Show an old arctic hero hero receives a new honor by ELMO SCOTT WATSON a new honor arwa RECENTLY was S paid to the nations oldest living polar explorer by his fellow adventurers into tile the arctic and antarctic wilder nesses most of whom were still unborn when lie he made his first bid for fame more than halt half a century ago lie ile is brim brig gen david cdavid L brainard U S A retired the last survivor survia or of gen A AV greelis Gr Gre celys elys lady franklin bay arctic expedition of 1881 84 on oil his ci eightieth ht birthday the american polar society of which he is the oldest active member elected him its first honorary member in recognition of his contribution trib ution to polar exploration and presented him with a scroll in commemoration of his achievement on this scroll was inscribed a map showing the route taken by james B lockwood and brainard then a sergeant in the army which enabled them on may 13 1882 to reach the then farthest point north latitude 83 degrees 24 minutes and 30 seconds on the northern coast of greenland this surpassed the record which british explorers had held for years and their record stood for 13 years when it was surpassed by nansen in the arctic sea in the eastern hemisphere general brainard who has the additional distinction of being one of the few living retired generals to have risen from the humble f ae wang N AN 1411 rank of buck private now lives quietly in washington after 42 years service in the army the first ten of which he served in the ranks he was born in norway N Y on oil december 21 1856 and when he was nineteen years of age enlisted in the second united states cavalry his first fighting experience was against the indians on the great plains of the west and during an engagement with the sioux on may alay 7 1877 at little muddy creek in montana he was serious seriously wounded this was the battle in which gen nelson A miles narrowly escaped death at the hands of the sioux chieftain lame deer later in that year brainard was serving under miles when that famous indian fighter corralled chief joseph and his fleeing nez perces in the bear paw mountains and forced their surrender in 1878 he served in the campaign against the bannock indians and after eight years with the cavalry transferred to the signal corps this change led to his assignment as first sergeant in the polar expedition sent out by the united states army as the result of an international confer ence at hamburg germany in 1879 and at berne switzerland in 1880 the united states joined with great britain norway sweden the netherlands russia germany denmark and austria in establishing a ring of widely separated outposts all within the arctic circle to record a complete series of meteorological and magnetic observations simultaneously departure of the he proteus in august 1831 the expedition set up its base fort conger on lady franklin bay 1000 miles north of the arctic circle and miles north of the last eskimo settlement it was commanded by first adolphus W grealy of the fifth cavalry with second lieutenants frederick P F kislingbury of the eleventh infantry and james B lockwood of the twenty third infantry as seconds in command these with octave pavy assistant army surgeon eight sergeants including brainard two corporals and nine privates and two dog daiv ers jens edward and frederik Fred crik 1 K 5 V V 14 A av r 4 X kra ioli 1 j A RESCUE OF THE SURVIVORS OF THE GREELY expedition thorley comprised the personnel of the party on august 28 26 this littile group of white men and two eskimos stood on the shore of ice locked lady franklin bay and watched a little steamer push its way cautiously through a lead a dark streak of open water which ran irregularly across the surface of the frozen sea the steamer was the proteus which had been held in the ice there for six days while captain pike waited in vain for a chance to cleave a path through the ice so that h he could start south towards civilization the departure of the proteus marked the beginning of what has been aptly called one ot of the supreme adventure stories of the world a story of almost unbelievable human grit and endurance which forms one of the brightest pages in the annals of the american army for two years this party was as much lost from contact with their fellow men as if they had been on another planet and when finally the third attempt to rescue greely succeeded of the original awen ty five there were just seven left alive and one of these died within twenty four hours the other eighteen had perished of starvation or accident after a series of adventures marked by incredible suffering and incredible heroism the official records of the greely expedition were made public soon after commander W S schley admiral schley of spanish american war fame had brought its survivors back to the united states on the thetis but it was not until nearly half a century later that the heroic human side of the story became known for more than forty five years the diary of sergeant brainard one of the seven survivors lay unused in an old trunk about ten years ago it was brought to light and published by the bobbs merrill company under the title of the outpost of the lost at that time there were but two survivors of the expedition its commander greely then a major general retired and the man who had served as a sergeant under him brainard a retired brigadier general so it was especially appropriate that his old commander who once called brainard the most re turn the next year if possible to carry the expedition away but if that were not possible another relief expedition would be sent for them in august 1883 in case it should fail greelis Gre elys orders were to leave fort conger not later than september 1 1883 1833 and retreat southward by boat until the relieving vessel is met or little island is reached or until a sledge party from the little island base was met relief ship fails As a matter of fact the proteus failed to reach them in august 1882 but says brainards book the first year had not passed disagreeably and it is doubtful if anyone regretted the experience future uncertainty thrown into the bargain the entire party had had the distinction of spending a i winter farther north than any arctic explorers had ever wintered with the exception of an english outfit that had wintered on shipboard moreover two of their number had set a new farthest north record in the centuries old race to the pole that first winter there was weather in which medford rum froze solid and the kerosene oil had to be thawed out before the lamps could be lighted at first there had been plenty to do and the work was intelligently organized by the commanding officer and tackled with zeal by the men but in a few weeks cold and darkness put an end to practically all outside work except the instrument tending near nea r the station the monotony of the arctic night produces strange effects on white men they become melancholy sleepless and very irritable every diversion twenty five minds could think of was tried out and dropped checkers are all the rage now wrote sergeant brainard the faithful diarist but nothing lasts like long loud arguments however the second winter was harder to bear than the first and on june 17 1883 sergeant brainard wrote that although it is a few weeks too early for a relief ship we cannot keep our eyes from wandering hopefully to the south but again they were disappointed and they beian began their tragic retreat on august 9 1883 they set out in small boats through a lead which had finally formed in vie he kaa 4 51 INS I 1 ITT W Z V 01 1 0 THE LAST SURVIVORS OF THE GREELY expedition at the left is maj gen A W greely who died in 1935 at the age ge oi 01 ninety one and at the right is brig gen D L brainard who is is still living in washington at the age of eighty of a number of remarkable men of that expedition should write for brainards book a salutation to remind the two survivors ef cf how together with our comrades we faced for nine months the prospect of death day by dey diy and were harassed byi by the sight of our associates perishing of starvation or from vicissitudes in the polar field when the proteus sailed away on august 23 26 1831 it was agreed that the ship was to tore ice after they had waited for it for several days their course was through kennedy channel which was filled with grinding floes of ice upon which greelis Gre clys elys force camped when there was no open water through which to push the boats whenever they could use the boats they hugged the coast of grinnell land through kane sea early in september they were forced to abandon their boats and for thirty tour four days they were adrift on floating ice finally they managed to reach smith sound and landed south of cape sabine north of and opposite littleton island which was two hundred and fifty miles away it was near here that the first year relief ship had been forced to turn back and far south to cape sabine the second year rescue ship had been crusted in the ice and all provisions lost their terrible suffering the record of their stay at cape sabine is one long story of terrible suffering here for eighteen months they lived on two months rations the simple record of sergeant brainards diary reveals the horrors of those days as can no extended description on october 2 he writes 1 I took an inventory of the commissary stores last evening and found only 35 days full rations of bread and meat remained these rations can be extended to 50 days if we subject ourselves to a greatly reduced diet but the suffering will be extreme in this low temperature where a man requires from two to three times the normal diet also we have some very hard labor ahead of us incident to the building of winter quarters march 4 1884 greely reduced the bread issue to eight ounces per man occasionally members of the party were able to shoot a fox fos to supplement their rations but as the weary weeks passed the inadequate food severe cold and the conditions under which they lived took their toll one by one eighteen of the members of the party including lieutenants kislingbury ling bury and lockwood died on the evening of june 22 1884 sergeant brainard lay jay in the little fly tent which had blown down upon him and his six comrades beside them lay the dead body of another but they were too weak to move it or even try to raise the pole of the tent suddenly a voice called out greely are you there brainard raised himself in his sleeping bag he knew that voice it was the voice of norman first officer of the proteus in 1881 its norman Nor maill he shouted in a weak voice he crawled from beneath the tent and norman thrust a hardtack in his hand A moment later lieutenant colwell came running over the hill brainard was sitting on the ground gr aund gri gnawing awing at the he hardtack but as he saw an officer approaching the old habit babit of the regular army sergeant asserted itself ile he tottered to his feet and attempted to salute I 1 but colwell clasped his hand and they went together into the tent there to rouse the dazed greely and to tell him that the ship thetis had arrived arrid with relief at last 0 0 4 in 1886 two years after his hia return from the arctic brainard was commissioned by president cleveland as a second lieutenant in the second cavalry in recognition of his bis distinguished and meritorious services with the greely expedition he was successively ces promoted to higher ranks and was commissioned a brigadier general in the national army on october 2 1917 made a brigadier general in the regular army on july 25 1918 and retired from service two days later in 1885 1835 the royal geographical society awarded him its back grant for his arctic work find and in 1926 the american geographical society presented its charles P daly gold medal to him in 1929 the explorers club of new york awarded brainard its explorers medal and in 1933 he was presented with the purple heart decoration by the secretary of war the honor conferred upon him recently by the american polar society comes as a clima to the career of one of the mo remarkable characters in f r american history 0 western New newspaper union |