Together, they would plan a last-ditch, nearly certain-to-fail escape from the ice-one that would either etch their names in history or doom them to a terrible fate at the ocean’s bottom.ĭrawing on the diaries and journals of the Belgica’s crew and with exclusive access to the ship’s logbook, Sancton brings novelistic flair to a story of human extremes, one so remarkable that even today NASA studies it for research on isolation for future missions to Mars. Frederick Cook-half genius, half con man-whose later infamy would overshadow his brilliance on the Belgica and the ship’s first mate, soon-to-be legendary Roald Amundsen, even in his youth the storybook picture of a sailor. As the Belgica’s men teetered on the brink, de Gerlache relied increasingly on two young officers whose friendship had blossomed in captivity: the expedition’s lone American, Dr. In Madhouse at the End of the Earth, Julian Sancton unfolds an epic story of adventure and horror for the ages. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness and besieged by monotony, they descended into madness. When the sun set on the magnificent polar landscape one last time, the ship’s occupants were condemned to months of endless night. De Gerlache sailed on, and soon the Belgica was stuck fast in the icy hold of the Bellingshausen Sea. After a series of costly setbacks, the commandant faced two bad options: turn back in defeat and spare his men the devastating Antarctic winter, or recklessly chase fame by sailing deeper into the freezing waters. His destination was the uncharted end of the earth: the icy continent of Antarctica.īut de Gerlache’s plans to be first to the magnetic South Pole would swiftly go awry. In August 1897, the young Belgian commandant Adrien de Gerlache set sail for a three-year expedition aboard the good ship Belgica with dreams of glory. Sancton has produced a thriller.”- The Wall Street Journal “The energy of the narrative never flags.

The “exquisitely researched and deeply engrossing” ( The New York Times) true survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly awry-with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter.

Madhouse at the end of earth