the reputation of being a martinet. It is certain that he maintained an iron discipline and was feared and hated by many of his subordinates who considered him as a perfect “sundowner.” On his return, he was tried by general court-martial on charges made by several officers who served under him but was acquitted of these charges. It must also be said that he showed throughout the period of his command great resolution and tenacity of purpose, and the expedition in point of accomplishment is one of the most important in the whole history of geographic exploration.
The squadron assembled under Wilkes consisted of the Vincennes (flagship, of 780 tons); the Peacock, 560 tons; Porpoise, 230 tons; and the Relief, a store ship. Two New York pilot boats, the Seagull, 110 tons, and the Flying Fish, 96 tons, accompanied the expedition also as tenders. The officers and men came from the Navy, but there were in addition a number of civilians on the scientific staff, including three naturalists, a philologist, two botanists, two draftsmen, and a taxidermist. The expedition sailed on August 18, 1838, from Hampton Roads and it anchored at New York on its return on June 10, 1842, so that it was gone nearly four years. During this time it covered an immense area and made a most extensive survey of the Pacific in which 280 islands were examined and chartered. The narrative and the scientific reports appeared in 19 large volumes and a number of atlases. Besides this there were five volumes of papers which were not published.
The exploration of the Wilkes Expedition in the South Polar regions was made in two parts. The first amounted to a reconnaissance of the Antarctic, starting from Orange Harbor on the southern shore of Tierra del Fuego. Wilkes left the flagship at Orange Harbor and with the Porpoise and the tenders sailed southward on February 25, 1839. On this voyage they sighted part of the South Shetland Islands, and an area sighted some years before by an American whaler, Captain Palmer, and now known as Palmer’s Land. Bad weather and icebergs compelled them to turn back and Wilkes reached Orange Harbor again on March 30. On this expedition a latitude of 70° S. was reached and the ice barrier was seen. It must be remembered that the seasons are reversed in the southern hemispheres and, therefore, Wilkes made this attempt at the beginning of winter. The second voyage to the Antarctic he made from Sydney, Australia, then known as Port Jackson. He made an earlier start this time and on January 16, 1840, he sighted land upon the barrier reef of ice. He followed the barrier to the westward sighting land from time to time. On January 28, he approached within a half mile of land and as the weather was clear, though a gale was blowing, he was able to make out land far to the east and west as well as to the southward. Wilkes now believed that he was dealing with a land mass of large size, which led to his designation of the discovery as that of an Antarctic Continent. On February 21,1840, after having reached the latitude of 61°-30' S., the expedition turned back to Sydney. Cold, storms, and sickness among the crew led almost to a state of mutiny, but in spite of this Wilkes continued the voyage until he was convinced of the extensive character of the land mass he had discovered.
It was this latter fact which gives particular significance to the Wilkes Expedition in the field of polar exploration, for one of its achievements which may properly be credited to the United States Navy is the discovery of the Antarctic Continent. It is true that Palmer, Ross, and others had sighted land in the Antarctic before, but Wilkes, more than any other, showed that it was of continental proportions.
Another expedition in the Pacific of almost as great importance as the Wilkes Expedition, though far less known, was that of the “North Pacific Exploring Expedition” which was sent out to complete the work of Wilkes and to do for the North Pacific what that officer had accomplished in the South Pacific. In 1855 Commander John Rodgers on Wilkes’ old flagship, the U.S.S. Vincennes, entered the Arctic Ocean from Bering Strait, and visited Herald Island which had previously been discovered by Kellett. Rodgers reached latitude 72°-37' N., at that time the highest latitude attained by a sailing ship in the Arctic Ocean north of Bering Strait. Rodgers, though close to Wrangel Island, did not see it on account of the fog. He made important hydrographical surveys and soundings in Bering Strait together with astronomical and ethnological observations. One of his officers, Lieutenant Brook, spent some time on the Asiatic shore of Glasscap Island in 65° N. latitude 172°-35' W. longitude.
The next polar experiences of our Navy resulted from the search for the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin. Franklin left England on May 26,1845, in two ships, the Erebus and the Tenor, which had been used by Sir James Ross in his explorations in the Arctic. Among the 129 souls in the crews of the two ships were many other officers besides Franklin with arctic experience. This expedition was sent out by the Royal Geographical Society and under the auspices of the British Government for the purpose of seeking the Northwest Passage. After two years in the arctic the ships had to be abandoned and the entire party perished in an attempt to reach civilization by an overland journey. When Franklin failed to return and no news could be obtained from him, numerous attempts were made to make contact with the expedition or to discover its fate. As year after year went by, the search became international in character, although it was many years before the mystery was completely solved and the fate of Franklin and his officers and men was fully explained. Records left in cache, the accounts of Eskimos, and various relics of the expedition discovered by different searchers finally solved the puzzle. The whole story of the Franklin expedition is probably the most famous in the annals of the Arctic. The fame of its leader; the mystery which long surrounded its fate; the persistence in the encouragement of the search for Franklin by his young and beautiful wife; all conspired to make it the best-known perhaps of all polar voyages.
In 1851 the U. S. Navy was represented in the search for Franklin in what is known in the history of arctic exploration as the First Grinnell Expedition. This was largely financed by a New York merchant, Henry Grinnell, who purchased for the purpose two ships, the Advance and the Rescue. The officer in command, however, Lieutenant E. J. DeHaven, came from the Navy as did most of the other officers and men. The Rescue was commanded by Mr. S. P. Griffin. With DeHaven was Passed Assistant Surgeon Elisha Kent Kane of the Navy, who was to later serve as leader of the second Grinnell Expedition in 1853 and to win fame as one of the most celebrated polar explorers of the nineteenth century. DeHaven’s ships were caught in the ice pack in the middle of Wellington Channel, drifted as far north as 75°-25' N., and landed and discovered Murdaugh Island and what is now called Grinnell Land. For 8 months they were frozen in the ice, drifting 1,050 miles through Wellington Channel and Lancaster Sound. The drift was first north, then south and east. The darkness of the arctic winter, the privation, isolation, and danger made it a terrible journey. There was constant apprehension that the ships might be crushed by the ice and sunk, in which case the crews would have been left on the drifting ice floe. They had no control of the movements of the ships and were compelled to drift with the floe to wherever it might take them. Fortunately, in July the vessels succeeded in escaping from the melting ice but they were so damaged that DeHaven decided to abandon the search and return to the United States. Lieutenant DeHaven may properly be considered as the first American explorer in the North Polar region, so that the American pioneers in both the Antarctic and Arctic were officers of our Navy.
The second Grinnell Expedition was commanded by Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, DeHaven’s medical officer on the first expedition, and the Advance, which had been refitted in 1853 by Henry Grinnell and George Peabody, was again used. Kane examined the north part of Smith Sound and he found a channel leading into what is now known as Kane Sea. Here he wintered in Rensselaer Harbor, 78°-37' N., 71° W. His assistant, Dr. Isaac I. Hayes, crossed the frozen Kane Sea with one man and a dog sled and was the first white man to reach Grinnell Land which he charted as far north as 79°-43\ After two years in the Arctic, Kane was compelled to abandon his ship and after a desperate land and boat journey succeeded in reaching Uper-navik, Greenland. Kane’s farthest north was 80°-35', at that time the highest recorded latitude reached by civilized man in the Western Hemisphere. The most outstanding result of his expedition, however, was the fact that it opened up a waterway towards the North Pole, which became known as the “American Route.” This has been followed by more polar expeditions than any other, and it might be said with greater success, for it was the route of Peary in the discovery of the North Pole in 1909. Discovery of the Kane Sea and the charting of Grinnell Land, as well as the making of valuable observations relating to the flora and fauna and the collection of a great amount of meteorological and magnetic data, were among the fruits of this expedition. Kane was one of the first to make important observations regarding the physics of the ice and glaciers in the Arctic. He is noted, too, as the first American to attain international fame as a polar explorer.
One of the most interesting of all American arctic explorers was Charles Francis Hall who was a notable figure in arctic exploration in the decade after the Civil War. Few explorers have accomplished more with less in the way of money and equipment. He was one of the few successful arctic travelers whose work was “done on a shoestring.” His account of his preparations for one of his earlier expeditions sounds more like a Boy Scout getting ready for a hike than a serious explorer planning to enter the Arctic. He was so successful, however, that in 1870 he received governmental aid, and $50,000 was appropriated by Congress and a vessel provided by the Navy for his use. This was an old naval tug called the Periwinkle of about 400 tons. She was strengthened and renamed the Polaris and sailed July 3, 1871, on instructions from the Secretary of the Navy to discover the North Pole, for one part of the Secretary’s instructions to Flail, who commanded the expedition, was as follows:
Having been provisioned and equipped for two and a-half years, you will pursue your explorations for that period; but should the object of the expedition require it, you will continue your explorations for such a further length of time as your supplies may be safely extended. Should, however, the main object of the expedition, viz., attaining the position of the North Pole, be accomplished at an earlier period, you will return to the United States with all convenient dispatch.
Hall did not reach the Pole and died near “Thank God Harbor,” an anchorage formed by an indentation in a huge iceberg in latitude 81°-37' N. Although the remainder of the expedition carried on the work, the Polaris was wrecked. Some survivors remained on the ship and were rescued by a Scotch whaler near Cape York. Others after a 1,300-mile drift in the ice were picked up off Labrador by the U.S.S. Tigress. It is of interest that none of these were lost and in fact their number was increased by one, for an Eskimo woman, Hannah, gave birth to a baby girl who was also a survivor of this journey.
The anxiety in regard to the Polaris led to the dispatch of the U.S.S. Juniata under the command of Commander Daniel L. Braine, U. S. Navy, in search of her. The Juniata sailed from New York, June 24, 1873. After a voyage as far north as Labrador, her steam launch which had been specially fitted to work through the loose pack ice was sent farther on to continue the search. The launch was called the Little Juniata and was commanded by a man who was to later lead one of the most famous and tragic arctic expeditions. This was Lieutenant George W. DeLong, afterwards commander of the ill-fated Jeannette. With him was a Lieutenant Charles W. Chipp, U. S. Navy, also with DeLong on the Jeannette. It was their first arctic duty. They returned safely from this voyage with the Little Juniata, and having ascertained that the Polaris survivors had been rescued, the expedition returned to the United States.
The U.S.S. Tigress which rescued the ice drift party of the Polaris, the party having with it the Eskimo woman, Hannah, and her baby daughter, had been sent out also by the Navy Department to search for the Polaris. The Tigress on this journey was commanded by Commander James A. Greer, U. S. Navy.
It was fourteen years after the close of the Civil War before the Navy again took part in arctic exploration and then it was connected with one of the most celebrated of arctic voyages. The area north of Bering Strait, Alaska, and eastern Siberia was marked “unknown” on the maps of the time. There was much speculation among geographers as to what might be found there and many believed that Wrangell Island, which was then known as Wrangell Land, was a land mass of continental proportions, a true Arctic Continent. Others believed that this area was an open Arctic Sea. In 1879, Commander George W. DeLong, U. S. Navy, led an expedition to study the possibilities of a Northeast Passage from an approach to it from the North Pacific, and to examine the supposed Arctic Continent. The sponsor of this expedition was Mr. James Gordon Bennett, the celebrated and eccentric publisher of the New York Herald, who previously had sent Stanley to Africa in search of Livingstone and who was greatly interested in geographic discovery. Four other officers of the regular Navy accompanied DeLong, Lieutenants Charles W. Chipp and J. W. Danenhower, Chief Engineer G. W. Melville, and Passed Assistant Surgeon J. M. Ambler.
DeLong’s vessel, the Jeannette, was caught in the ice and drifted north of the so-called Wrangell Land which was thus proved to be only a small island. For two years the ship remained locked in the ice pack and there was constant danger of its being crushed. A new island in 76°-47' N., 159° E. was discovered on June 3, 1881, and named the Jeannette. The Chief Engineer, George W. Melville, landed on it, and Henrietta Island in 77°-08' N., 158° E. was also located and charted a short time later. On June 12, 1881, the Jeannette was crushed in the ice in latitude 77°-15' N. and 155° E., and her crew abandoned the ship. With five boats and nine sledges they fought their way through the ice floes to one of the new Siberian islands (Bennett Island) about 150 miles away. In attempting to reach the Lena Delta, the boat under Lieutenant Chipp foundered and he and his crew of eight were lost. This occurred in a storm on September 12. In the same storm the remaining boats under DeLong and Chief Engineer Melville became separated. De- Long with Dr. Ambler and 12 men landed on the Siberian coast on September 17 in latitude 73°-2S' N. and 126°-30' E. Here they abandoned their boat and carrying only their arms, records, and some food they followed the shores of the Lena River southward. Delayed by the sick and helpless in the group, DeLong sent two seamen, the youngest and strongest of his party, ahead for help, while he and Dr. Ambler remained behind. The two seamen reached the Siberian town of Bulun after many hardships on October 29. In the meantime, Melville with nine men on September 26 had reached the village of Geeomovialocke, on the Lena. Nothing was heard of DeLong and Ambler. Melville made every effort to reach them but the severe Siberian winter made effective search impossible. In the early spring of 1882, however, the bodies of DeLong, Ambler, and the remainder of the party were found frozen in a camp on the northern shores of Siberia. The tragic end of this expedition and the heroism displayed by its members have given it an unusual interest and made it the subject of considerable literature. Aside from this, the scientific results were important as DeLong was the earliest to show that the area north of Bering Strait was probably an open sea dotted with islands rather than a continental land mass.
Two names besides DeLong’s are particularly noteworthy in connection with the story of the Jeannette. One of these was Chief Engineer Melville. It was Melville’s skill and initiative which saved the ship on one occasion, and both in the boat journey and in the subsequent search for DeLong’s party he showed courage and ability of the highest order. Melville later published one of the best books on the whole Jeannette expedition entitled, In the Lena Delta. He served in 1884 as “Inspector of Coal” at New York, a now forgotten assignment in navies, and ended his career as a rear admiral and Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering. The other notable name was that of Dr. James M. Ambler whose professional skill, noble character, and leadership made him an outstanding figure with DeLong’s party. It was he who kept the journal in which were recorded the last days of this party, their sufferings, and their unflinching courage and devotion to duty to the very end.
Attempts to obtain information regarding the fate of the Jeannette and the survivors from that ship resulted in two more arctic expeditions under the auspices of the Navy. One was under Lieutenant Robert M. Berry, U. S. Navy, who with the U.S.S. Rodgers was sent into the Bering Sea with the idea of following somewhat the route of the Jeannette. They visited Wrangell and Herald Islands and the expedition was terminated when the Rodgers burned at St. Lawrence Bay, November, 1881. At the same time that the Rodgers was sent into Bering Sea to examine the area north of Eastern Siberia, the steam-sloop Alliance under Commander George H. Wadleigh, U. S. Navy, was sent across the North Atlantic and into the Arctic, north of Norway to Spitsbergen. Neither of these expeditions obtained any real information regarding the Jeannette. Wadleigh, however, reached latitude 80° N. The Navy Department also sent out Lieutenant G. B. Harber, U. S. Navy, and Master William D. Schuetze, U. S. Navy, overland through Russia and Siberia. They accompanied Melville in the spring of 1882 to the Lena Delta and participated in the finding of DeLong’s camp and returned with the eleven bodies which had been recovered. Schuetze, who became a lieutenant in 1885, also later held the truly nautical post of “Superintendent of Compasses.”
The next work of the U. S. Navy in the Arctic was in connection with the rescue of the Greely Expedition in 1884 by the relief ships Thetis and Bear under the command of W. S. Schley, afterwards famous for his part in the Battle of Santiago. Commander W. S. Emory was second in command. A chartered whaler commanded by Ensign W. I. Chambers, U. S. Navy, accompanied them as a collier. The Greely Expedition was the result of the suggestion of Lieutenant Charles Weyprecht of the Austrian Navy, who in 1875 recommended that both geographical and other scientific information regarding the north polar region be collected through the establishment by various governments of observation stations about the polar region. This resulted in the establishment of the so-called “international circum-polar stations.” Fifteen expeditions were sent out by the United States, Denmark, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Holland, Norway, and Sweden. The main United States station was under the command of Lieutenant A. W. Greely of the United States Army, and consisted of four officers and nineteen men of the Army who were taken to Discovery Harbor in August, 1881. The next three years were spent in the Arctic, during which extensive exploration was made in the Grinnell Land area and important scientific data gathered. The failure of supply ships to reach the expedition as planned reduced them to a state of starvation. When the relief ships, Thetis and Bear, reached the Greely party at Bedford Pin Island, on June 22, 1884, they had for some time been living on seaweed, lichens, and seal-skin thongs, and only seven officers and men survived. Melville accompanied Schley to assist with his experience with arctic conditions and his advice proved most valuable. The rescue was accomplished in extremely bad weather, and good seamanship, judgment, and courage were all exhibited in the saving of the remnants of Greely’s party. The Greely and the DeLong expeditions were the most disastrous in the history of American arctic exploration.
Perhaps the outstanding contribution to polar exploration by an officer of the United States Navy was the discovery of the North Pole. This was accomplished by Robert E. Peary of the Civil Engineer Corps of the Navy, who on April 6, 1909, reached latitude 90° N. This achievement was the culmination of almost a lifetime devoted to arctic exploration. Peary’s first arctic journey had been in 1886. This was in Greenland and was an investigation of the inland ice of that great arctic island which is almost large enough to be considered as an eighth continent. Nearly all of Peary’s seven important arctic journeys were made either in Greenland or using Northern Greenland as a base. In 1894 he discovered the famous collection of meteorites near Cape York, Greenland, and in 1896 and 1897 he succeeded in bringing the largest of these, weighing nearly a hundred tons, back to the United States. This was the great “Ahnightigo” or “Tent” meteorite of the Cape York group. He had previously brought back two smaller meteorites known as the “Woman,” weighing 5,500 pounds, and the “Dog” of 1,000 pounds. These were, and still are, the largest meteorites in any museum.
Peary was one of the first to draw attention to the importance of meteorological observations in Greenland as a basis for weather prediction, both in Europe and North America, and he was one of the discoverers of the “wind system of the Greenland ice cap,” the knowledge of which has exercised a great influence upon weather prediction in the Northern Hemisphere.
In 1905, Peary on his seventh trip to the Arctic in a specially constructed polar ship, the Roosevelt, established a land base in northern Greenland and by sledge made 87°-6/ N., at that time the farthest northern latitude reached by man. In 1909 with an advance base at Cape Columbia and a secondary base at 87°-47' N., he completed the dash via dog sled to the North Pole. The American and other flags were hoisted at the Pole and a diagonal strip from his silken flag with a document recording the fact of reaching the Pole was placed in a snow cairn raised on a hummock. This document is so interesting that it is quoted herewith in its entirety. Of particular interest, of course, is the heading “90 N. Lat., North Pole, April 6, 1909.”
90 N. Lat., North Pole,
April 6, 1909
Arrived here to-day, 27 marches from C. Columbia.
I have with me S men, Matthew Henson, colored, Ootha, Egingwah, Sccgloo, and Ookeah, Eskimos; 5 sledges and 38 dogs. My ship, the S.S. Roosevelt, is in winter quarters at C. Sheridan, 90 miles east of Columbia.
The expedition under my command which has succeeded in reaching the Pole is under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club of New York City, and has been fitted out and sent north by the members and friends of the club for the purpose of securing this geographical prize, if possible, for the honor and prestige of the United States of America.
The officers of the club are Thomas H. Hubbard, of New York, President; Zenas Crane, of Mass., Vice-president; Herbert L. Bridgman, of New York, Secretary and Treasurer.
I start back for Cape Columbia to-morrow.
Robert E. Peary,
United States Navy
Almost as celebrated as the discovery of the Pole was the controversy which followed it due to the claims of priority of Dr. Frederick H. Cook, an explorer who had returned from the arctic shortly before, had announced and been recognized by many as the discoverer, and who was being lauded for that achievement when Peary returned. After years of bitter controversy, Cook’s claims were largely discredited and Peary’s discovery has been generally accepted. Still it is only fair to say that many explorers were champions of Cook, the press was favorable to him, and even today a few Cook adherents and Peary critics are to be found.
Peary is remembered mainly for his attainment of the North Pole. What is not so well known about him is the leading part he played in his later years in the encouragement of aviation in the United States and particularly his expressions of belief in the future of the airplane in war. His almost prophetic utterances on this latter subject entitle him to be considered one of the apostles of military aviation.
As an officer of our Navy, Peary was the first in what has been called the “infantry assault on the North Pole.” It was another officer of the United States Navy who led in the aerial attack on it. This was Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, U. S. Navy (Retired). He is a graduate of the Naval Academy in the class of 1912, but had been retired for injuries received in athletics. When the United States entered the World War in 1917 he was returned to active duty and realized an ambition to become an aviator. Some time after the World War, he was returned to the retired list. From boyhood he had been interested in polar expeditions and the polar regions; and in 1925 he accompanied the MacMillan Polar Expedition as commander of the aviation unit. The Navy Department furnished planes and other personnel and this experience in arctic flying led Byrd to plan another expedition, this time with the ambitious project of making a flight to the North Pole. With him was Floyd Bennett, loaned by the Navy as a pilot mechanic who had been with Byrd on the MacMillan expedition. From a base in northern Spitsbergen (Kings Bay) about 700 miles from the Pole, Byrd and Bennett took off and flew a 3-motor monoplane over the Pole which they reached at 9:02 p.m., May 9, 1926, Greenwich time. They circled several times over the area at altitudes of 1,000 to 2,000 feet. They returned safely to Kings Bay with a total flying distance of 1,360 miles in 155 hours. Byrd submitted his charts and records to the Navy Department and to the National Geographic Society for authentication and record. A short time after the Byrd- Bennett flights, the Norwegian explorer, Amundsen, and the Italian aviator, Nobile, flew over the North Pole by dirigible. Amundsen who was the first to reach the South Pole was then the only man who had seen both the northern and southern poles of the earth.
In 1928 Byrd headed an antarctic expedition and took with it two planes. In 1929 he made a successful flight over the South Pole and returned to his base in Little America, Antarctica. As both Amundsen and Bennett are dead, Byrd has the unique distinction of being the only living man who has looked down upon the snowy wastes of both the North and South Poles.
Byrd led a second antarctic expedition in 1933 and a third in 1940 in which extensive geographical explorations were carried on, as well as scientific study in the fields of geology, meteorology, botany, zoology, glacierology, terrestrial magnetism, and oceanography.
Although few of Byrd’s expeditions were directly under the Navy Department, he was an officer of the Navy and in every instance, planes, ships, equipment or personnel had been loaned, at least in part, by the Navy Department. Indeed, the last expedition was almost entirely a governmental affair and was designated as the Government Polar Expedition, although in the earlier ones, Admiral Byrd had raised the funds by his own efforts, his lectures, books, and through the assistance of scientific societies or individuals interested in arctic exploration. In general, however, Byrd’s arctic and antarctic discoveries and expeditions may be classed as a part of the Navy’s contribution to the subject of polar expeditions, and Byrd himself was made a rear admiral by a special act of Congress for his distinction in this field and in the field of aviation.
Another naval officer who participated in arctic exploration was Lieutenant Commander Fitzhugh Greene, who in 1913 accompanied Donald B. MacMillan in the Crocker Land expedition of 1913-17. Greene returned in 1916. MacMillan spoke highly of him as an indefatigable snow and ice traveler. Although he was not engaged actively in the Arctic, afterwards he wrote entertainingly of his experiences and in 1926 published a life of Peary. Lieutenant Commander Isaac Schlossbach,U. S. Navy, accompanied Byrd on one expedition. The U.S.S. Bear, which transported the Government Polar Expedition of 1939-40 under Admiral Byrd to the Antarctic was commanded by Lieutenant Commander (now Commander) Richard H. Cruzen, U. S. Navy, and the medical officer was Commander Ladislaus L. Adamkiewicz, (M.C.) U. S. Navy.
MacMillan himself served in the Navy as a Chief Quartermaster in World War I and then as an officer in the Naval Reserve. Between 1921 and 1941, when he was recalled to active duty, he made no less than nineteen arctic journeys into Baffin Land, Ellsmere Land, Greenland, and Iceland, and although these were under private auspices, his connection with the Navy makes it justifiable to class him as one of the Navy’s arctic explorers.
This subject of polar exploration by our Navy or by its officers and men has taken on a new interest at this time when a world-wide “Five Ocean” war makes naval bases and sea routes in the Arctic and Antarctic a matter of importance. Alaska alone and its waters offer a vast field for exploration and enterprise and the geographic and hydrographic information would be matched by the training received in operating under arctic conditions of weather and climate. The same thing is true as regards Greenland, Iceland, Jan Mayen, Spitsbergen, and even Franz Josef Land. Even the Antarctic Continent is not an inconceivable base in a war in all oceans.
It is of interest to briefly list the more important polar discoveries and achievements which are closely linked with the United States Navy, either actual expeditions of the Navy or else carried on in naval vessels, under general naval auspices, or at least in which the leader was a naval officer.
(1) Establishment of the fact that a land mass of continental proportions existed in the Antarctic (Wilkes and a naval squadron).
(2) First United States arctic expedition (De- Haven with two naval vessels).
(3) Discovery of Smith Sound and the channel between Greenland and Baffin Land and Ells- mere Land, the American route to the North Pole eventually used by Peary. (Kane, the leader, was from the United States Navy.)
(4) Discovery that Wrangell Island was not the southern end of an Arctic Continent. (Jeannette Expedition under DeLong and with naval personnel.)
(5) Discovery of North Pole (Peary—leader from the Navy).
(6) Flights over both Poles (Byrd—leader from the Navy and part of equipment and personnel from the Navy).
These represent a list of achievements in polar exploration of which the United States Navy may feel justifiably proud.