Three years of Arctic service: an account of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881-84, and the attainment of the farthest north
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1886. First edition, 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. xxv, [1], 428; xii, [2], 444; steel-engraved frontispiece, 42 plates (many from photographs), and 4 maps (3 folding, 1 in rear cover pocket); light dampstain pervades the top margin of most of volume II and the back cover similarly affected; otherwise, a near fine, bright, and sound copy in original pictorial blue cloth stamped in red, gilt and silver. "Explored the east coast of Ellesmere Island, and the north coast of Greenland from Cape Bryand to Cape Washington [and] the interior and west coast of Grinnell Land … As relief ships failed to reach them, members of the party made a march out of the Hall Basin area, all but seven dying of starvation before the rescue at Cape Sabine" (Arctic Bibliography). The winter of 1883-84 was one of great hardship and tragedy for Greely's party. "Supplies gradually failed until the meager and unsatisfying rations they had been able to bring with them were consumed and the party was forced to subsist upon the leather clothes they had worn, such few items of game as the more able of the hunters could to bring in, and a soup made from a limited supply of tiny shrimp caught in the neighboring sea. The strength, health, and morale of the men were gradually worn down by lack of food, harsh polar weather, close confinement, and growing despair, until by mid-January the first death came, followed by six deaths in April, four in May, and seven in June, all under harrowing circumstances. When midsummer had come, and the few enfeebled and starving survivors had given up all hope of relief, Capt. Winfield Scott Schley in the Thetis and Lieut. W.H. Emory in the Bear ... forced their way relentlessly through the ice, discovered Camp Clay, and salvaged all that was left of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition - the leader, six of his men, and the records and few remaining items of scientific equipment" (DAB). Arctic Bibliography 6118. Item #61094
Price: $850.00
