About book Trial By Ice: The True Story Of Murder And Survival On The 1871 Polaris Expedition (2001)
An overview of all the books on the Polaris expedition, sadly filled with speculation and hearsay.Did appreciate the medically-certain facts regarding snow blindness and hypothermia.The story about Buddington becoming violently ill after eating dinner on June 4, 1873, just before the men were rescued by the whaler, is something I've never seen mentioned anywhere else. Big discrepancy: the author talks about how little food the men who were stranded on shore had (Buddington's party), then goes on to describe the scene when Tyson visited as part of the Tigress search party: "...the wooden and canvas house...strewn with stores... Bags of potatoes, corn, tea, pork, and meal". Tyson plainly states in his journal: "There is one thing certain; these men did not suffer from the want of food or fuel..." So which is it?No typos in the hardcover.
These poor bastards had a spot of bother in the Arctic that makes Shackleton's problems look like a summer picnic! In 1871 a US-led expedition tried to get to the North Pole. Due to poor leadership and the murder (yes murder) of the leader, the attempt fell apart in a spectacular fashion. The boat sank, the crew split into two groups, one of which rode 1800 miles on icebergs over a period of months! Despite this everyone, save the murdered leader, survived - although it is quite obvious they were just lucky. But wait! That's not all! What followed was an inquest with an equally interesting story of the whitewash by The Grant Administration. This whole thing is just incredible.
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Captivating. I read Shackleton's story and found this nearly as immersive and enthralling. Parry obviously put in a great deal of research before writing this book. It doesn't take long before his feelings about various characters come through in the text. I came to appreciate certain characters while despising others. I appreciated how Parry was able to provide modern knowledge and information about geography, physiology, and so forth to illuminate the text. I was blown away to find that only o
—Jason
