"Labyrinth of Ice" by Buddy Levy

Above: "Labyrinth of Ice." Buddy Levy. 354 Pages.

These guys, one hundred forty some years ago, were building a prefab building at 81 degrees north latitude, in bitter cold, with little more than rudimentary tools and their wits. No radios... no way to communicate with the outside world. Men are tested in many ways these days, but, few are ever tested in the same way as were Greely and his men.

I completed reading this book today.

Most of my knowledge of US history centers around seminal events, usually wars: Revolutionary War, War of 1812, War with Mexico, Civil War, WWI, WWII, and so on. I know of the presidents associated with those periods. Washington, Jackson, Polk, Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt.

But there were no wars involving the United States in the 1870's and 1880's. What was happening then? Who were the presidents? My mind gets muddy. Rutherford B. Hayes? James Garfield? Who are those guys anyway?

Turns out a lot was going on. Polar exploration, for one. For several years during that period, two expeditions to the north polar regions captured the imagination of all Americans. In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: The North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the northern oceans. Under Hayes and Garfield, the nation was in the grips of Polar Fever.

Two books on late nineteenth century expeditions to the polar regions of the north have been recently recommended to me by my friend, Bond, who lives in Palm Beach, FL. TIMDT and Mwah (sic) have been occasional cruising partners with Bond, and spouse Bridge, over the last ten years.

The first book, which I read in February 2019, was, "In the Kingdom of Ice," by Hampton Sides, which chronicled the expedition, financed by John C. Bennet, of George Washington deLong, who with thirty-two men, sailed north, from San Francisco, into uncharted waters in the Bering Sea - 1879 to 1881.

deLong's ship, the USS Jeanette, on reaching the Bering Sea, was soon trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew abandoned the ship. Less than an hour later, the Jeannette sank to the bottom, and the men found themselves marooned a thousand miles north of Siberia with only the barest supplies.

Thus began their long march across the endless ice - a frozen hell in the most lonesome corner of the world. Facing everything from snow blindness and polar bears to ferocious storms and frosty labyrinths, the expedition battled madness and starvation as they desperately strove for survival. Only ten of the original thirty two men survived the ordeal.

The second book recommended by Bond is the subject of this review. "Labyrinth of Ice." In July 1881, US Army Lt. Adolphus Washington Greely and his crew of twenty four scientists and explorers were bound for the last region unmarked on global maps. Their goal: farthest north record. Also, they were to keep an eye out for any survivors of the still missing USS Jeanette polar expedition. What would follow was one of the most extraordinary and terrible sea voyages ever made.

After being dropped off at 81' north Latitude on Canada's far north Ellesmere Island, Greely and his men confronted every possible challenge― wolves, polar bears sub-zero temperatures, and months of total darkness―as they set about exploring one of the most remote, unrelenting environments on the planet. In May 1882, they broke the 300-year-old furthest north record (83' 24"), and returned to camp to eagerly await the resupply ship scheduled to return mid summer, a year after they were first dropped off. Only no ship came.

Two hundred fifty miles south, a wall of ice prevented any rescue from reaching them. Provisions thinned and a second winter descended. Back home, Greely’s wife worked tirelessly against government resistance to rally a rescue mission.

A second rescue attempt, in summer 1883, also failed. Months passed, and Greely made a drastic choice: he and his men loaded the remaining provisions and tools onto their five small boats, and pushed off, March 1884, into the treacherous waters. After just two weeks, dangerous floes surrounded them. Now new dangers awaited: insanity, threats of mutiny, and cannibalism. As food dwindled and the men weakened, Greely's expedition clung desperately to life.

In May, 1884, the Greely expedition, most of the men still alive at that point, had traveled by row boat, dragging the boats over ice pack when no channels appeared, to reach Cape Sabine, Ellesmere Island, some three hundred miles south of the base camp they had established at Fort Conger (eighty second parallel), thirty three months earlier.
Greely and his men make a camp at Cape Sabine, which they feel will be in reach of the third rescue attempt. They are running out of food. They know that if no rescue boat reaches Cape Sabine, in their third summer away, they will die.

Greely knows that forty miles away overland, on Cape Isabella, is a cache of 140 pounds of English meat, stored there by an English expedition some years earlier. Three men, braving the cold and the elements, set out (eighty miles round trip!) to retrieve the much needed food. They find the cache, but just after starting back, one of the men, overcome with fatigue and frost bite, cannot continue. His two friends, recache the meat, mark the spot, and pull their beleaguered companion on a sled, through a bitter cold snow storm, back to base camp.

The life of their friend is saved but only after a crude amputation of his gangrenous hands and feet by the expedition's French doctor. Two men return to the spot of the recache, but can't find it. They return to Cape Sabine safely. It seems incomprehensible to me...an eighty mile round trip, on foot...twice...in an ultimately failed attempt to find food!

The above is just one of many examples reported in the book where Greely and his men test the limits of their physical endurance to stay alive. Are today's men up to challenges like this? Will "modern civilization" have to face such challenges in future in the pursuit of progress?

In previous writings I've lamented the declining state of "maleness" in America today. We dope up our ADHD boys, when in my generation, a frazzled teacher might have just made a hyper active boy run a few more laps to calm him down. Does boy doping inhibit maximization if inherent male attributes required for human progress?

Today, women are filling a vacuum in management and professional roles formerly held by males. Proto feminist, Camille Paglia, while acknowledging the progress made by women over the last century, wonders whether civilization can continue to progress with more multi-talking women replacing monomaniacal, driven, men in management positions. She should also wonder if men are less monomaniacal than before as they feminize under the influence of Ritalin and roday's changing societal expectations to moderate male aggressiveness.
Paglia acknowledges, just as does recent breakthrough in neuro science, that men and women really are different, far beyond physiological characteristics.

Peter Thiel laments a slowdown in "atom" technological growth. Can this be attributed, at least in part, to cultural changes...such as erstwhile monomaniacal, driven, men facing pressures to attenuate their innate creative, agressive impulses and, rather, conform to androgynous, "can't we all just get along" management models. As in, George Patton, Woody Hayes and Bobby Knight, eat your respective hearts out?

Thiel has instituted an annual gift of $100 thousand to twenty students (not just boys) who will drop out of college and use the money to innovate and invent, likely sensing a harmful cultural shift, particularly in America's universities, that works to neuter genetically based, male, aggressive, creative impulses.

But, of course, I digress.

I learned a ton about the geography of the polar region reading Levy's book. Levy puts a half dozen important maps at the beginning of the book. As you read, you will find yourself (at east I did) constantly referring to the maps to follow this adventure in territory most of us will never see. Fort Conger, on Ellesmere Island, built by Greely's team, twenty five miles across the Kennedy Strait to Greenland, is at the 81st parallel.

Prudhoe Bay, on Alaska's north slope, as far north as I have ever travelled, is at a lowly 70 degrees North Latitude for crying out loud! These guys, one hundred forty some years ago, were building a prefab building at 81 degrees north latitude, with little more than rudimentary tools and their wits. No radios... no way to communicate with the outside world. Men are tested in many ways these days, but, few are ever tested in the same way as were Greely and his men were.

There were only seven survivors (of thirty two), including Greely, when rescue ships finally reached Cape Sabine, on 22 June 1884, three years after they were dropped off at Fort Conger.

Greely went on to serve a distinguished career in the US Army and reached the level of Quartermaster General. Shortly before his passing in 1935, Greely, for his exploits north, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He is only one of only two non combatants to ever have received that award.

I couldn't put this book down. Really. "Labyrinth of Ice," is a well researched and carefully written account of the Greely expedition. Descriptions are vivid. The reader is placed in the middle of the action. As I read, I imagined myself in the snow, feeling hunger and tension, startled as I heard ice crack.

I'd urge a read of both of these polar expedition books, "In the Kingdom of Ice," by Hampton Sides, and this one, "Labyrinth of Ice," by Buddy Levy. You don't need to enter into wild speculation about what either adventure means, philosophically, sociologically yada about manhood as I have. Each book stands alone as a can't-put-down real life adventure story. And that is enough. Greely and his group never found any evidence of the missing USS Jeanette, the sad denouement of that other polar voyage playing out (ten of thirty survivors) during the Greely missions first year at Fort Conger.

And, if you are ever asked who the heck were presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and James Garfield, just answer: "Easy! those were the US presidents in the late 19th Century when "polar fever" ran rampant in America.