Return to Naval Historical
Center home page.
Return to Online
Library listing
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --
Jeannette (1879-1881).
Previously the Steam Yacht Jeannette and HMS Pandora
(British Gunvessel, 1861)
Jeannette, a bark-rigged wooden steamship, was built
in 1861 at Pembroke Dockyard, England, as the British gunvessel
Pandora. The Royal Navy sold her in 1875 for use in Sir
Allen Young's voyages to the Arctic. She was purchased by New
York newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett in 1878 and renamed Jeannette. Lieutenant George W. DeLong, USN, who had collaborated with Bennett on a project to use the ship for an attempt to reach the North Pole, sailed her from Europe to San Francisco, California. Under the terms of a law authorizing the Navy to provide officers and crew for the proposed expedition, if Bennett paid for all other expenses, she was refitted at the Mare Island Navy Yard, in northern San Francisco Bay. In addition to receiving new boilers and other equipment, Jeannette's hull was massively reinforced to
allow her to navigate in the Arctic icepack.
On 8 July 1879 the Jeannette, privately owned but Navy
operated, left San Francisco under DeLong's command. His crew
included four other Navy officers, twenty-three enlisted men and
three civilians. Visiting Alaska, she stopped at Unalaska and
Saint Michael, where two Inuit dog drivers joined her, with their
dogs and sleds. Jeannette then called on an eastern Siberian
port to top up her coal bunkers, passed through the Bering Strait
and headed for Wrangell Island. Near there, on 6 September 1879,
she entered the Arctic ice, where she was soon frozen in. During
the next twenty-two months the drifting ice carried the ship several
hundred miles to the northwestward, until on 12 June 1881 her
hull was broken open when ice flows rapidly converged after opening
a few days previously. Jeannette sank the following morning,
after her crew had removed boats, equipment and provisions in
preparation for a months-long journey on foot across the desolate
ice to reach open water north of Siberia. In the end, of the thirty-three who set off after the ship went down, only thirteen of Jeannette's men survived their adventures and returned to civilization.
This page features, and provides links to, all the views
we have related to the Arctic exploration steamer Jeannette.
For more images related to this ship, see:
Jeannette
Arctic Expedition, 1879-1881.
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 52199
Steam Yacht Jeannette (later USS Jeannette)
At Le Havre, France, in 1878, prior to her departure for San
Francisco, California. She is flying the U.S. Yacht Ensign.
Photograph presented to Rear Admiral Yancy S. Williams on 20
January 1936 by Frank Breen Haggerty, who served at the Mare
Island Navy Yard, California, from September 1874 to 30 September
1909.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 1157KB; 740 x 535
pixels |
![](../../images/h52000/h52199t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 92123
USS Jeannette (1879-1881)
Engraving of the ship under sail and steam, with title page text,
copied from "The Voyage of the Jeannette ...", Volume
II, edited by Emma DeLong, published in 1884.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 118KB; 690 x 610 pixels |
![](../../images/h92000/h92123t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 52004
USS Jeannette (1879-1881)
Engraving of the ship underway in San Francisco Bay, California,
circa 8 July 1879.
Note that she is depicted flying the U.S. Yacht Ensign.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 127KB; 740 x 505 pixels |
![](../../images/h52000/h52004t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 52003
USS Jeannette (1879-1881)
Engraving after a sketch by H.A. Ogden, depicting Jeannette
leaving San Francisco, California, on 8 July 1879 to begin her
Arctic expedition.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 221KB; 740 x 540 pixels |
![](../../images/h52000/h52003t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 52007
USS Jeannette (1879-1881)
Composite photograph of the ship, and the officers of her Arctic
expedition. Those shown are (clockwise from top center):
Lieutenant Commander George W. DeLong, USN, Commanding Officer;
Passed Assistant Surgeon James M. Ambler, USN;
Chief Engineer George W. Melville, USN;
Raymond Lee Newcomb, Naturalist and Astronomer;
William Dunbar, Pilot;
Jerome J. Collins, Correspondent for the "New York Herald";
Lieutenant John W. Danenhower, USN, Second Officer; and
Lieutenant Charles W. Chipp, USN, Executive Officer.
Donation of Captain T.S. Wilkinson, USN, 1934.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 131KB; 550 x 765 pixels |
![](../../images/h52000/h52007t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 92125
USS Jeannette (1879-1881)
Sail plan of the ship as fitted for her Arctic exploring expedition.
Copied from "The Voyage of the Jeannette ...", Volume
II, page 510, edited by Emma DeLong, published in 1884.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 435 pixels |
![](../../images/h92000/h92125t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 92126
USS Jeannette (1879-1881)
Spar deck, berth deck and hold plans of the ship, as fitted for
her Arctic exploring expedition.
Copied from "The Voyage of the Jeannette ...", Volume
II, page 511, edited by Emma DeLong, published in 1884.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 170KB; 1200 x 635
pixels |
![](../../images/h92000/h92126t.jpg) |
Photo #: NH 92106
USS Jeannette (1879-1881)
Hull cross section, through coal bunkers and fire room, showing
the heavy bracing added to suit the ship for navigation in the
Arctic ice.
Engraving copied from "The Voyage of the Jeannette ...",
Volume I, page 59, edited by Emma DeLong, published in 1884.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 124KB; 740 x 630 pixels |
![](../../images/h92000/h92106t.jpg) |
For more images related to this ship, see:
Jeannette
Arctic Expedition, 1879-1881.
Return to Naval
Historical Center home page.
Page made 29 October 2003
Link added 13 December 2003