Icemen (BBC 1998)

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[edit] General Information

History, Travel Documentary hosted by Samuel West and published by BBC in 1998 - English narration

[edit] Cover

[edit] Information

Icemen is a fascinating investigation of man's relationship with the Arctic - one of the most hostile environments in the world and, for the last hundred years, a magnet for explorers. The men who came here encountered a world of towering ice and howling winds, of eerie fog and beautiful mirages. Some came for glory, some for wealth, and some as a result of their sheer determination to succeed.

Many swore they would never return, but for a few the Arctic became an obsession. Even today, the Arctic is steeped in controversy.

Who was the first man to see the North Pole? Was it Robert Peary, Frederick Cook, or the crew of a Norwegian airship? Did a British Arctic expedition really resort to cannibalism? How did a Swedish balloonist meet his gruesome death?

Icemen reveals all about the ambitious expeditions that set off to explore the imposing, vast Arctic territory. Along the way, it tells the stories not only of the search for the Northwest passage by the British John Ross, John Franklin, and William Edward Parry and the controversial race to the North Pole by the Americans Robert Peary and Frederick Cook, but also the feats of other inspired explorers, including the ill-fated balloon trip of Swedish Salomon Andree, the harrowing airship flight of Norwegian Roald Amundsen, American Lincoln Ellsworth, and Italian Umberto Nobile, and Gino Watkins' British Arctic Air Route Expedition of 1931

[edit] Race To The Pole

The North Pole is a desolate place. But it's at the top of the world and holds magnetic allure. Two explorers made mad dashes for it in 1908 and 1909. Within five days of each other, both Frederick Cook and Robert Peary claimed to have gotten there first. Together they inspired a bitter and never-ending controversy about who is the real Columbus of the Arctic.

[edit] Frozen Skies

First to try to reach North Pole by air was Swedish Salomon Andree with his two-men crew , who lifted off Dane Island, Spitzbergen, Norway on July 11, 1897 with his rope-guided balloon Ornen (Eagle).

Next to try was then already famous Norvegian Roald Amundsen who with Chicago millionaire Lincoln Ellsworth set up Polar Expedition by using two huge Dornier-Wal flying boats , best money could buy in that time and on May 21 1925 the two planes took off from Spitsbergen headed for Alaska.

Umberto Nobile was the pilot and designer of the airship Norge (Norway). He, Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth became the first explorers to fly over the North Pole in an airship (May 11-13, 1926).
However, Nobile wanted to make an all-Italian flight to the Pole. He planned to fly the airship Italia from Spitzbergen and land at the Pole.

[edit] Cold Front

In 1930, Sir Hubert Wilkins acquired the submarine O-12 from the US Navy. He outfitted her and renamed her Nautilus, and prepared an undersea expedition to the North Pole. The leader of the scientific staff was Harald U. Sverdrup, who was to make measurements from a specially rigged diving compartment.

The submarine headed north into the pack ice north of Spitsbergen in August 1931, but when the diving plane became damaged, the submarine could no longer cruise very far under the ice, and was relegated to making oceanographic observations outside of the ice pack.
However, the Nautilus did make several short runs under ice, indicating that submarines could feasibility operate in and under the ice pack.

On July 30, 1958, USS Skate began a voyage to the Arctic Circle under Commander James F. Calvert. Over the course of ten days during which she sailed 2,400 miles and surfaced through the ice nine times, she became the second ship after USS Nautilus to reach the North Pole. In March 1959, she headed to the Arctic for a second time to develop operational capabilities for submarines at periods of extreme cold and ice thickness. On March 17, Skate surfaced at the North Pole�the first ship to be on the surface at the Pole�and there committed the ashes of Arctic explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins.