About book In The Land Of White Death: An Epic Story Of Survival In The Siberian Arctic (2001)
In 1912, the Saint Anna shipped out from the northern coast of Russia in an ill-fated attempt to reach whaling grounds in Vladivostok. Frozen into pack ice and left to drift northward, the ship was never seen again. This is the story of the survivors, led by the ship's intrepid navigator and first officer Albanov, as he led a crew of ten men on a desperate journey on foot, by sledge and hand-built kayak through a maze of seracs, crevasses, open leads with little more than a sextant and broken compass. Along the way, the crew succumbs to animal attacks, snow blindness, scurvy and starvation.As Jon Krakauer points out in the introduction, this tale of arctic survival has the advantage of being a first-hand account, not a re-telling through later letters or library research. Additionally, Albanov is brutally honest about his sometimes antagonistic relationships with the crew he helped rescue, and the captain he hated working for--a rare quality in polar disaster lit, where a stoic attitude of stiff upper lip and once more into the breech seems to gloss over personal squabbles and dysfunction that must have existed among men under severe stress. Furthermore, there is a simple, child-like beauty in Albanov's appreciation of good fortune, of finding game and fuel, of his first sight of flowers in two years, on an otherwise desolate island. This emotional component alone makes the telling of this story rare and unique among disaster narratives of all kinds from the golden age of exploration. If that were not enough, Albanov was an excellent editor and teller of his own tale, taking care to summarize tedious details, focusing on the conflicts and struggles that helped to weave numerous diary entries into a cohesive, brief, action-packed story.
So, so interesting! The story of the crew (in the loosest sense of the word) of a Russian ship that gets trapped in the ice in the Arctic. Albanov, the former navigator, sets off with a bunch of men that have decided they want to leave the ship with him, several kayaks they've built themselves from what could be used from the ship, and miscellaneous supplies, in hopes that they can make it to land. Cold, hunger, betrayal, chaos and death ensue. I found this especially interesting after reading so many accounts of the Scott and Shackleton expeditions, where the men really acted like a crew (at least as told), that worked together and knew one another and cared about each other and...I don't know. They just acted like a team, with a few minor exceptions. But here--Albanov clearly has very little patience or respect for any of the men who travel with him. At one point he writes, "Time and time again they had shown a total lack of character, and no sense of duty or responsibility! They seemed to want to compete among themselves to prove who was the most useless." He says several times that he might as well be doing everything alone for all the help he gets from his companions. It's such a vastly different perspective--this horrible trek through the ice doesn't really draw these men together at all, but instead, makes them stupid and selfish, at least in Albanov's eyes. It's really fascinating. It also reads like an adventure novel, so it's hard to put down!David Roberts' epilogue is a really great addition as well, and adds another whole layer to the story, concerning Albanov's fellow survivor, Alexander Konrad. Great, great stuff.
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Most readers of polar exploration are familiar with accounts of ill-fated explorers such as Scott and Shackleton. The diary of Russian explorer Valerian Albanov was only recently discovered in a French translation buried in a library, translated into English and published in 2000. It tells of an incredible journey of survival as he and some of his crew set out from his ice-locked ship in hopes of finding aid.This, then, is an autobiography in the form of a diary or journal written by Albanov. Whereas other expeditions have been written in absentia, decades after the fact, this account is important because Albanov himself describes his incredible journey. The writing/translation is well written, and each day holds danger, despair, hope and challenge. It is difficult to put this book down.
—Mike Davis
This is an excellent account of the fate of the Russian ship, the Saint Anna, and the twenty-five men and one woman who were on board. The Saint Anna left Russia in 1912 to look for new Arctic hunting grounds and then became trapped in ice in the Kara Sea. It drifted north for almost 1 1/2 years before the 32 year-old navigator, Valerian Albanov, left with 13 members of the crew to try to find help. This book is Albanov's account of what happened after leaving the ship.Make sure you do not read the introduction unless you don't mind knowing the outcome. I was disappointed when I was told who survived and who didn't, even before starting the book! Even so, it was a well-written narrative and harrowing to say the least. I can't believe what these men had to endure. It made me appreciate every little blessing I have. The preface states that the book is told in Albanov's own words, as entries in a daily journal. I believe that some of the book, however, is told in retrospect. Nevertheless, this is a wonderful read for those who enjoy reading about other people's ordeals and how these people overcame obstacles.
—Helen
I loved this book. I haven't read many books in the polar literature category, but I really enjoyed this one. It is a first hand account of a group of sailors who, having been icebound for 18 months, decide to leave the ship behind and travel over the ice to reach land. Most of the book is in the form of diary entries, written by one of the survivors as he made the trip.The preface and introduction "spoil" most of the surprises (ie who survives the journey), but they are vital in setting the scene and explaining the history of the voyage. Like a lot of non-fiction survival tales, it isn't just about who makes it out alive, but rather what they had to endure on their journey. The book is short (less than 200 pages of actual story), but it moves along at a quick pace. I didn't get bored once through the story. I could see this being made into a great movie. Highly recommended.
—Larry Zieminski
