In the kingdom of ice

In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: the North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the Arctic seas, although there were lots of theories. Wealthy and prominent people funded expeditions and so it was that James Gordon Bennett, Jr., owner of The New York Herald, sent an official U.S. naval expedition to reach the Pole. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco. Leader George Washington De Long led a team of thirty-two men deep into uncharted waters. Two years later, after journeying north of the Bering Strait, they found themselves trapped in pack ice. The ship's hull was fatally breached, the Jeannette sank to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, and the men found themselves marooned on the ice cap nearly a thousand miles north of Siberia with three open boats and only the barest supplies. Thus began their long march across the frozen sea---an ordeal that ranks as one of the greatest struggles for survival in history.