Madhouse at the End of the Earth

'Ein seltenes Juwel der Sachbuchliteratur' Walter IsaacsonIm August 1897 bricht der belgische Kommandant Adrien de Gerlache auf, um die Antarktis zu erobern. Bereits auf dem Weg gen Süden gibt es zahlreiche Rückschläge: Stürme, Beinahe-Meutereien, Strandungen. Als der nach Ruhm strebende de Gerlache schließlich vor der Wahl steht, geschlagen nach Hause zurückzukehren oder kurz vor Wintereinbruch tiefer ins Eis zu fahren, entscheidet er sich für Letzteres - mit fatalen Folgen. Die Belgica bleibt im Packeis stecken.Gefangen in völliger Isolation und endloser Nacht, geplagt von Krankheit, Hunger und Monotonie, greift bald der Wahnsinn um sich. Der Arzt Frederick Cook und der junge Roald Amundsen werden mit ihrem grenzenlosen Optimismus für die Mannschaft überlebenswichtig ... 'Dieser packende Bericht über die Belgische Antarktis-Expedition von 1897 bietet Meuterei, Gefahr und das Urteil des jungen Roald Amundsen über rohes Robbenfleisch.' The GuardianMit exklusivem Zugang zu zahlreichen Originalquellen rekonstruiert Sancton die unglaubliche Geschichte der Belgica bis ins letzte Detail und leistet einen elementaren Beitrag zur Polargeschichte. Das Buch wurde 2022 mit dem ITB BuchAwardausgezeichnet.'Die Reise eine Katastrophe, die Erzählung darüber fesselnd wie ein Abenteuerroman.' mare'Mit minutiöser Recherche und dem scharfen Auge eines Schriftstellers hat Julian Sancton eine der spannendsten - und erschreckendsten - Abenteuergeschichten seit Jahren geschrieben. Lassen Sie sich dieses Buch nicht entgehen!' Scott Anderson

'An epic of survival' -- MICHAEL PALIN<BR>'A "grade-A classic"' -- SUNDAY TIMES<BR>'Utterly enthralling' -- GEOFF DYER, GUARDIAN<BR>'Deeply engrossing' -- NEW YORK TIMES<BR>LISTED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, SUNDAY TIMES<BR><BR><BR>The harrowing, survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly wrong, with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter.<BR><BR>August 1897: The Belgica set sail, eager to become the first scientific expedition to reach the white wilderness of the South Pole. But the ship soon became stuck fast in the ice of the Bellinghausen sea, condemning the ship's crew to overwintering in Antarctica and months of endless polar night. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness, their minds ravaged by the sound of dozens of rats teeming in the hold, they descended into madness.<BR><BR><BR>In this epic tale, Julian Sancton unfolds a story of adventure gone horribly awry. As the crew teetered on the brink, the Captain increasingly relied on two young officers whose friendship had blossomed in captivity - Dr. Frederick Cook, the wild American whose later infamy would overshadow his brilliance on the Belgica; and the ship's first mate, soon-to-be legendary Roald Amundsen, who later raced Captain Scott to the South Pole. Together, Cook and Amundsen would plan a last-ditch, desperate escape from the ice-one that would either etch their names into history or doom them to a terrible fate in the frozen ocean.<BR><BR><BR>Drawing on first-hand crew diaries and journals, and exclusive access to the ship's logbook, the result is equal parts maritime thriller and gothic horror. This is an unforgettable journey into the deep.

'full of heroism, greed, piracy, sunken treasure and adventure on the high seas... it's even more remarkable because it's true' ERIC SCHLOSSER New York Times bestselling author of Command and Control and Fast Food Nation'a splendid historical tale that's been researched meticulously and told exceptionally well' HAMPTON SIDES, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Wide Wide Sea''a rousing slice of narrative history, and a rip-roaring tale from bow to stern' TELEGRAPHThe riveting true story of a legendary Spanish galleon that sunk with over $1 billion in gold and silver-and one man's obsessive quest to find it-from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the EarthRoger Dooley wasn't looking for the San Jose. But an accidental discovery in the dusty stacks of a Spanish archive in the 1980s led him to the story of a lifetime-the journey of a ship that had gathered a mountain of riches from the New World for a long-awaited delivery to the King of Spain nearly three centuries earlier. But that ship, the galleon San Jose, never reached its destination. Instead, the Spanish treasure fleet was drawn into a pitched battle with British ships of war off the coast of Cartagena. When the smoke cleared, the San Jose had disappeared into the ocean.Though a diver at heart, Dooley was an unlikely candidate to find the San Jose. Half Cuban by birth, he lived a life that stretched from the ballfields of Brooklyn to the shores of Castro's Havana at the dawn of revolution, where he would help birth a fledgling nation's diving program and make films with Jacques Cousteau, before finding himself placed on an international watch list and barred from the United States. Dooley had little in the way of serious credentials, yet his tenacity and single-minded devotion to finding the San Jose led him to breakthroughs once thought impossible. As he jousted with famous treasure hunters and well-funded competitors, Dooley ultimately homed in on a patch of sea that might contain a three-hundred-year-old shipwreck-or nothing at all.Neptune's Fortune plunges into a rarified world through the eyes of an idiosyncratic protagonist, one whose work would spark the hopes of presidents and make real the dreams of a nation. This tale of temerity and treasure is a one-of-a-kind story of a lost fortune and the decades-long quest to shine a light on the bounty at the bottom of the sea.'brilliantly written... if I were to choose one book to exemplify the fascination and folly of treasure-hunting, this would be it' DAVID GIBBINS, author of A History of the World in Twleve Shipwrecks'a thoroughly engrossing read' SUSAN ORLEAN, bestselling author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book'Sancton is a masterful storyteller... Readers are in for a rare treat' SCOTT ANDERSON, New York Times bestselling author of Lawrence in Arabia