Account of Failed Antarctic Quest You Can't Miss

On Aug. 16, 1897, the Belgica — a refitted whaling ship under the command of Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery — set sail from Antwerp in an attempt to explore Antarctica. She would limp back to Belgium on Nov. 5, 1899, with a captain and crew profoundly physically and psychologically broken by their wintering in the Antarctic ice. Advanced scurvy, aggressively poor planning, bad luck, prolonged light deprivation and (potentially) cyanide poisoning had tormented the surviving members of the expedition to the point of complete mental collapse. De Gerlache would spend the next year of his life attempting to regain his health under the sun of the French Riviera. Frederick Cook, the ship’s doctor, and Roald Amundsen, the first mate, despite having themselves suffered tremendous privations and struggles aboard the Belgica, would return almost immediately to sea. Amundsen would go from professional triumph to professional triumph until he and his plane disappeared over the Barents Sea in 1928, while Cook’s dubious claims to have summited Denali in 1906 and to have reached the North Pole in 1908 made him a national punchline, especially after a 1923 conviction for fraudulent oil promotions landed him in prison for seven years.