Fatal North : Adventure and Survival Aboard USS Polaris, The First U.S. Expedition to the North Pole [Hardcover]

Bruce Henderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2001

"Well worth reading." (Booklist)

"Fans of adventure writing will appreciate this fine book." (Publishers Weekly)

It began as America's first attempt to reach the North Pole. It ended with the captain's suspicious death, a brutal struggle for survival on the polar ice, and a government cover-up. With eight pages of rare photographs and illustrations, Fatal North is a harrowing account of one of the great tragedies in the history of United States exploration.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Polaris expedition, the failed first U.S. expedition to the North Pole, is one of the strangest in the history of Arctic misadventure. It was marked by the mysterious death of its leader, Capt. Charles Francis Hall, and by bickering between different factions of the crew, both before and after their leader's death. After marooning 18 of its members, including officer George Tyson, on an ice floe (where they drifted for six months until rescued by another ship), the expedition ended when the vessel was abandoned by the remainder of the crew. In clean, fast-paced prose, Henderson (coauthor of And the Sea Will Tell) aptly conveys daily life on the ship and reconstructs its mood and politics vividly. He succeeds, too, at re-creating characters from among the crew, interspersing the thoughts of various men with dialogue, thereby immersing the reader in the story. Perhaps Henderson could have extracted more drama from the captain's death: in the final chapter, he explores in detail the possibility of foul play and the dying captain's suspicions that he was being poisoned, well after the description of the death itself. But he handles the story of the group that gets separated from the ship smoothly, having wisely focused on George Tyson, the leader of the stranded men, throughout the book. With narrative and descriptive skill, he chronicles the group's attempt to survive the Arctic winter and one another's treachery. In the end, Henderson casts significant doubt on the official inquiry into Hall's death, citing the inquiry's transcripts and drawing on the results of an autopsy performed on Hall's exhumed body in 1968 that reveal high levels of arsenic. Fans of adventure writing will appreciate this fine book. (Feb.)Forecast: Once again, two titles on the same subject will be released within shelving dates of one another; in this case, the rival, due out a week earlier, is Trial by Ice, by Richard Parry. Both are worthy books, though the Henderson is the worthier, but which the public flocks to remains to be seen.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In June 1871, prominent Arctic explorer Charles Francis Hall set sail for the North Pole aboard the U.S.S. Polaris, never to return. After struggling for years to fund an expedition to the Pole, Congress had finally appropriated the funds to purchase a wooden "screw tug" that was later rechristened Polaris after the North Star. From the outset there was trouble between Hall, his scientists, and the crew. The captain turned out to be a drunkard, and the scientists were reluctant to obey orders. Upon his return from a two-week sledge journey, the seemingly healthy and vibrant Hall became violently ill and suddenly died. The captain thought the Polaris was sinking and jettisoned half of the ship's supplies onto the ice. Then, a fierce storm separated the ship from the shore and left half of the crew stranded on the ice for 197 Arctic winter days. Best-selling author and former journalism professor Henderson (And the Sea Will Tell), who served in the Arctic while in the navy, spent many weeks researching primary source materials in the National Archives. To solve the mystery surrounding Hall's death, he uses testimony from the Congressional inquest as well as a 1968 autopsy utilizing DNA evidence. A factual historical mystery written by a gifted storyteller, this book should be popular in public libraries. John Kenny, San Francisco P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: NAL Hardcover (January 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451409353
• ISBN-13: 978-0451409355
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,964,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bruce Henderson is the author or coauthor of more than twenty nonfiction books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller And the Sea Will Tell (with Vincent Bugliosi), which was made into a highly-rated CBS miniseries. His latest book is Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War (Harper, 2010), the story of Navy pilot Dieter Dengler, with whom Henderson served aboard the aircraft carrier Ranger (CVA-61) in 1965-66. He is also the author of Down to the Sea: An Epic Story of Naval Diaster and Heroism in World War II (Smithsonian, 2007). A member of the Authors Guild and American Society of Journalists and Authors, Henderson has taught reporting and writing courses at several California universities, including USC School of Journalism and Stanford University. Visit his website: www.BruceHendersonBooks.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Henderson does it again., February 1, 2001

By 

Byron D. Athan (San Ramon, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fatal North : Adventure and Survival Aboard USS Polaris, The First U.S. Expedition to the North Pole (Hardcover)

In "Fatal North", Bruce Henderson's meticulous and thorough research takes an ill-fated polar expedition and makes it read like a who-dunnit. This is one of those books that takes the utmost of the reader's will power not to turn to the epilogue section at the end to see how it comes out.

Henderson's vivid description of the minutest details transports the reader to an ice floe in the Arctic and causes the reader to personally experience every physical, emotional and mental - the hopes, expectations, frustrations and relative successes - of the castaways. The contrast between courage and cowardice; competence and incompetence; loyalty and betrayal coupled with possible murder are the elements that make this book hard to put down once you start reading.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fatal North: No footnotes, no bibliography, February 24, 2001

By 

J. BURGESON (Stratford, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fatal North : Adventure and Survival Aboard USS Polaris, The First U.S. Expedition to the North Pole (Hardcover)

Fatal North is a compelling account of Charles Francis Hall's last expedition. Bruce Henderson does a good job of painting the personalities of the officers and crew, a number of whom never got along with Hall -- or one another.

But but the lack of any footnotes nor any bibliography makes the reader wonder whether parts of this drama actually occurred, or whether they flowed from Henderson's pen. Those seaching for a more scholarly account would do well to stick with Chauncy Loomis' landmark work, "Weird and Tragic Shores," and, of course, Pierre Burton's "Arctic Grail," which has an excellent chapter on Hall.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fatal North Got Lost in the Shuffle, December 5, 2009

By 

S. G. Fortosis "Amazon author&seeyourselfinpr... (North Port, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fatal North : Adventure and Survival Aboard USS Polaris, The First U.S. Expedition to the North Pole (Hardcover)

I believe that this excellent book should have received the coverage and the praise that books such as Endurance and Isaac's Storm received. It is at least as entertaining and well written, and even has a few unexpected surprises in the account. You cannot go wrong with this book if you have any interest in true adventure or exciting exploration accounts. Superb book.