In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: the North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the northern oceans, although theories abounded. The foremost cartographer in the world, a German named August Petermann, believed that warm currents sustained a verdant island at the top of the world. National glory would fall to whoever could plant his flag upon its shores.
James Gordon Bennett, the eccentric and stupendously wealthy owner of The New York Herald, funded an official U.S. naval expedition to reach the Pole, choosing as its captain a young officer named George Washington De Long, who had gained fame for a rescue operation off the coast of Greenland. De Long led a team of 32 men deep into uncharted Arctic waters, carrying the aspirations of a young country burning to become a world power. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds in the grip of "Arctic Fever."
The ship sailed into uncharted seas, but soon was trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew abandoned the ship. Less than an hour later, the Jeannette sank to the bottom,and the men found themselves marooned a thousand miles north of Siberia with only the barest supplies. Thus began their long march across the endless ice-a frozen hell in the most lonesome corner of the world. Facing everything from snow blindness and polar bears to ferocious storms and frosty labyrinths, the expedition battled madness and starvation as they desperately strove for survival.
With twists and turns worthy of a thriller, In The Kingdom of Ice is a spellbinding tale of heroism and determination in the most unforgiving territory on Earth.I've read quite a few books relating the adventures of the polar explorers of the nineteenth century. Most of them dealt with men from either (usually,) England or Europe who attempted to find the north pole, or, at least, the Northwest Passage, by journeying along Greenland through Baffin Bay. There was at least one attempt to find the passage from the Pacific side, but that didn't seem to be a truly viable alternative. That someone had tried to find the North Pole through that same route was something I'd never heard about.
The book does a fantastic job of telling the harrowing journey these men took. At the start, it's all about the preparations made, major and minor, to make the trip a reality: the refit of the ship, the tons of food and supplies that were needed, and the precise selection of who would man that ship.
Once prepared, they leave San Francisco, sailing north through the Bering Strait and beyond into the Arctic Ocean where they would run head-on into the pack ice. This is where the story truly begins.
First, during their approximately two years trapped in the ice, and then when they're finally forced to try for distant Siberia, you come to know the men of the ship, especially Captain De Long and his engineer, and true right hand, George Melville. I think much of the power of book comes from the connection the reader makes to these men. What they went through is almost unimaginable, and the "grand and terrible voyage," did not end well. But, as with Captain Francis Crozier, of
The Terror, and many other adventurers of that age, both men would face adversity and not be found wanting.
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