Together, Cook and Amundsen would plan a last-ditch, desperate escape from the ice-one that would either etch their names into history or doom them to a terrible fate in the frozen ocean.ĭrawing on first-hand crew diaries and journals, and exclusive access to the ship's logbook, the result is equal parts maritime thriller and gothic horror. Frederick Cook, the wild American whose later infamy would overshadow his brilliance on the Belgica and the ship's first mate, soon-to-be legendary Roald Amundsen, who later raced Captain Scott to the South Pole. As the crew teetered on the brink, the Captain increasingly relied on two young officers whose friendship had blossomed in captivity - Dr. In this epic tale, Julian Sancton unfolds a story of adventure gone horribly awry. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness, their minds ravaged by the sound of dozens of rats teeming in the hold, they descended into madness. But the ship soon became stuck fast in the ice of the Bellinghausen sea, condemning the ship's crew to overwintering in Antarctica and months of endless polar night. The harrowing, survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly wrong, with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter.Īugust 1897: The Belgica set sail, eager to become the first scientific expedition to reach the white wilderness of the South Pole. LISTED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, SUNDAY TIMES 'Utterly enthralling' - GEOFF DYER, GUARDIAN

Madhouse and the end of the earth