Logbooks of the US Navy at the National Archives

In June 1879, USS Jeannette left San Francisco, California, and headed north in search of the North Pole. Although this joint-venture expedition between New York Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett, Jr. and the US Navy started with great promise and fanfare, within 3 months the vessel was enveloped in ice above Siberia where it drifted for the next 21 months.

The destruction of USS Jeannette in spring 1881 sparked a struggle for survival as members of her crew fought their way through great odds to the Siberian coast in search of rescue. Some survived the ordeal, while many did not.

Below please enter the portals of records in NARA holdings and other institutions to see digital images of the actual records documenting this harrowing journey. Many thanks to the US Naval Academy Museum and the History Offices of the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery for sharing their records for posting on this web page.

• Logs of the USS Jeannette on the Old Weather Project
• Logs of the USS Jeannette Available in the National Archives Catalog

Woodcut, engraved by George T. Andrew published in The Voyage of the Jeannette ... , edited by Emma DeLong, 1884.

George W. De Long - Engraving from Volume I of The Voyage of the Jeannette. The Ship and Ice Journals of George W. De Long, Lieutenant-Commander U.S.N., and Commander of the Polar Expedition of 1879-1881. Naval History and Heritage Command.

Woodcut, engraved by George T. Andrew published in The Voyage of the Jeannette ... , edited by Emma DeLong, 1884.

Woodcut, engraved by George T. Andrew published in The Voyage of the Jeannette ... , edited by Emma DeLong, 1884.