USS Jeannette (1878)

Jeannette at Le Havre in 1878
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Pandora
Ordered	8 April 1859
Builder	Pembroke Dockyard
Laid down	30 March 1860
Launched	7 February 1861 (1861-02-07)
United States
Name	USS Jeannette
Namesake	Jeanette Gordon Bennett
Expedition:	Jeannette expedition
Departure:	8 July 1879
Fate	Crushed in ice and sunk
Date sunk:	13 June 1881 (1881-06-13)
General characteristics
Displacement	570 long tons (579.1 metric tons)
Tons burthen	428 tons (bm)
Length	142 feet (43.3 meters)
Beam	24+1⁄3 feet (7.4 meters)
Draft	13 feet (4.0 meters)
Sail plan	Bark-rigged
Speed	~10 knots (11.5 mph; 18.5 km/h)
Complement	60 officers and men

USS Jeannette was a naval exploration vessel which, commanded by George W. De Long, undertook the Jeannette expedition of 1879–1881 to the Arctic. After being trapped in the ice and drifting for almost two years, the ship and her crew of 33 were released from the ice, then trapped again, crushed and sunk some 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi) north of the Siberian coast. The entire crew survived the sinking, but eight died while sailing towards land in a small cutter. The others reached Siberia, but 12 subsequently perished in the Lena Delta, including De Long.

The vessel had begun her active career in 1861 as HMS Pandora, a Royal Navy gunboat. After more than a decade's service off the West African coast and in the Mediterranean, Pandora was retired from duty and sold as a private yacht to a British explorer, Allen Young. Young took her on two voyages to the Arctic, in 1875 and 1876, before selling her to James Gordon Bennett Jr., proprietor of the New York Herald, who changed her name to Jeannette. Although she sailed to the Arctic under the U.S. flag as USS Jeannette, subject to naval laws and discipline, Bennett remained responsible for the costs of the expedition.