Engraving showing the yacht 'Jeannette' in the Arctic pack ice, during the expedition of 1879-1881. An US Navy crew, led by Lieutenant Commander George Washington Delong, embarked aboard the private yacht 'Jeannnette' in 1879 in an attempt to sail to the North Pole. The 'Jeannette' entered the ice pack, near Wrangell Island, in September 1879 and then drifted north-west, surrounded by ice until June 1881. On the 12th June 1881, the 'Jeannette' was crushed by the ice and sank, leaving its crew 700 miles from the nearest human habitation, at the Lena River Delta, Siberia. The crew of the 'Jeannette' then dragged their three life-boats over the ice to clear water and set sail for the Lena River. Unfortunately, one boat was lost in a storm and another made landfall on the delta, only for the majority of its crew to die of starvation or exposure.