INTRODUCTION S CHAPTER ONE: TRANDED A A P CHAPTER TWO: N UDACIOUS LAN T L T B CHAPTER THREE: HE ONG REK EGINS A E E CHAPTER FOUR: N XTRAORDINARY NCOUNTER B , R N D CHAPTER FIVE: LIZZARDS EINDEER, AND EAR ISASTER A D R CHAPTER SIX: ESPERATE EQUEST A A D CHAPTER SEVEN: NOTHER GONIZING ECISION B B O CHAPTER EIGHT: ERTHOLF ATTLES THE DDS A H C CHAPTER NINE: AZARDOUS ROSSING D N W CHAPTER TEN: IRE EWS OF THE HALERS C CHAPTER ELEVEN: ONTACT J T C CHAPTER TWELVE: ARVIS AKES HARGE V A T CHAPTER THIRTEEN: OYAGE GAINST IME E PILOGUE W H T HAT APPENED TO HEM T IMELINE S N OURCE OTES B IBLIOGRAPHY P C HOTOGRAPHY REDITS A CKNOWLEDGMENTS This map, based on one drawn about 1887, shows the key places in the Arctic where the story you are about to read took place, from the tiny village of Tununak, in the southwest corner of Alaska, to Point Barrow, the farthest point north. The names indicated in the waters off Point Barrow are those of the whaling ships that, in 1897, became trapped in the ice there. The book you are about to read tells the story of one of the world’s most amazing adventures, a saga based on arguably the most daring rescue plan ever devised. It is a story filled with extraordinary courage, unprecedented personal sacrifices, human failings, and continual suspense. The people you are about to meet were as remarkable as the story they lived. Called upon to accomplish what most believed to be impossible by no less a person than the president of the United States, they were thrust into the harshest and most dangerous environment in the world, an immense region of ice and snow with temperatures that fell to as low as sixty degrees below zero, a place where a person’s every step might very well be his last. You will also meet an extraordinary ship and its crew. And throughout the book, you will encounter the unique and often misunderstood people who had long made this harsh region their home and will discover the essential role they played as a miracle in the Arctic unfolded. In order to do it justice, I have told this story, wherever appropriate, through the words of those who took part in it. This has been made possible by the existence of reports, diaries, journals, letters, and detailed reminiscences written by the principal characters. Researching the illustrations for the book yielded a most welcome and important surprise. Initially, I was delighted to discover photographs that had been taken during the actual adventure. I became even more thrilled when I was later able to determine that many of the pictures were taken by one of the most important characters in the story. Adventure, suspense, almost unimaginable heroics — these are just some of the ingredients of a story made even more remarkable because it really happened. But above all, the story is a celebration of the human spirit, one that, in the most dramatic fashion, reveals how brave men and women will risk and sacrifice all to help those in peril.