madhouse at the end of the earth by julian sancton

The sun returned on July 22, and by March 1899, they were able to escape the ice. The crew did everything they could to prepare for a dark, below-freezing winter, but they were wracked with despair, suffering headaches, insomnia, dizziness, and later, madness-all vividly capture by Sancton. The ship continued through a perilous, ice-littered sea, as the commandant was anxious to reach a record-setting latitude. Glory was “finally within reach.” The author describes the discovery and naming of new lands and the work of the scientists gathering specimens. Days later, they saw Antarctica in the distance. 19, 1898, near the South Shetland Islands, the crew spotted the first icebergs. Sancton evokes a calm anxiety as he chronicles the ship’s journey south. In Tierra del Fuego, the ship ran aground for a while. In Punta Arenas, four seamen were removed for insubordination, and rats snuck onboard. Frederick Cook, a young, shameless huckster who had accompanied Robert Peary as a surgeon and ethnologist on an expedition to northern Greenland. In Rio de Janeiro, they were joined by Dr. After loading a half ton of explosive tonite, the ship set sail with 23 crew members and two cats. The commandant’s inexperienced, often unruly crew, half non-Belgian, included scientists, a rookie engineer, and first mate Roald Amundsen, who would later become a celebrated polar explorer. Thus begins Sancton’s riveting history of exploration, ingenuity, and survival. 16, 1897, the steam whaler Belgica set off from Belgium with young Adrien de Gerlache as commandant. A harrowing expedition to Antarctica, recounted by Departures senior features editor Sancton, who has reported from every continent on the planet.

Madhouse at the end of the earth by julian sancton