Welcome to Just Between Us, the podcast with all of the answers, some of the time.

A bit of a different thing going on this week.

You've been immature and you've lied.

And now you're trying to turn it on me and manipulate me and gaslight me.

I was trying to manipulate you.

Diana, you would be chucking their clothes out of the window.

I know, I'd be like, are you joking?

I don't know.

I guess you'd have to ask. Someone that has sex. Someone that has sex. Right. And remember,

it's just between us.

Hello and welcome to the History Extra podcast from BBC History Magazine, Britain's best-selling history magazine.

I'm Ellie Gawthorthorne. In August 1897, the Belgian exploration vessel, R.V. Belgica,

set sail for Antarctica, carrying intrepid scientists hoping to find the South magnetic pole,

and an ambitious crew seeking glory on the ice.

What greeted them, however, can only be described as hell on Earth.

The ship became trapped in the ice for over a year, while afflictions that ravaged both body and mind began to spread among the crew.

Our sub-editor, Riannon Davies, spoke to the author Julian Sancton about this haunting true story.

So, Julian, your new book follows the crew of the Belgica.

Where is it that they're sailing to?

They planned on being the first scientific expedition to reach Antarctica, which at that time was very little

known beyond a few fragmentary coastlines. It left in 1897, commanded by a young Belgian aristocrat

named Adrian de Jarlash. And it was a strange passion for a Belgian to have such seafaring dreams. It was a country without much of a maritime tradition. No navy to speak of, a bare-bones merchant marine. Any young man with adventure on his mind would more likely have sought his fortune in the Congo, the

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