Product DescriptionA Best Book of the Year
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On July 8 1879 Captain George Washington De Long and his team of thirty-two men set sail from San Francisco on the USS Jeanette.
Heading deep into uncharted Arctic waters they carriedthe aspirations of a young country burning to be the first nation to reach the North Pole. Two years into the harrowing voyage the Jeannette's hull was breached by an impassable stretch of pack ice forcing the crew to abandon ship amid torrents of rushing of water. Hours later the ship had sunk below the surface marooning the men a thousand miles north of Siberia where they faced a terrifying march with minimal supplies across the endless ice pack.
Enduring everything from snow blindness and polar bears to ferocious storms and labyrinths of ice the crew battled madness and starvation as they struggled desperately to survive. With thrilling twists and turns In The Kingdom of Ice is a spellbinding tale of heroism and determination in the most brutal place on Earth.
Amazon.com ReviewAn Amazon Best Book of the Month?? August 2014: In the last few decades of the 19th century?? the world looked very different from the way it does now. Parts of the map were unfilled--chief among those spaces was the North Pole?? which many believed contained warm currents that might provide safe passage. Enter James Gordon Bennett?? the wealthy and eccentric owner of the New York Herald. Bennett--who was responsible for sending Stanley in search of Livingstone--wanted to produce another thrill for his readers?? so he funded a naval expedition to reac