The Hair-Raising Tale of the U.S.S. Jeannette's Ill-Fated 1879 Polar Voyage
In a doomed quest for Americans to be first to the North Pole, 20 men died. Against all odds 13 survived.
By Simon Worrall, for National Geographic
PUBLISHED September 25, 2014
On July 8, 1879, amid cheering crowds, the U.S.S. Jeannette, a three-masted former British navy gun vessel specially adapted for Arctic waters, set sail from San Francisco for the Bering Strait.
Its mission, Hampton Sides writes in The Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Voyage of the U.S.S. Jeannette, was bold—to make the United States the first nation to reach the North Pole.
Bankrolled by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., owner of the New York Herald—the Rupert Murdoch of his day—the expedition would not only announce America's arrival on the world stage but also sell a lot of newspapers.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/09/140924-jeannette-hampton-sides-north-pole-gilded-age-ngbooktalk/
