Studying to-day the history of the Greely expedition, it seems almost as if a malign fate had determined to bring disaster upon him.  His task was not so arduous as a determined search for the Pole, or the Northwest Passage.  He was ordered by the United States Government to establish an observation station on Lady Franklin Bay, and remain there two years, conducting, meanwhile, scientific observations, and pressing exploratory work with all possible zeal.  The enterprise was part of a great international plan, by which each of the great nations was to establish and maintain such an observation station within the Arctic circle, while observations were to be carried on in all at once.  The United States agreed to maintain two such stations, and the one at Point Barrow, north of Alaska, was established, maintained, and its tenants brought home at the end of the allotted time without disaster.

Greely was a lieutenant in the United States Army, and his expedition was under the immediate direction of the Secretary of War—­at that time Robert Lincoln, son of the great war President.  Some criticism was expressed at the time and, indeed, still lingers in the books of writers on the subject, concerning the fitness of an army officer to direct an Arctic voyage.  But the purpose of the expedition was largely to collect scientific facts bear-on weather, currents of air and sea, the duration and extent of magnetic and electrical disturbances—­in brief, data quite parallel to those which the United States signal service collects at home.  So the Greely expedition was made an adjunct to the signal service, which in its turn is one of the bureaus of the War Department.  Two army lieutenants, Lockwood and Klingsbury, and twenty men from the rank and file of the army and signal corps, were selected to form the party.  An astronomer was needed, and Edward Israel, a young graduate of the University of Michigan, volunteered.  George W. Rice volunteered as photographer.  Both were enlisted in the army and given the rank of sergeant.

It is doubtful if any polar expedition was ever more circumstantially planned—­none has resulted more disastrously, save Sir John Franklin’s last voyage.  The instructions of the War Department were as explicit as human foresight and a genius for detail could make them.  Greely was to proceed to some point on Lady Franklin Bay, which enters the mainland of North America at about 81 deg. 44’ north latitude, build his station, and prepare for a two-years’ stay.  Provisions for three years were supplied him.  At the end of one year it was promised, a relief ship should be sent him, which failing for any cause to reach the station, would cache supplies and dispatches at specified points.  A year later a second relief ship would be sent to bring the party home, and if for any reason this ship should fail to make the station, then Greely was to break camp and sledge to the southward, following the east coast of the mainland, until he met the vessel, or reached the point at which fresh supplies were to be cached.  No plan could have been better devised—­none ever failed more utterly.