Publisher's Synopsis
In July 1883, an expedition made up mostly of American soldiers sailed off to establish a scientific base in the remote Arctic region of Lady Franklin Bay. What happened then is a three-year saga of human achievement and fallibility, of heroism and hardship, bad luck and worse judgement. Compounded by deliberate political negligence back home and increasing fears of dissension in its own camp, the expedition's fate and those of its would-be rescuers would eventually encompass starvation, mutiny, suicide, shipwreck, execution and cannibalism. Of the 25 men who set out, only six returned.;The story of what happened has only been partly known and is full of dark riddles. In seven years of research, the author has uncovered journals, diaries, letters and other documentary material that provides intimate day-to-day details of the thoughts, feelings and events of the ill-fated voyage, from its turbulent birth to its bizarre and tragic finale.
