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Show An Old Arctic "ero Receives a Mew Honor By ELMO SCOTT WATSON RECENTLY a new honor was paid to the nation's oldest living polar explorer by his fellow-adventurers into the Arctic and Antarctic wildernesses, wilder-nesses, most of whom were still imhorn when he made his first hid for fame more than half a century aj,'o. He is Brig. Gen. David L. lirainard, U. S. A., retired, the last survivor of Gen. A. W. Grecly's Lady Franklin Iiay Arctic expedition expedi-tion of 1881-84. On his eightieth eight-ieth birthday the American Folar society, of which he is the oldest active member, elected elect-ed him its first honorary member mem-ber "in recognition of his contribution con-tribution 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 Lieut. 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 north-ern coast of Greenland. This surpassed the record which British explorers had held for 275 years and their record stood for 13 years when it was surpassed by Nansen in the Arctic sea in the Eastern hemisphere. hem-isphere. General Brainard, who has the additional distinction of being one of the few living retired generals gen-erals to have risen from the hum- mm ble rank of "buck private," now lives quietly in Washington after af-ter 42 years' service in the army, the first ten of which he served in the ranks. He was born in Norway, N. Y., on December 21, 1856 and when he was nineteen years of age enlisted in the Second Sec-ond 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 7, 1877 at Little Muddy creek in Montana he was seriously serious-ly 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 Indian-fighter corralled Chief Joseph and his fleeing Nez Perces in the Bear Paw mountains and forced their surrender. In 1873 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 assign-ment as first sergeant in the polar expedition sent out by the United States army as the result re-sult of an international conference confer-ence at Hamburg, Germany, in 1879 and at Berne, Switzerland, in 1SS0. The United States joined with Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia, Germany, Denmark, and Austria in establishing a ring of widely-separated widely-separated outposts, all within the Arctic Circle, to record a complete com-plete series of meteorological and magnetic observations simultaneously. simul-taneously. Departure of the "Proteus" In August, 1SS1, the expedition set up its base, Fort Conger, on Lady Franklin bay, 1,000 miles north of the Arctic Circle and 250 miles north of the last Eski mo settlement. It was commanded command-ed by First Lieut. Adolphus W. Greely of the Fifth cavalry with Second Lieutenants Frederick F. Kislingbury of the Eleventh infantry in-fantry and James B. Lockwood of the Twenty-third infantry as seconds in command. These with Octave Pavy, assistant army Burgeon, eight sergeants, including includ-ing Brainard, two corporals and nine privates, and two dog-drivers, Jens Edward and Frederik " ''.. .-."&... - .. 1 . - .. -:.;. . " , , , , - - - . , RESCUE OF THE SURVIVORS OF THE GREELY EXPEDITION Thorley Christiansen, comprised the personnel of the party. On August 26 this litttle 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 sur-face of the frozen sea. The steamer steam-er was the "Proteus" which had been held in the ice there for six days while Captain Pike waited wait-ed in vain for a chance to cleave a path through the ice so that he could start south towards civilization. civ-ilization. The departure of the "Proteus" "Pro-teus" marked the beginning of what has been aptly called "one of the supreme adventure stories sto-ries 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 con-tact 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 twenty-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 incred-ible 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," "The-tis," 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 Ser-geant Brainard, one of the seven survivors, lay unused in an old trunk. About ten years ago it was brought to light and published pub-lished by the Bobbs-Merrill company com-pany under the title of "The Outpost Out-post 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 ser-geant 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, Greely's orders were to leave Fort Conger Con-ger not later than September 1, 1883 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" "Pro-teus" failed to reach them in August, 1882. But, says Brain-ard's Brain-ard's book, "The first year had not passed disagreeably, and it is doubtful if anyone regretted the experience, future uncertainty uncertain-ty thrown into the bargain. The entire party had had the distinction distinc-tion of spending a winter farther north than any Arctic explorers had ever wintered, with the exception ex-ception of an English outfit that had wintered on shipboard. Moreover More-over 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 of-, ficer and tackled with zeal by the men. . . . But in a few weeks cold and darkness put an end to practically all outside work except ex-cept the instrument tending near the station. The monotony of the Arctic night produces strange effects ef-fects 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 can-not keep our eyes from wandering wander-ing hopefully to the south." But again they were disappointed and they began their tragic retreat. re-treat. On August 9, 1883, they set out in small boats through a "lead" which had finally formed in the www vv "swicw 1 yy www 1 - - ; s ' v N " "X. ' l v W x I ' . 1 f - - 1 I - c -; I THE LAST SURVIVORS OF THE GREELY EXPEDITION At the left is Maj. Gen. A. W. Greely, who died in 1935 at the age of ninety-one, and at the right is Brig. Gen. D. L. Brainard who is still living in Washington at the age of eighty. markable of a number of remarkable remark-able men of that expedition" should write for Brainard's book a "salutation" to remind the two survivors of how "together with our comrades we faced for nine months the prospect of death day by day and were harassed by the sight of our associates perishing perish-ing of starvation or from vicissitudes vicissi-tudes in the polar field." When the "Proteus" sailed away on August 26, 13S1 it was agreed that the ship was to re- 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 Greely's 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 - 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 op-posite 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 crushed 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 eight-een months they lived on two months' rations. The simple record rec-ord of Sergeant Brainard's diary reveals the horrors of those days as can no extended description. On October 2 he writes: "I took an inventory of the commissary stores last evening and found only 35 days full rations ra-tions of bread and meat remained. re-mained. These rations can be extended to 50 days, if we subject sub-ject ourselves to a greatly reduced re-duced diet, but the suffering will be extreme in this low temperature temper-ature 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." quar-ters." March 4, 1884: "Lieut. Greely reduced the bread issue to eight ounces per man." Occasionally members of the party were able to shoot a fox 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 Kis-lingbury and Lockwood died. On the evening of June 22, 1884, Sergeant Brainard lay 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 Sud-denly 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 1381. "It's Norman!" 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 sittins- on the ground gnawing at the hardtack, hard-tack, but as he saw an officer approaching, the old habit of the regular army sergeant asserted as-serted itself. He tottered to his ieei ana attempted to salute! 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 ar-rived with relief ai last. In 18S6, two years after his return from the Arctic, Brainard was commissioned by President Cleveland as a second lieutenant in the Second cavalry in "recognition "recog-nition of his distinguished and meritorious services" with the Greely expedition. He was successively suc-cessively 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 re-tired from service two days later. In 1885 the Royal Geographical society awarded him its Back Grant for his Arctic work 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 Explorer's Meda' 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 climax to the career of one of the most remarkable characters in all American history. Western Ncwsonper Union. |
