HERO OF THE ARCTIC

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 133, 2 December 1935, Page 18

HERO OF THE ARCTIC

GENEJJAL A. W. GKEELY

HIS WORK FOR SCIENCE

Major-General Adolphus W. Greely, U.S.A., retired, who attained worldwide fame as leader of the ill-fated Arctic exploration party o£ 1881 and received, only last March the Congressional Medal of Honour for his heroic conduct and brilliant service in the Far North, died recently at Walter Reed Hospital, from the effects of a blood clot that developed on October 7 J" liis,, le" ]eS- S!»ys the "New York Times." He was 91.

The general had been in ill health for several months previously, and was taken to the army, hospital where the leg melady developed. Hope for hi= recovery was practically abandoned at that time.

Although his- vitality weakened, General Greely retained consciousness almost until the end, was cheerful and astonished relatives and hospitall attendants by. his remarkable mental faculties.

Surviving are four daughters and two sons, all of whom remained close to the hospital ever since General Greely became a patient there.

Brigadier-General David L. Brainard. U.S.A., retired, of Washington, who was General Greely's second in command of the expedition to the Arctic, is now the sole survivor.' He called daily at the hospital to see his former chief until finally the power of recognition failed the patient.

General Greely was one of the founders of the National Geographic Society, and a member of its board of trustees for the entire forty-seven years of its history.

He was the last survivor of-the six scientific men who signed an invitation to a meeting of the Cosmos Club at Washington which resulted in the organisation of the society. His death leaves only two members of the board of trustees of the society who have served continuously since 1888. the year 'after the founding. 'They are Dr. C. Hart Merriam and Dr. O. H. Tittmann.

When General Greely took part in the organisation of the National Geographic Society, he had been back in civilisation only a few years after the conclusion of the famous Lady Franklin Bay Arctic Expedition of 1881, which he had commanded as a lieutenant in the United States Army. VALUABLE COLLECTION. In the library of the National Geographic Society is a valued collection of Arctic material generously presented to it by General Greely. The collection includes a large portion of his library of books dealing with polar subjects, about 500 volumes; most of his own publications; 286 volumes of scrapbooks compiled by General Greely, and containing clippings, articles, letters, and other information covering general polar exploration during his lifetime, and many books and documents dating back as far. as the eighteenth century.

General Greely was a frequent contributor to the "National Geographic Magazine" from its earliest days, and lectured on many occasions before the society's members in 'Washington. His articles covered such diverse fields as advance in geographic knowledge during the nineteenth century. American discoverers of the Antarctic continent, economic evolution of Alaska, and origin of the "blonde Eskimos." His nineteen lectures before the society included accounts of his own expedition to the Arctic, geography of the air, problems for geographical research, development of the Philippines and Alaska, and a broad variety of other topics.

General Greely also was the author of many publications both technical and popular, including "Chronological List of Auroras," "Three Years of Arctic Service," "Proceedings of the

Lady Franklin Bay Expedition," "Handbook of Arctic Discoveries," and '•Polar Regions in the Twentieth Century."

Half a century elapsed between the heroic Adventure for which General Greely is best remembered—the illfated polar expedition of 1881-84— and formal recognition of it by the nation which he had served. On his 91st birthday, March 27, 1935, he received a Medal of Honour from Congress "for his life of splendid public service."

When Greely and six other men were brought back to civilisation, leaving behind eighteen of their companions who had met death among frozen hardships, he found that he had been dropped sevei-al files in the promotion list. He was then a first lieutenant, although h s had emerged from the Civil War as a brevet major, of volunteers after a distinguished record in many baltlpg. Long afterwards he blamed his demotion on "political pull."

Tardy though his country .was in recognising his exploit of reaching further north—B3deg 24min—than any previous explorer, his scientific accomplishments had won him international tribute long before. He had received the medals of the Royal Geographical Society of London and the French Geographical Society. His scientific work was summed up as follows:—

"It made the nearest gravity observations to the Pole, ascertained the climatic conditions of Grinnell Land, made glaciological studies, determined the hitherto unknown secular magnetic variation: of that region, and through its tidal observations first disclosed the conformity of the sidereal day with the diurnal inequality of the tidal waves of the earth." A MAN SHOT. One of the party, an Eskimo, was drowned. Another was shot on Greely's orders because he had repeatedly pilfered rations when there were hardly any rations left. The rest were found in an almost moribund' condition on Cape Sabine on June 23, 1884 by the third relief expedition under Commander, later Admiral, Winfield Scott Schley. From April 3, when the rations had dwindled to five pounds of meat, three pounds of bread, and a little stearine for each man, they were left to fight cold, starvation, and other privations until rescue came. Greely and his six remaining companions had then been without food of any kind for forty-two hours.

During the months that Greely and his companions were isolated in the Far North he wrote a diary,which eloquently told of the terrible sufferings they had to undergo. There was no Arctic horror that passed them by. They literally ate their boots, then munched dry lichens and gnawed the remnants of their sealskin clothing. With frozen hands they struggled over the ice in vain search for animal life, sometimes killing a seal or a bear only to see its body sink between ice floes at their feet. The Greely Expedition was formed after the International Geographical Congress, in session at Hamburg, had recommended, in 1879, the establishment of a chain of thirteen circumpolar stations.

Under acts of Congress in 1880 and 1881 Lieutenant Greely was placed in command of what was known officially as the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition. Greely had volunteered for the service, and after an appropriation of 25,000 dollars (£5000) had been passed he was authorised to take two other officers and 21 soldiers from th» ranks, to charter a steam vessel, and to hire Eskimo hunters.

The vessel selected was the Proteus, an iron-sheathed whaler of 467 tons register. It was arranged that a relief expedition should seek them in 1882, and, if that failed, another in 1883. A>? it turned out, these both failed, and the third, under Schley. did not reach the survivors until the nick of time Lieutenant Greely had seen hard service and danger before. He had fought through the Civil War as a private, rising to the rank of brevet major, and he had taken part in the sieges of Yorktown and Port Hudson and the battles of Fair Oaks, Peach Orchard

Savage Station, White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill, Antietam, and Fredericksburg.

After the polar expedition he made j a name for himself as a builder of telegraphic communication in many, parts of the world. From 1898 until 1902, during military operations abroad, there were built and operated under his direction 1000 miles of telegraph in Puerto Rico, 3800 miles in Cuba, 250 in China, and 13,500 miles of lines and cables in the Philippine Islands. SUPERVISED WIRELESS WORK. The system of 3900 miles of telegraph wires, submarine cables, and wireless built up in Alaska from 1900 until 1904 was supervised by Greely the wireless section of 107 miles from Nome to St. Michael being the first successful long-distance wireless operated regularly as part of. a commercial system.

When still a young lieutenant Of cavalry, Greely had superintended the construction of 2000 miles of telegraph in Texas, Dakota,,and Montana. General Greely was in charge of all official relief operations at San Francisco after the great earthquake in 1906. He was placed on the army retired list, having reached the age limit, in 1908. ■

Adolphus Washington Greely was born at Newburyport, Massachusetts. on March 27, 1844. He was; the son of John Balch Greely and Mrs. Frances Greely, nee Cobb. After graduating from Newburyport High School in 1860. he volunteered for service when the Civil War broke out. Oh account of his age—he was only 17 —he had considerable difficulty in joining the Union forces, but he finally bluffed his way into the ranks of one of the Massachusetts infantry regiments. During the war he was wounded three times. In 1867 he was appointed second lieutenant in the 26th United States Infantey, and six years later he was a first lieutenant in the sth Cavalry. Promotion was slow, and it was not until 1886 that he gained the two tars of a captain. But the next year he, was promoted to brigadier-general and chief signal officer of the United States Army. On February 10, 1906, he became a major-general. Greely was the first volunteer private soldier to reach the grade of brigadier-general in the regular army.

In 1904 Genera] Greely was appointed a member of the board to regulate wireless telegraphy in the United States. The following year he was a member of the board to report on the coast defences of the United States. He was the official delegate to the International Telegraph Conference in London in 1903.

General Greely officially represented the United States and President Taft at the Coronation of King George of England in 1911.

He was married on June 20, 1879, to Miss Henrietta H. C. Nessmith.