This expedition has everything...

Hello and Welcome to Greely's Corner, an 1881 Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (aka the Greely Expedition) sideblog! This blog is still a work in progress, but check out the links below!

A "Short" History of the Expedition

Publications and Media

Hampden Gardiner's Diaries

Header image: April, 1882, departure of Lockwood, Brainard, and Christiansen from Fort Conger to attempt Farthest North record. Left to right: Adolphus Greely, William Whisler, David Brainard, David Ralston, Julius Frederick, Charles Henry, James Lockwood, David Linn, Joseph Elison, Nicholas Salor, Henry Biederbick, and Maurice Connell (courtesy of PBS.org)

Avatar is Lt Greely's corner of the officers' quarters at Fort Conger (courtesy of PBS.org)

It's the 182nd birthday of the man himself, born March 27, 1844. What a guy, huh? Lt. Greely's peculiar, aggro, stick-up-the-ass leadership style was a big part of what first fascinated me about the Greely Expedition. His choices were frequently unpopular and he was severely lacking in the kind of charisma that is the quality of better-known polar explorers, and yet he inspired enough loyalty to avoid a mutiny on the ice* when the expedition was on retreat from Fort Conger.

Greely's account of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, "Three Years of Arctic Service," is available to read at archive.org and other sources.

I picked the above photo from the official group photo because I'm always struck by the way it almost looks like he's in a straitjacket. Here's the full photo, one of several versions available because they had to cut and paste some guys in after the members originally pictured dropped out:

(images courtesy of wikipedia)

Entry from Hampden Gardiner's diary:

"Cross and Ellison have the carpenter’s bench in our quarters and are making more noise and shavings than 4 men should make. They are making Hudson Bay sledges."

Gardiner makes a lot of noise himself about the rate of complaining and arguments at Fort Conger, tbh.

He also has a lot to say (and judge) about the various sledge constructions the LFBE undertakes throughout their stay. Check out this entry from fortconger.org for a brief overview of the sledges they were attempting to use.

With a double helping of the #1 Lady Franklin Bay Expedition pastime: arguing!

December 26, 1881

Excerpt from Hampden Gardiner's diary at Fort Conger:

"...No work except what was absolutely necessary for our good was done during the week. Christmas week and everybody amused themselves as best they could. Of all the noise which I have ever heard during my life I think the worst of it was here during this one week. There was an argument all the time, and there was one peculiarity of these same arguments was that it was very seldom that there were less than 2 persons speaking at once."

Thanksgiving Day excerpt (plus Arctic Moon mention!) from Hampden Gardiner's diary:

"Today has been set apart by the Commanding Officer as a day of thanksgiving. Various games and amusements took place during the day, including a shooting match at a lighted candle, foot races, snow shoe races (I took a second prize in a show shoe race) which were great sport to all hands. And there was also a race of the dog teams to Dutch Island and back. The time the sledges were absent going a distance of 4 miles was 28 minutes. In the evening Sgt. Rice bedecked himself in civilized garments including a coat cut in imitation swallow tail style and delivered the prizes won during the day. The prizes consisted of various useful articles of the toilet, and besides sweetmeats, etc. Extra allowances of rum was issued which made all hands feel livelier and the day ended up with a stag dance. We had divine service at 10 am.

A newspaper was started some time ago by Sgt. Rice and Pvt Henry and with Lt. Lockwood as chief editor. They notified the community that contributions would be acceptable. The first number of this paper was issued today and created much amusement and interest. It’s called the “Arctic Moon” and is supposed to shed light when the original orb is on the other side of the earth. It’s reception presages well its future success. And my best wishes are that it will attain success in its way. If it shows us the way through these dark days it will have attained undying fame."

What's this about the Arctic Moon? It would be super cool if we could read those issues. Oh wait you CAN because @zeehund found and transcribed three issues plus a Christmas supplement, available here!

Thank you @zeehund for the beautiful portrait of Hampden Gardiner! It's the perfect accompaniment for today's journal entry, which expounds on a particularly vivid aurora that bamboozled the Greely gang.

November 17, 1882:

"Have been having an extraordinary disturbance of magnetic needle for some hours past. This morning about 5 am when coming out of the Magnetic observatory after making my observation. I was suddenly dazzled by the display of light which greeted my eyes as I emerged from the darkness. The transition was so great and so sudden that I think it must have been a half minute at least before I recovered myself sufficiently to think what had happened. The whole heavens seemed one mass of colored flames arranged and disarranged and rearranged every instant. I hurried down to the quarters and hastily telling Israel and Linn who were working at the time to come out quick I returned outside myself afraid lest I should lose any portion of the beautiful exhibition. The display was so close to the earth that we repeatedly put up our hands as though we could touch something material by so doing.

There was one person who was so much affected by the display at its grandest moments that he lowered his head quickly and putting up his hands as though he would ward off a blow said the d—n thing will do some harm yet. All hands came from their beds to witness the display and auroras have been our most common phenomena since darkness set in. Magnetic observations (extra) were immediately commenced and continued at intervals of 5 minutes until the display shall end. This display sustained its greatest grandeur for probably 10 minutes and then gradually grew less brilliant. It continued all day with occasional vivid flashes. I doubt not that this is the grandest exhibition of the aurora which has ever been witnessed. I have read descriptions of other great auroras but they would but poorly suffice for the display I have just recorded and which I think it would be impossible to describe adequately."

November 10, 1881

Excerpt from Hampden Gardiner's diary at Fort Conger:

"A great day for gasoline our present illuminating agent. When Corp’l Salor was filling lamps in the lean-to the can containing part of our supply of gasoline exploded but without doing any damage. In the afternoon (4 pm) when supper was about to be announced Corp’l Ellison alarmed us much by crying fire. I was the first one out and I saw the carpenter shed in flames. Our fire brigade was soon at work with the extinguishers and the fire was soon put out. Quite a quantity of tools lumber and some clothes which the men had stored there were burned. Ellison had his face badly burned by the lamp as it exploded. He now has to stand a good deal of bantering on account of the funny appearance which he makes with his face enveloped in white bandages and hardly allowing him room to breath and see through."

Excerpt from Hampden Gardiner's diary at Fort Conger:

"Many allusions have been made to the quotation of the sun in rushing down the west. In our case he has rushed down a great deal farther than is usual it would seem to us, and twill be in February next before he condescends to rush up again and Gladden the hearts at the north by his presence. So genial, benevolent, and smiling. Like some ancient patriarch who having been wronged by his subjects does punish them by his absence. But returns having forgiven the wayward and granting forgiveness & blessing as he approaches.

The radiating thermometers were today taken from the instrument shelter as a sort of ratification of “Old Sol’s” departure. Bon Voyage, Messier."

One of the charming things about Gardiner's writing is that he will go many days without saying anything (February 24th, 1882: "Sgt Linn and Corpl Salor went to coal mine and mined coal.") and then turn wistful and poetic. He has an especial tendency to get swept up in phenomena of natural beauty such as the auroras and cliff landscapes of the area.

I'd never heard the phrase 'Old Sol' before, but Gardiner sure had; it occurs at least four times in his Fort Conger diary. A cursory internet search suggests it first popped up in the early 1800s, and maybe it was having a moment in the 1880s as well. It also pops up in season 2 of the original Batman TV series, and by sheer coincidence I watched it only a few days after reaching this point in the diary. So now a small part of me reads Gardiner's diary in Adam West's voice.

Excerpt from Hampden Gardiner's diary at Fort Conger:

"Society of the Anti-Swearing men had meeting tonight."

I am delighted to announce that two diaries belonging to Sergeant Hampden S. Gardiner, an observer on the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, have been transcribed and are now available via the google drive linked below.

Born in 1858, Hampden Sidney Gardiner enlisted in the US Army Signal Corp in 1874 and was a graduate of the Signal Corp School of Instruction in Virginia. Prior to signing up for the LFBE, he was posted at various weather stations throughout the US.

The original scans and a partial transcript of the 1881-1883 diary were provided by the US Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) History Office, which retains the original diaries, as well as some various correspondences and other records relating to Gardiner. Stay tuned as these are gradually added to the drive!

I completed the transcription of the 1881-1883 diary that begins with Gardiner and his fellow expedition members aboard the Proteus. The first 100 days or so of the diary were transcribed by the CECOM History Office. This is the working journal that Gardiner would have been required to turn over to the US Signal Corp upon the completion of the expedition. It is not always riveting reading, with many entries being simple reports of the day’s official activities. Sometimes, however, Gardiner waxes poetic about the landscape or sneaks in a hint of a joke about his comrades.

The inimitable @zeehund transcribed Gardiner’s field journal, which begins with entries from 1883 after the expedition party has retreated from Fort Conger, and is interspersed with entries from field excursions from 1881 to 1883. The diary also includes sketches of the landscape of various areas near Fort Conger, as well as some sketches Gardiner made aboard the steamship Cortes, which carried many members of the expedition on their first leg of the journey out of New York. This diary ends in 1884 and contains Gardiner’s last written words before succumbing to starvation on June 12, 1884, just ten days before the remaining survivors were rescued.

I hope you enjoy reading about life at Fort Conger through Hampden's eyes. I'll also be adding some memorable quotes to the blog on their corresponding calendar days, so stay tuned or check the "gardiner diaries" tag for some frequently funny and sometimes poignant reflections from a guy who kind of worked his way into my heart while I was transcribing his words.