these men said: "Let us enter the Arctic ocean through Bering strait and sail northward toward the pole. If the ship is caught in the ice pack, she will drift along with the pack into the Atlantic ocean. Perhaps the drift will carry the ship across the North Pole."
De Long sailed from San Francisco on the Jeannette, July 8, 1879. It was a beautiful sunny day, and many vessels were gathered in San Francisco bay to attend the departure. Guns were fired, flags waved, and cheers given with a will for the brave men who were going to risk their lives in the search for the North Pole.
The Jeannette sailed away through the Pacific ocean. She crossed Bering sea in a heavy gale, and passed through Bering strait in safety. After rounding East cape, the watch in the crow's nest saw some rude huts along the beach. They were the homes of the Tchuktches, the Siberian race which inhabits this peninsula.
The ice alongshore prevented De Long from landing, and the natives, seeing this, launched a large skin boat and went out to the ship. The Indian chief went with them, and they all boarded the Jeannette. These people could furnish very little information, because no one on board knew their language and they could speak no English. But De Long learned, by means of signs and motions, that Nordenskjöld, with the Vega, had wintered to the northwest of them, and that a few weeks before he had passed out through Bering strait.
The Tchuktches had a delightfully original way of asking for liquor. They bent their elbows and uttered the word "Schnapps." But they did not get anything to drink, and soon returned to the shore.
The next day some men from the Jeannette succeeded in landing. They found the Tchuktches living in tents
