Jeannette (Ship)

Variant names

Dates:

Active 1861

Active 1881

History notes:

USS Jeannette was a naval exploration vessel which, under the command of George W. De Long, undertook an ill-fated 1879–1881 voyage to the Arctic. After being trapped in the ice and drifting for almost two years, the ship and its crew of 33 were released from the ice, then trapped again, crushed and sunk some 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi) north of the Siberian coast. The entire crew survived the sinking, but 11 died while sailing towards land in a small cutter. The other 22 reached Siberia, but 9 of them, including De Long, subsequently perished in the wastes of the Lena Delta.

Jeannette began its active career in 1861 as HMS Pandora, a Royal Navy gunboat. After more than a decade's service off the West African coast and in the Mediterranean, Pandora was retired from duty and sold as a private yacht to a British explorer, Allen Young. Young took her on two voyages to the Arctic, in 1875 and 1876, before selling her to James Gordon Bennett, Jr., proprietor of The New York Herald, who changed her name to Jeannette. Although she sailed to the Arctic under the U.S. flag as USS Jeannette, subject to naval laws and discipline, Bennett remained responsible for the costs of the expedition.