calamaridog
01-25-2007, 12:43AM
This book is fantastic. Written by Valerian Albanov and published in Russia in 1917 but just recently translated into English (2001). Look for the Modern Library edition with a preface by Jon Krakauer.
"In 1912, six months after Robert Falcon Scott and four of his men came to grief in Antarctica, a thirty-two-year-old Russian navigator named Valerian Albanov embarked on an expedition that would prove even more disastrous. In search of new Arctic hunting grounds, Albanov's ship, the Saint Anna, was frozen fast in the pack ice of the treacherous Kara Sea-a misfortune grievously compounded by an incompetent commander, the absence of crucial nautical charts, insufficient fuel, and inadequate provisions that left the crew weak and debilitated by scurvy."
The narrative starts when Albanov decides to leave the ship and try and reach land over the pack ice. Very interesting reading, every bit as good as books by famous Polar explorers.
"In 1912, six months after Robert Falcon Scott and four of his men came to grief in Antarctica, a thirty-two-year-old Russian navigator named Valerian Albanov embarked on an expedition that would prove even more disastrous. In search of new Arctic hunting grounds, Albanov's ship, the Saint Anna, was frozen fast in the pack ice of the treacherous Kara Sea-a misfortune grievously compounded by an incompetent commander, the absence of crucial nautical charts, insufficient fuel, and inadequate provisions that left the crew weak and debilitated by scurvy."
The narrative starts when Albanov decides to leave the ship and try and reach land over the pack ice. Very interesting reading, every bit as good as books by famous Polar explorers.