Robert Mallory Berry

Robert Mallory Berry (28 Jan 1846 – 19 May 1929) was an American naval officer and Arctic explorer.

Biography Berry began his naval career attending the United States Naval Academy from January 1862 until June 1866.

Search for the Jeannette In May 1881, Berry became commander of USS Rodgers, a ship built for Arctic navigation. He was part of the second relief effort of the ill-fated Jeannette expedition. The ship left San Francisco in June and arrived at Petropavlovsk 33 days later, where the captain of the Russian corvette Streloch offered "any needed assistance" on behalf of his government in the search for clues of the missing ship.

Berry took on two Chukchis as hunters and dog drivers at Saint Lawrence Bay, and on 20 August, entered the Arctic Ocean. At Herald Island, Berry found out that the crew of the preceding ship, , had already covered the island without success. Three days later Berry landed with a party at then still little explored Wrangel Island further to the west and was the first to survey the southern coast and part of the interior, proving that Wrangel was an island and not the southern edge of a polar land mass.

Berry left Wrangel Island on 13 September, and moved north and west until stopped by pack ice on 18. Returning to Wrangel, the search was continued choosing another course until 27. Again blocked by ice, Berry decided to turn south for winter quarters. The first week in October a party was left under Master Charles F. Putnam on Tiapka Island off Cape Serdtse-Kamen with provisions, supplies, and fuel for a year; as well as a boat, dogs, and sleds to explore the coast westward in search of the crews of Jeanette and the missing whalers.