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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- PEOPLE -- UNITED STATES --
Passed Assistant Surgeon James M.M. Ambler, USN (1848-1881)
James Markham Marshall Ambler was born in Markham, Virginia,
on 30 December 1848. As a youth during the Civil War he served
in a Virginia cavalry unit. He studied medicine at the University
of Maryland, received a M.D. degree in 1870, and subsquently practiced
in Baltimore. Appointed an Assistant Surgeon in the Navy in April
1874, he served initially in the practice ship Mayflower.
During the next three years he was assigned to the gunboat Kansas, on the
North Atlantic Station, and the frigate Minnesota, stationary
training ship at the New York Navy Yard. From 1877 into 1879 Passed
Assistant Surgeon Ambler was stationed at the Portsmouth Naval
Hospital, near Norfolk, Virginia.
In 1879 Ambler joined the crew of the Arctic exploration steamer
Jeannette,
which sailed from San Francisco, California, in July 1879 to begin
what would become a nearly two-year long expedition
into the icepack north of Siberia. His medical skills were
critical for maintaining the health of his shipmates during their
long entrapment in the ice, and during their arduous journey over
the rugged ice and frigid seas after the ship sank in June 1881.
Ambler was a member of expedition commander George
W. Delong's boat crew, which landed at the northern end of
the desolate Lena River Delta in September 1881. During the following
weeks he treated his companions' frostbite and tried to maintain
their strength as they slowly starved. Passed Assistant Surgeon
Ambler was apparently one of the last three members of the group
to succumb to hunger and exposure, sometime shortly after 30 October
1881.
This page features all the views we have related to Passed
Assistant Surgeon James M.M. Ambler, USN.
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 56031
Passed Assistant Surgeon James M.M. Ambler, USN (1848-1881)
Line engraving published during the later 19th Century.
Dr. Ambler was Surgeon of the steamer Jeannette during
her 1879-1881 expedition in the Arctic.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 183KB; 580 x 765 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 92107
Passed Assistant Surgeon James M. Ambler, USN
Vignette engraving copied from "The Voyage of the Jeannette
...", Volume I, page 63, edited by Emma DeLong, published
in 1884.
Dr. Ambler was USS Jeannette's Surgeon during her 1879-1881
Arctic exploring expedition.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 105KB; 620 x 675 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 52007
USS Jeannette (1879-1881)
Composite photograph of the ship, and the officers of her Arctic
expedition. Those shown are (clockwise from top center):
Lieutenant Commander George W. DeLong, USN, Commanding Officer;
Passed Assistant Surgeon James M. Ambler, USN;
Chief Engineer George W. Melville, USN;
Raymond Lee Newcomb, Naturalist and Astronomer;
William Dunbar, Pilot;
Jerome J. Collins, Correspondent for the "New York Herald";
Lieutenant John W. Danenhower, USN, Second Officer; and
Lieutenant Charles W. Chipp, USN, Executive Officer.
Donation of Captain T.S. Wilkinson, USN, 1934.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 131KB; 550 x 765 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 92131
Jeannette Arctic exploring expedition, 1879-1881
Plan of the camp set up on the ice after USS Jeannette
sank, circa 13 June 1881.
Copied from "The Voyage of the Jeannette ...", Volume
II, page 582, edited by Emma DeLong, published in 1884.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 43KB; 740 x 430 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 92152
"Plan of the Last Camp, Showing the Position in which the
Bodies were Found."
Plan of the final camp of Lieutenant Commander George DeLong
and his men from the Arctic exploration ship Jeannette,
in the Lena River Delta, Siberia. All members of the party perished
there in October-November 1881. Their bodies were found the following
March.
Copied from "The Voyage of the Jeannette ...", Volume
II, page 854, edited by Emma DeLong, published in 1884.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 88KB; 740 x 325 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 92153
"Finding the Bodies of Captain De Long and his Companions."
Chief Engineer George Melville discovers the bodies of Lieutenant
Commander George DeLong, Passed Assistant Surgeon James M. Ambler
and Seaman Ah Sam, in the Lena River Delta, Siberia, on 23 March
1882. The three men had died in October or early November 1881.
Woodcut engraved by George T. Andrew after a design by Captain
Gronbeck, copied from "The Voyage of the Jeannette ...",
Volume II, page 857, edited by Emma DeLong, published in 1884.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 126KB; 740 x 480 pixels |
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Page made 12 November 2003
New image added 18 November 2003