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USS Jeannette (1879)

The U.S.S Jeannette was an Arctic expedition vessel made in a joint civilian-naval search for the North Pole. Rebuilt in 1879, her crew of 33 set off from San Francisco on July 8th. After reaching the Chukchi Sea, the Jeannette would become trapped in ice throughout 1879 - 1881. In the summer of 1881, the Jeannette was crushed and sunk by ice floes. Her crew would go on to travel 300 miles by sled to the safety of Siberia, losing 20 men in the process including her captain. Because U.S.S Jeannette’s story is not widely known, I’ve written a more comprehensive history at the bottom of this description, as well as linked a video lecture. (please read or watch if you are interested.)



General Characteristics:

Overall Length (Including Bowsprit) - 52.75m

Width - 8.75m

Draft - 3.25m

Speed - 16 Knots

Features:

Full working simulated compound engine
Full detailed interior including: Engine/Boiler Room, Cargo Hold, Store Rooms, Ward Room, Crew Births, Officer Cabins, Galley, and Photographing Room
Electrical Lights powered by a steam dynamo Baxter Boiler (Fun fact, she’s the first vessel in history to have electric lights, not the S.S Columbia)
Crew Births properly named for where expedition members slept
Working Prop Well for raising the screw propeller
Three accurately sized lifeboats, all motorized (Small Cutter, Large Cutter, and a Whaleboat)
Working deck machineries such as anchor and cargo boom
GPS systems, autopilot, and handheld equipment in Chartrooms and Storerooms

Startup:

Make your way into the Boiler/Engine Room from companionways
Open the boiler doors and press the key buttons titled “Light Boiler”
Wait a moment for boilers to build up pressure
Throttle is controlled using the helm next to the compound engine
Steering is controllable using the helm upon the topdeck

Propeller Well, Pumps, and Electric Light system:

When raising the propeller, go to the propeller well in the aft stern superstructure
Propeller rising will ONLY work when the vessel is at zero throttle
Pumps, Lights, and Heaters will only work once the Boilers have built up steam

Notes/Clarifying:

This vessel is a historical recreation made for the Northwest Navigation Company on Stormworks Maritime Hub. Because of this, the vessel makes use of the NNC Triangulation Calculator GPS for voyages. This GPS is in the chartroom, and instructions can be found here: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2791659944&searchtext=NNC
You can join Stormworks Maritime Hub here: https://discord.gg/VGeAw3efHa
Many thanks to Gladius for helping with the thumbnail and photos

Credit for the music of the ship’s pipe organ goes to iiBerlin. You can find his Wellerman Sea Shanty at this link here: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2822442385
Credit for the GPS system/chart map goes to Yu_Oshida. You can find his GPS system in this creation here: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2251639045

Many thanks to all who support my work. This build is the culmination of months of research done for the Jeannette Expedition, Arctic exploration, and it's Arctic explorers. Books such as “Hell on Ice” by Edward Ellsberg and “In The Kingdom of Ice” by Hampton Sides were a great help. This build is dedicated to the thirty-three members of the Jeannette Expedition who sacrificed themselves for the greater knowledge of humanity and Earth. This has been an amazing build, and one of my greatest ships yet.



Launched on February 7th, 1861, the U.S.S Jeannette began her life as the HMS Pandora, built by the Pembroke Naval Dockyards as a Pilomel-class Gunvessel. Besides being active briefly during the Trent Affair of 1861, the Pandora would mainly see Royal Navy service on the West coast of Africa and the Mediterranean sea, being placed in reserve in July 1872. In 1875, Allen Young, a yachtsman, would buy the Pandora in order to conduct a final search for the Northwest passage and lost the Franklin Expedition of 1845, traveling through the Arctic till 1876. In 1877, Young would sell off the Pandora to James Gordon Bennett Jr. the owner of The New York Herald Newspaper. Bennett, looking to create attention for his paper, would fund a joint expedition between himself and the US Navy in search of the North Pole. After sailing to the port of Le Havre, the Pandora would be rechristened as the U.S.S Jeannette, named after Bennett’s sister. From Le Harve, the U.S.S Jeannette would sail around Cape Horn to San Francisco in order to receive a complete redesign at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard.

Captained by Lieutenant commander George Washington DeLong, the U.S.S Jeannette set off from San Francisco with her crew of 33 on July 8th, 1879. The Jeannette Expedition entailed setting off from Alaska on August 31st in hopes of finding an “Open Polar Sea” to the North Pole. The Jeannette was successful in this task up until September 7th, in which the ice of the Chukchi Sea would trap the vessel entirely. From September 1879 to June 1881 the Jeannette would stay stuck in the ice, drifting Northwest with the ice pack. During this time, her crew not only discovered the falsehood of the “Open Polar Sea”, but also two separate islands, which they named Henrietta Island and Jeannette Island respectively. By the summer of 1881, the melting ice pack placed Jeannette in between two crushing ice floes, causing the vessel to meet her ultimate fate on June 13th, 1881.

After abandoning his sinking ship, captain DeLong and his men would set off with sled parties for the Siberian coast. Throughout the 300-mile-long journey, the crew contended with Northern shifting ice packs, losing miles if they couldn’t keep pace. Refuge was only found once the crew discovered their last new island, which they came to call Bennette Island. By September of 1881, the crew finally could make use of their sled lifeboats to complete the last leg of their journey to Siberia, sailing in three different vessels. Their final voyage to the Siberian Lena Delta brought tragedy as a violent storm presumably capsized and sank the smallest cutter while separating the last two remaining vessels. A whaleboat, manned by Chief Engineer George Melville was able to reach the Lena Delta and find safety with Siberian natives; however, the remaining larger cutter, manned by Captain DeLong became lost after reaching the Siberian coast. In desperation, captain DeLong’s group of men began traveling through the Lena Delta to find refuge, becoming frostbitten and starved in the process. On October 9th, two of the fittest men of the group were sent by DeLong as a last effort to seek help, to which they would find safety for themselves. Due to the inhospitable weather, the surviving crew couldn’t raise a group to find Delong. It would only be until March of 1882 that a group led by George Melville would find their frozen bodies, building a makeshift stone coffin with a large wooden cross for DeLong and his men.

In the aftermath of the Jeannette Expedition, the deceased were repatriated by Russia to be buried in the United States. The expedition for its time was a sensation and a horror, bringing James Gordon Bennett Jr. his wealth at the sacrifice of 20 men. In recent years, the Jeannette’s story has been rediscovered thanks to the recovery of ecological logs kept during the expedition. These logs have been used to prove the existence of climate change. To this day, the wreck of the U.S.S Jeannette remains undiscovered, and her story is mostly unknown.