Empire of Ice and Stone
The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
National Outdoor Book Awards Winner
The true, harrowing story of the ill-fated 1913 Canadian Arctic Expedition and the two men who came to define it.
In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame.Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again.Twenty-two men and an Inuit woman with two small daughters now stood on a mile-square ice floe, their ship and their original leader gone. Under Bartlett’s leadership they built make-shift shelters, surviving the freezing darkness of Polar night. Captain Bartlett now made a difficult and courageous decision. He would take one of the young Inuit hunters and attempt a 1000-mile journey to save the shipwrecked survivors. It was their only hope.
Set against the backdrop of the Titanic disaster and World War I, filled with heroism, tragedy, and scientific discovery, Buddy Levy's Empire of Ice and Stone tells the story of two men and two distinctively different brands of leadership—one selfless, one self-serving—and how they would forever be bound by one of the most audacious and disastrous expeditions in polar history, considered the last great voyage of the Heroic Age of Discovery.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Levy (Labyrinth of Ice) delivers a thrilling account of Canada's first "foray into Arctic exploration," the ill-fated voyage of the steam-powered brigantine Karluk in 1913. Under the command of Capt. Bob Bartlett, the Karluk was the principal ship of the 1913–1916 Canadian Arctic Expedition led by explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Shortly after setting sail in June, it became clear to Bartlett that the Karluk had been improperly chosen and outfitted for the journey: the engine periodically gave out and essential supplies had been loaded onto her sister ships. By early August, the Karluk was completely icebound. Soon thereafter, expedition leader Stefansson headed off with five men to hunt caribou and never returned. (He reached safety, but decided to continue the expedition rather than try to rescue the Karluk.) In January, "a great jagged fang of ice" pierced the ship's hull and it sank. Hoping to find game, driftwood for fuel, and a place to shelter until the summer, the survivors made a dash across the ice pack to Wrangel Island. From there, Bartlett and an Inuit hunter set out on a 700-mile trek seeking help; in September, the remaining 12 survivors (out of 25 crewmembers left behind by Stefansson) were rescued. Full of evocative descriptions, harrowing action scenes, and incisive character sketches, this is a worthy addition to the literature of Arctic exploration.
