Hampton Sides

A dramatic account of the ill-fated 19th-century naval expedition to the North Pole cites the contributions of German cartographer August Peterman, New York Herald owner James Gordon Bennett and famed naval officer George Washington De Long in the team's efforts to survive brutal environmental conditions.

the grand and terrible polar voyage of the USS Jeannette

In the kingdom of ice

Jayme Cochrane

Non-fiction that reads like fiction - I couldn't put it down. Unbelievable stories of human endurance.

altlovesbooks

After I got past the first, maybe, third of the book that sets up the voyage and the expedition actually embarks, I had a problem putting it down. While the very beginning of the book sets up the people, the circumstances, and the history behind the voyage, it got a little dry and boring. The expedition, however, is another story entirely. From their high spirits the very first day to the conclusion I wasn't expecting, I absolutely loved the remaining 2/3rds of the book. Highly, highly recommend, even if you feel the need to skip the first third. I won't judge.

Wynter

A well-written account of the tragic expedition of George De Long and his crew on board of USS Jeannett, and subsequently their tale of survival in the arctic. The quality of writing is on par with the best fiction, especially at the end, where Hampton Sides managed to pull on a few of my heartstrings and squeeze a few tears out of me.

Janice Hopper

I have a weakness for narratives of polar exploration. I think it's partly because I live in a warm climate, and it's hard for me to imagine what REAL cold weather is like. Arctic and Antarctic explorers are really tested and challenged. So I figured I'd like this book too.

Maybe it was the narrator, but most of the book moved pretty slowly for me. There's a lot of background information. The theory of the time that the North Pole is actually covered by a warm, temperate sea is mentioned a LOT. The Jeannette expedition set out with that thought, and that there was a warm current in the Pacific that was analogous to the Gulf Stream was what was supposed to get the expedition to the Pole. Alas, neither thing was true. 

Some polar expeditions end well, some don't. The most affecting part of the book to me was the last few chapters, where we find out what happened to most of the crew.

It's a worthy entry into the polar exploration genre, but not as exciting as the book about Ernest Shackleton's epic journey on the other end of the globe.

In the kingdom of ice the grand and terrible polar voyage of the USS Jeannette

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