Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The exquisitely researched and deeply engrossing (The New York Times) true survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly awrywith the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter The energy of the narrative never flags. . . . Sancton has produced a thriller.The Wall Street Journal In August 1897, the young Belgian commandant Adrien de Gerlache set sail for a three-year expedition aboard the good ship Belgica with dreams of glory. His destination was the uncharted end of the earth: the icy continent of Antarctica. But de Gerlaches plans to be first to the magnetic South Pole would swiftly go awry. After a series of costly setbacks, the commandant faced two bad options: turn back in defeat and spare his men the devastating Antarctic winter, or recklessly chase fame by sailing deeper into the freezing waters. De Gerlache sailed on, and soon the Belgica was stuck fast in the icy hold of the Bellingshausen Sea. When the sun set on the magnificent polar landscape one last time, the ships occupants were condemned to months of endless night. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness and besieged by monotony, they descended into madness. In Madhouse at the End of the Earth, Julian Sancton unfolds an epic story of adventure and horror for the ages. As the Belgicas men teetered on the brink, de Gerlache relied increasingly on two young officers whose friendship had blossomed in captivity: the expeditions lone American, Dr. Frederick Cookhalf genius, half con manwhose later infamy would overshadow his brilliance on the Belgica; and the ships first mate, soon-to-be legendary Roald Amundsen, even in his youth the storybook picture of a sailor. Together, they would plan a last-ditch, nearly certain-to-fail escape from the iceone that would either etch their names in history or doom them to a terrible fate at the oceans bottom. Drawing on the diaries and journals of the Belgicas crew and with exclusive access to the ships logbook, Sancton brings novelistic flair to a story of human extremes, one so remarkable that even today NASA studies it for research on isolation for future missions to Mars. Equal parts maritime thriller and gothic horror, Madhouse at the End of the Earth is an unforgettable journey into the deep.