Voyage to the North Pole | Finding USS Jeannette | 6

Against The Odds

Wondery

Cassie De Pecol, History, Society & Culture, Dolby, Mike Corey, Dolby Atmos, Atmos

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2024

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When author and historian Hampton Sides was deep into researching another polar expedition, he stumbled upon the tragic journey of USS Jeannette. He couldn’t believe Captain De Long’s voyage wasn’t common knowledge. The 33-man crew endured extreme hardship, and only 13 survived what Sides calls “the American Shackleton story.” Hampton Sides joins host Mike Corey to share his own story of tracing the forgotten voyage for his book In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wundery Plus subscribers can listen to against the odds early in ad free right now.
0:05.0	Join Wundery Plus in the Wundery App or on Apple Podcasts. I'm Mike Corey and this is against the odds. On July your life just keep on rising on.
0:31.2	On July 8th, 1879, the USS Jeunette left San Francisco on a voyage to explore the North Pole.
0:39.0	Her crew hoped to become the first people to reach the top of the world. The route, head to the
0:44.2	bearing straight, unlike previous expeditions. Then, using questionable maps, find a
0:49.7	passage through the ice and sail into the warm polar ocean. The goal, discover new lands,
0:56.1	species, or perhaps even unknown civilizations. We know from our series that the U.S.
1:02.4	Jeanette's journey became one of the most grueling
1:04.9	ordeals imaginable for the 33-man crew.
1:08.4	Joining me today is someone who traveled across the world, including to Siberia, to piece together what Captain George
1:15.3	W. Dulong and his men went through. Hampton Sides chronicles the history of exploration in his many books, including in the Kingdom of Ice, the grand and
1:26.0	terrible polar voyage of the USS Jeunette.
1:29.8	Hampton sides, welcome to against the odds. It's good to be with you. I got to ask first. How did you first come across the story of the
1:37.4	U.S.S. Jeunette? I understand that it was on a different expedition?
1:41.1	Yes, I was in Norway doing a story for National Geographic magazine about another polar exploration. A man named Fritchhoff Nanssen had been captivated by the Jeunette Voyage, he learned that a pair of Captain Delong's
1:58.0	seal skin pants had washed up on the shores of Greenland. What this meant was that the Jeanette, when it sank, somehow this pair of
2:09.3	pants moved with the ice flows over the top of the world and came ashore in the Atlantic Ocean on the other side of the world.
2:18.5	This suggested to Fritchhoff Nanson that these were the prevailing currents and the prevailing direction of the wind and of the ice flows.
2:26.0	And so he got this idea in his head, well why don't I just essentially recreate the terrible voyage of the genet, but do it in a boat that is designed very differently,
2:37.0	that is designed absolutely to withstand the pressure of the ice,
2:42.0	and why don't we get ourselves deliberately rammed into that ice,
2:45.0	drift with the ice flows and get as close as we possibly can to the North Pole,
	...

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