Icy Reads for a Hot Summer’s Day

Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica’s Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton (2022)

The end of the 19th century spurred a flurry of Arctic explorations and drove a sense of competition among those intrepid enough to tackle such dangerous journeys. Antarctica, however, remained a mysterious region few had ventured to explore. As such, the fame someone could achieve by navigating and mapping its shores—perhaps even reaching the never-before-visited South Pole—was a tremendous lure.

When, in 1897, Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery began promoting the idea that honor and acclaim could be garnered by his home country of Belgium if only it would fund an Antarctic expedition, he did not imagine how harrowing that journey would be. Leading a multinational crew of 23, de Gerlache pushed his ship, appropriately christened Belgica, to its limit in order to reach the South Pole. When the vessel became entrapped in the Antarctic ice pack for two years, de Gerlache and his crew were traumatized by their dire circumstances. Scurvy, starvation, and the sheer oppression of a months-long night revealed the true character of all who were on board.

Based on the ship’s log and the journal accounts of numerous crew members, the story of the Belgica’s long icebound night is a factually well-grounded and fascinating read.

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides (2015)

Hampton Sides’ In the Kingdom of Ice tells the tale of another late-19th century oceanic expedition. Commander George W. De Long dreamed of leading an Arctic expedition, so he approached the owner of the New York Herald newspaper, Gordon Bennett, Jr., and asked him to finance De Long’s epic adventure. De Long held a then recently debunked belief, based on a German cartographer’s inaccurate mapping, that there existed an ice-free polar sea which, if identified, could lead to a new commercial sea route and riches for all.

His fervent belief in the polar sea convinced Bennett that De Long’s expedition would pay off. With a crew of 60, De Long set sail on the steam-and-sail powered Jeannette on July 8, 1879. Like the Belgica, the Jeannette became trapped in polar ice—yet the Belgica’s and Jeannette’s fates differed: the Jeannette was eventually crushed by the ice pack and sank, leaving its crew to haul themselves on sledges across wintry Siberia in an effort to save their lives.

The story of who makes it safely home and who doesn’t keeps the reader captivated throughout this splendidly told story. Of these two icy tales, I enjoyed this one the most. Recommended highly.