With no word from the Jeannette for many months, newspapers at home speculated that the crew was either thriving in the Arctic or had met with disaster. Bennett’s paper put the best possible light on things. In a Herald article headlined “Arctic Exploration: No Reasons for Apprehensions,” the famous explorer Isaac Hayes wrote with certainty that the Jeannette would return safely with “triumphant news.” Hayes had once been icebound in the Arctic on an earlier search for a route to the North Pole, so his words assured some readers. But other newspapers predicted doom.
Famed explorer Isaac Hayes assured New York Herald readers that the Jeannette was not in trouble.
Bennett encouraged Emma De Long not to worry about “the silly prophesies” of his rival papers. He sent her a telegram to say that he was “perfectly confident of absolute safety of ship and crew and consider the fact of their not being heard from is a good sign of success.”
Bennett’s encouragement didn’t stop Emma from worrying. “The Herald’s competitors had not been slow to take the opportunity to state their pessimistic views,” she wrote. “It was too good a chance to miss.”
Emma wrote lengthy “letters to nowhere” to her husband. She sent them north on ships with the hope they’d meet up with the Jeannette. One letter ran fifty-three pages. She made three copies and sent them on three different ships. “I am well but I suffer from nervousness at times, although I always control it,” she wrote in one letter. “I have made it a point not to be affected by any newspaper reports I read, as I reason they know no more about your whereabouts than I do, and therefore I will hope for the best. If I did pay any attention to the reports I could not live, for one day they prophesy the complete loss of the Jeannette and the next her complete safety.”
John Danenhower’s father, a prominent politician and editor, was confident that the officers and crew of the Jeannette were safe. He boasted to the Chicago Tribune that his son and his brave companions were fully prepared for whatever they might encounter. “They did not go on a summer excursion, but sailed with a determination of reaching a higher degree of latitude than any of their predecessors,” he said. “I have no doubt she reached her destination and quartered for the winter where her officers expected…. I confidently expect her safe return next fall.”
MARCH 1, MONDAY
Danenhower had the sixth operation on his eye today…. The knife and probe are regular things in his case now, and come at regularly shortening intervals. There is no sign of improvement. Day after day it is the same old story. He bears his confinement and the pain of the operations heroically, and his general health and spirits keep up well. But he will never be of any use to the expedition.
APRIL 6TH, TUESDAY
Although the sun is below the horizon for about eight hours, we have daylight the whole twenty-four hours. That is to say I consider enough daylight existing at midnight to navigate the ship were there open water to make it possible.
APRIL 18TH, SUNDAY
From aloft the view is far less discouraging than it was a month ago. Then the ice-field was all broken up by confused masses and heaps of shattered floes, the result of the winter’s conflicts. Under such circumstances I fear five miles a day would have been an impossibility with loaded sledges. Now these masses are greatly reduced, and though rough and hummocky they are not impossible to pass; I think a mile an hour might be made without great difficulty. Then if we had been forced to abandon our ship by her being destroyed we could have reached the Siberian settlements only by a miracle; now, if our ship by some accident is taken from us, our chances of reaching Siberia, or open water, are greatly in our favor.