Abandoned: The Story of the Greely Arctic Expedition 1881-1884 - Paperback

by Alden Todd (Author)

Launched as part of the United States participation in the first International Polar Year, the Greely Arctic Expedition sent twenty-five volunteers to Ellesmere Island off the northwest coast of Greenland. The crew was commanded by Adolphus W. Greely, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army's Signal Corps. The ship sent to resupply them in the summer of 1882 was forced to turn back before reaching the station, and the men were left to endure short rations. The second relief ship, sent in 1883, was crushed in the ice. The crew spend a third, wretched winter camped at Cape Sabine. Supplies ran out, the hunting failed, and men began to die of starvation. At last, in the summer of 1884, the six survivors were brought home, but the excitement of their return soon turned into a national scandal-rumors of cannibalism during that dreadful, final winter were supported by grisly evidence.

Author Biography

Alden Todd, now a resident of Anchorage, Alaska, was born in Washington, D.C. A graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Swarthmore College, he has been a school and university teacher, shipyard machinist, parachute infantryman, and news reporter before he turned to freelance writing.