Adolphus Greely

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Adolphus Greely
Adolphus Greely (right) and Knud Rasmussen

Adolphus Greely (actually Adolphus Washington Greely ; born March 27, 1844 in Newburyport , Massachusetts , † October 20, 1935 in Washington, DC ) was an American polar explorer and officer .

Military career

Greely enlisted in the 19th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry at the age of seventeen and participated in the American Civil War as a volunteer . Greely was seriously wounded in three of the many battles he participated in. In 1867 he joined the regular 36th Infantry Brigade as a Brevet Major ( Second Lieutenant ). By 1873 he was promoted to lieutenant in the cavalry and served in the western United States and Washington. He later joined the US Army Telecommunications Corps and led a number of missions to set up telegraph connections across the United States.

The polar expedition 1881–1884

Fort Conger research station on May 20, 1883

At the international polar conference of 1879 the annual operation of a chain of polar stations for systematic exploration of the Arctic was proposed. The following year, the US Congress approved funds for the construction of a manned station at Lady Franklin Bay on Ellesmere Island . In addition to the establishment of a second station at Point Barrow , the northernmost point of Alaska , this was the United States' contribution to the First International Polar Year 1882/83. Adolphus Greely, who had volunteered for this mission, although he had no experience of the Arctic, was commissioned with the implementation.

From 1881 to 1884 he was in command of the first US polar expedition . He started with 25 men on board the chartered ship Proteus , which dropped off the expedition at Lady Franklin Bay and then returned to Newfoundland .

At the Lady Franklin Bay on Ellesmere Iceland, the men built the polar station Fort Conger at position 81 ° 45 '  N , 64 ° 47'  W . This area is now part of the Quttinirpaaq National Park . Despite a lack of experience and strong tensions among the officers of the mission, the expedition corps was able to map a large part of the coastline of northwest Greenland for the first time and to cross Ellesmere Island from east to west. Lieutenant James B. Lockwood set a new record during this expedition, reaching 83 ° 24 ′ N.

Nevertheless, the Greely expedition ended in disaster, as the two agreed supply trips in the summer months of 1882 and 1883 did not reach Greely's men. According to his instructions for this case, Greely gave up Fort Conger on August 9, 1883 and began retreating south. With great effort, he and his men finally reached Cape Sabine on Smithsund at 78 ° 40 ′ N, where they had to spend the winter on Pim Island . As the supply ships did not have sufficient depots here, contrary to the emergency plan, 17 expedition members died of hunger, hypothermia and drowning during the winter; another participant was shot dead for repeated theft of provisions. On June 22, 1884, a relief squadron found Greely and the last six members of his expedition. The former whaling ship Bear of Oakland , in Greenock ( Scotland built), reached almost discontinued when they were about to eat the leather of their shoes. One of the rescued died on the way back.

During this expedition, Greely named the Lincoln Sea . Namesake is Robert Todd Lincoln , the first son of the 16th President of the United States , Abraham Lincoln , who was Secretary of War at the time .

Greely was publicly criticized for the disastrous outcome of the expedition, but it was soon recognized that he had carried out his tasks and orders correctly and carefully. In 1886 he was promoted to the rank of captain and in March 1887 by order of President Grover Cleveland to Brigadier General (Brigadier General). A fjord in the west of Ellesmere Island and a bay on the east coast of Victoria Island were named after Greely, as was an island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago .

Career as a meteorologist

In 1886 Greely joined the Signal and Meteorological Bureau , the American weather bureau . He was used there as a local hero in order to curb the widespread corruption . From 1887 onwards he headed the agency until it was transferred to the Department of Agriculture in 1891. For the next 20 years, Greely was responsible for constructing tens of thousands of kilometers of telegraph and submarine cable connections in Puerto Rico , Cuba , the Philippines , Alaska, and elsewhere.

Greely was a delegate at the International Telegraph Conference in London and in 1903 at the International Conference on Wireless Telegraphy in Berlin .

Follow-up time

In 1887 Greely was elected a member of the Leopoldina . Greely was one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society on January 13, 1888 , of which he later became vice president.

In February 1906, Greely was transferred to the Northern Division as major general . He was later assigned to the Pacific Division and supervised the rescue operations after the great 1906 earthquake in San Francisco . In 1908 he left the army.

In 1915 Greely invited the Italian polar explorer Arnaldo Faustini to a lecture tour in the United States .

Shortly before his death, Greely received the Medal of Honor of the US Congress on March 21, 1935 .

Adolphus Greely died in Washington, DC on October 20, 1935

Works

  • Three years in the Arctic service. An account of the Lady Franklin-Bay expedition of 1881-84 and the attainment of the farthest north. 2 volumes. Scribner, New York NY 1886 Volume I Internet Archive Volume II Internet Archive
  • (In German: Three years in the far north. The Lady Franklin-Bai-Expedition in the years 1881–1884. Costenoble, Jena 1887).
  • International polar expedition. Report on the proceedings of the United States expedition to Lady Franklin Bay, Grinnel Land. 2 volumes. Vol. I digital . Government Printing Office, Washington DC 1888. Vol. II digital.
  • American weather. American weather. A popular exposure of the phenomena of the weather, including chapters on hot and cold waves, blizzards, hailstorms and tornadoes, etc., etc. Dodd, Mead & Company, New York NY 1888.
  • Annual reports of the chief signal officer of the army. For the years 1886-1890. Government Printing Office, Washington DC 1886–1890, ZDB ID 163781-2 .
  • Explorers and travelers. C. Scribner's Sons, New York NY 1893. Internet Archive
  • Handbook of Arctic discoveries (= Columbian Knowledge Series. No. 3, ZDB -ID 2584927-X ). Roberts Brothers, Boston MA 1896. Internet Archive
  • True tales of Arctic heroism in the New world. Publishers: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1912 Internet Archive
  • Books by Aldolphus W. Greely - on the Internet Archive

literature

Map showing the course of the Jeanette from Norton Sound
The burial
The Greely Relief Expedition
The Greely Party Map

Web links

Commons : Adolphus Greely  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Greely, Adolphus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Greely, Adolphus Washington
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American polar explorer and officer
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Newburyport , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1935
Place of death Washington