The ice balloon
Subtitle: S. A. Andrée and the heroic age of arctic exploration
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York, USA
Language: eng
Format: ebook
ISBN-13: 9780307957696
Description: From Chapter 1....

Horn rode to shore with the Bratvaag's captain, who said that two sealers dressing walruses had grown thirsty and gone looking for water. By a stream, Horn wrote, they found “an aluminum lid, which they picked up with astonishment,” since White Island was so isolated that almost no one had ever been there. Continuing, they saw something dark protruding from a snowdrift--an edge of a canvas boat. The boat was filled with ice, but within it could be seen a number of books, two shotguns, some clothes and aluminum boxes, a brass boathook, and a surveyor's tool called a theodolite. Several of the objects had been stamped with the phrase “Andrée's Pol. Exp. 1896.” Near the boat was a body. It was leaning against a rock, with its legs extended, and it was frozen. On its feet were boots, partly covered by snow. Very little but bones remained of the torso and arms. The head was missing, and clothes were scattered around, leading Horn to conclude that bears had disturbed the remains.

He and the others carefully opened the jacket the corpse was wearing, and when they saw a large monogram A they knew whom they were looking at--S. A. Andrée, the Swede who, thirty-three years earlier, on July 11, 1897, had ascended with two companions in a hydrogen balloon to discover the North Pole.
Table of contents: title: Copyright; title: Dedication; title: Chapter 1; title: Chapter 2; title: Chapter 3; title: Chapter 4; title: Chapter 5; title: Chapter 6; title: Chapter 7; title: Chapter 8; title: Chapter 9; title: Chapter 10; title: Chapter 11; title: Chapter 12; title: Chapter 13; title: Chapter 14; title: Chapter 15; title: Chapter 16; title: Chapter 17; title: Chapter 18; title: Chapter 19; title: Chapter 20; title: Chapter 21; title: Chapter 22; title: Chapter 23; title: Chapter 24; title: Chapter 25; title: Chapter 26; title: Chapter 27; title: Chapter 28; title: Chapter 29; title: Chapter 30; title: Chapter 31; title: Chapter 32; title: Chapter 33; title: Chapter 34; title: Chapter 35; title: Chapter 36; title: Chapter 37; title: Chapter 38; title: Chapter 39; title: Chapter 40; title: Chapter 41; title: Chapter 42; title: Chapter 43; title: Chapter 44; title: Chapter 45; title: Chapter 46; title: Chapter 47; title: Chapter 48; title: Chapter 49; title: Chapter 50; title: Chapter 51; title: Chapter 52; title: Chapter 53; title: Chapter 54; title: Chapter 55; title: Chapter 56; title: Chapter 57; title: Chapter 58; title: Chapter 59; title: Chapter 60; title: Chapter 61; title: Chapter 62; title: Chapter 63; title: Chapter 64; title: Chapter 65; title: Chapter 66; title: Chapter 67; title: Chapter 68; title: Chapter 69; title: Chapter 70; title: Chapter 71; title: Chapter 72; title: Acknowledgments; title: Bibliography; title: Illustrations; title: A Note About the Author