Swimming "Zhanneta"

The book "Swimming" Zhanneta "published in 1936 at the publishing house of Glavsevmorputi, today remains a bibliographic rarity. She continues the new series of Paulsen’s publishing house - “Polar Classic ", which will collect books about the most striking and iconic expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica. The book talks about the expedition in the late 70s and early 80s of the 19th century, the American lieutenant of the Navy, Captain George Washington De-Leg (Delong, de Long) on ​​the ship of Zhannet. The story resembles an adventure romance with all the attributes necessary for this genre: the death of a captain and a ship, the salvation of part of the crew, unexpected finds and riddles.
The expedition of George De-Leg was financed by the publisher James Gordon Bennett, who had long conceived the search for the North Pole. Formally, De-Leg and his team was hired by the US Naval Department of the United States, because only in such a configuration could the most experienced and brave polar explorers of that time, which were personnel marine officers. Of them, there was a de-Leg. He graduated with honors from the Naval Academy in 1865. In addition to the great experience of swimming in the warm seas, he had knowledge of polar specifics. De-Leg in 1873 participated in the search for the missing expedition of C.F. Hall in the sea of ​​Buffin and off the coast of Greenland.
The organization of the expedition took place without unnecessary rush, reasonably and calmly. In 1876, De-Leong and Bennett acquired the Pandora steam bark, renamed him in honor of Bennett"s sister at Jeannet and began preparations. Bennett’s choice was very successful. De-Leg, with all the at that time, very scarce information about the polar regions of the Earth, carefully thought out the composition of the team, and equipment, and the route. On July 8, 1879, the ship left the port of San Francisco with a crew of 32 people in the direction of Chukotka.
Subsequently, when a disaster occurred, and the ship was crushed by ice, the calculation for discipline and endurance of personnel marine officers justified itself. The team that landed on the ice was united and friendly. And in these conditions, De-Leong demonstrated the ability to organize people, control the situation and take care of the crew. For almost two years, the “Jeannet” was in cold water by the will of winds and currents, however, in the end, the ship could not stand the onslaught of pack ice and sank. The team in an organized manner landed on the ice with equipment and tried to get to land on a sleigh and boats. The tragedy occurred in September 1881, when three boats with crews of the storms spread over the sea, and they lost sight of each other. The engineer George Melville, who was saved with 11 sailors, then organized an expedition to find the captain and other people, but to no avail. In March only in March 1882, he managed to find the last parking of George Delong and his comrades, as well as their bodies and a diary, which the leader led until the last days of his life.
The book presented to your attention appeared thanks to the wife of Delong Emma. She gathered the captain’s diary, his correspondence, newspaper clippings, reports of the Naval Ministry and paper of other expedition participants.
Thus, before us, a book that can be called more adventure than scientific, showing the strength of the spirit, patience, courage and faith of the heroes of the Arctic are all those human qualities that are still necessary for those who want to wear the proud title of polar traveler