Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night

by Julian Sancton

The perils involved were not a deterrent but rather an inducement: the more harrowing the story, the more people would want to read it, and the more publishers would pay for an exclusive account.

Cabinets on the port side contained a set of custom dishware and napkins decorated with a red anchor and a scroll spelling out “Belgica.” (The officers and scientists made a pact that the dishware would be a wedding gift for the first of them to be married.)

Cook is an exemplar of a quintessentially American spirit, which lies on the razor’s edge between optimism and delusion, between audacity and deceit, imagination and flimflammery.