De Long, George Washington, 1844-1881

George Washington De Long (b. August 22, 1844, Manhattan, New York-d. October 31, 1881, Matvay Hut, Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, Russia), United States Naval Officer and explorer. He graduated form the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1865, then rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In 1879 he commanded an expedition on board the gunboat "USS Jeannette" designed to discover a faster way to traverse the North Pole by going through the Bering Strait. During the summer of 1881 the ship was wrecked and sunk by Arctic ice. Lieutenant Commander De Long and most of his men perished from starvation after abandoning ship. A year after they died, the bodies of George W. De Long and his men were found, and he was eventually interred in Woodlawn Cemetery with five of his crew.