In The Kingdom Of Ice: The Grand And Terrible Voyage Of The USS Jeannette, Sides -B

                                               My library is filled with tales of the various Polar quests, the Grail of the late 19th/early 20th century.   The early efforts were in the north and thus, most of the really bad science is associated with pursuits of the North Pole.  There were many crackpot theories about open warm waters around the North Pole.  There was a general consensus that there was no permanent ice cap, but rather open seas. This was because there were thermal openings in the far north and also warm underwater streams that surfaced near the Pole. How and why mankind dreamed up this poppycock is hard to fathom. Starting with the famous English expedition under Franklin in 1845, it was not warm water but scurvy, cannibalism, freezing death, delirium and total disappearance from the face of the earth that seemed to be the last word on everyone who headed north. This book is about the first American expedition, one dreamed up and funded by the NY Herald and Gordon Bennett, its eccentric publisher.     ( Bennett would do anything for a story - he's the man who sent Stanley to Africa to find Livingston).  Under the command of Capt. George W. DeLong, the US Arctic Expedition sailed from San Francisco  on July 8, 1879.  By September DeLong was icebound at only 78 degrees north. He began to doubt that there was anything encouraging over the horizon.  Well over a year-and-a-half later, in May 1881, the cry 'land ho' was heard.  The DeLong Archipelago had been discovered in the East Siberian Sea, about a third of the way from the Russian coast to the Pole.  A month later, the ice finally prevailed and sunk the Jeannette. As the 33 men went onto the ice, they had achieved a first in polar exploration - the crew had not lost a single man in almost two years and two long Arctic winters.  Nonetheless, they were a thousand miles from the Siberian coast. In July, they discovered a reasonably- sized island that provided them with the opportunity to eat fresh food and equip their three longboats for a run to the south.  A month later, they made it to an island that DeLong's charts indicated was only 100 miles from land. The three boats were separated in a gale; DeLong came ashore on Sept 17,1881 in the marshy delta of the Lena River. Miraculously, they had travelled a thousand miles over ice and occasional open seas. A second boat had also made it.  In the end, DeLong did not survive but 13 men were able to return to the US.  Their story is certainly one of courage, endurance and superb leadership.  The Antarctic explorers came later and were better informed and equipped. The books about Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen are invariably very good reading. For my money though, 'The Last Place On Earth' by Huntford is the best Polar book of them all. It's so good there's even a BBC/Masterpiece production of the same name.