In the 1880s, the Artic was the great unexplored country. Some believed that once past the wall of ice explorers would find a hidden continent with temperate weather.
The Greely Expedition made its way up the coast of what is now Canada, settling in Liberty Bay for a year-long stay… when they couldn’t find any food, they waited to be relieved by a resupply ship the following year. The ship never came, stopped by ice farther down the coast.
A year later (year two) another ship was sent to resupply them- and it sank. As the expedition was down to forty days of rations they decided to make a run south to Cape Sabine… where seven of their 30+ men were rescued eight months later. They survived by eating water fleas, their boots and pants, and each other.
Greely was pretty incompetant. And personally, I would have just shot a few of these fools for incompetance earlier on, before they ate all my food.
This book is really long. If you read it, skim the first third, because not much happens there. All the bickering, starving and cannibalism happens in the last 100 pages.
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