Disaster in the North
Brainard's Rationing
In anticipation of the oncoming food shortage, Brainard teamed up with Greely in order to ration out daily food and drink by the pound. Evident throughout his journals, during the harsh Arctic winter, this daily practice saved all but the life of Sgt. William Cross, who passed away on January 18, 1884, from scurvy worsened with malnutrition. Unfortunately for the men, although the worst of the conditions had passed, they still had to wait a few months more for a ship that may never come.
Additional members started to pass away: Frederick Thorlip Christiansen (an Iniut guide) on April 5 and Sgt. David Linn the following day, both from starvation. April 9 was no better, with Lt. James B. Lockwood passing due to starvation and Brainard’s closest companion on the expedition, Sgt. George W. Rice nobly succumbed to the environment and exhaustion while searching for a supply cache.
Impact of Rice's Death
The death of Rice no doubt hit Brainard incredibly hard. The pair would often go on trips together, whether it was for data, hunting, fishing, or another activity, they would seldom be seen separately. Although Brainard is seemingly dismissive in his journal concerning the death of Rice, this can be attributed to fatigue from lack of sustenance or a grieving mechanism, but the latter is less likely as Brainard wrote a full paragraph about others’ deaths earlier (thus validating the fatigue hypothesis).
A Dreary Day
The men continued to drop like flies; June 6th was a particularly memorable day as Pvt. Jacob Bender starved to death and Dr. Octave P. Pavy had the same fate only 15 minutes later, however, earlier in the day Pvt. Charles B. Henry had died rather unusually. Pvt. Henry went by many aliases before joining the expedition and had been in and out of jail (allegedly unbeknownst to all members of the expedition, though there are some speculations that Brainard and Greely knew), even murdering a man in a skirmish after a gambling session turned sour. Following his criminal roots, Pvt. Henry had repeatedly stolen from the rations and had been caught, put on probation, reprimanded, and made to swear never to do it again. Yet, this trend of robbery continued until Greely gave the order for his execution which was carried out by Pvt. Francis Long, Pvt. Julius Frederick, and Brainard, who implemented a “two ball and one blank cartridge” rule (two men had loaded guns and one did not, therefore all three could have peace of mind believing that they had the empty cartridge and did not fire a shot).
A Dark Secret
The remaining seven members of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition were rescued in mid-June. Sgt. Joseph Ellison made up the final casualty of the fateful expedition, passing while returning to the United States, giving into his frostbite and weakened state. He was only 78 pounds at the time of death. The last six men arrived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to celebration and tears of sorrow, joy, and everything in between. Their hell on earth was over. Yet a suspected sinister pact was held between the six men and their rescuers. When Commander Winfield Schley arrived at the collapsed tent of the survivors, he made sure they were tended to but also surveyed the area around Camp Clay. One way or another, seven bodies of expedition members were found, and despite the cold, they were not so well preserved. The bodies, including Pvt. Henry, had all been butchered, a sure sign of cannibalism. The survivors denied this until they all met their ends, claiming they only cut up their friends’ corpses for fish bait. Commander Schley, presumably taking pity on the men, decided to omit a lot of these details in his official report, yet the press still got a hold of the cannibalism rumors and it plagued the survivors for the rest of their lives.
Works Cited:
American Experience. (2018, April 19). Members of the Greely Expedition. Pbs.org; American Experience. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/greely-bios/
David Brainard papers, Mss-189. Rauner Library Archives and Manuscripts. https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/repositories/2/resources/1207 Accessed November 08, 2024.
Jampoler, A. C. A. (2010, August 1). Disaster at Lady Franklin Bay. U.S. Naval Institute. https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2010/august/disaster-lady-franklin-bay