After two months of drifting, part of the crew, with some Eskimo men and women, alarmed by the groaning and crashing of the ice during a furious autumn storm, camped on an ice floe which shortly afterwards separated from the ship.

For five months, December to April, they lived on this cold and desolate raft, which carried them safely 1300 miles to Labrador, where they were picked up by the _Tigress_.

During the winter one of the Eskimo women presented the party with a baby, so that their number had increased during the arduous experience.

Meanwhile the _Polaris_ had been beached on the Greenland shore, and those remaining on the ship were eventually also rescued.
In 1875 Great Britain began an elaborate attack on the Pole _via_ what was now known as the American route, two ships most lavishly equipped being despatched under command of George Nares.

He succeeded in navigating the _Alert_ fourteen miles further north than the _Polaris_ had penetrated four years previous.