Notes

the Belgica's journey into the dark Antarctic night
Julian Sancton.
viii, 350 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates :
illustrations, maps, portraits.
Summary: On a sunny day in 1897, a Belgian ship set sail with the dream of reaching the end of the Earth: the frozen continent of Antarctica. With the ship stuck in the ice, the crew are soon condemned to overwintering in Antarctica and months of endless polar night. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness, with rats teeming in the hold, they descended into madness. The fate of the ship rested on two young officers - Cook, a wild American doctor, and Roald Amundsen, the hardy Norwegian who would later race Scott to the South Pole. (Back cover)