Through seventy days of darkness, during which the men were unable to stray from the ship for fear of never finding it again, their bodies and minds began to break down. Seven months later, the Belgica was caught in the pack ice of the Bellingshausen sea, and her men were condemned to be the first to endure an Antarctic winter. Led by 31-year-old Adrien de Gerlache, the Belgian Antarctic Expedition was to be the first scientific mission into the void at the bottom of world maps.
On August 16, 1897, more than twenty thousand people flocked to the Antwerp waterfront to see off the Belgica, a three-mast whaleship setting sail for the largely uncharted waters of Antarctica. In an adapted excerpt, the author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth examines the many cases of psychosis that have since afflicted year-round Antarctic personnel and asks, What is it about the southernmost continent that makes people go insane? He has reported from every continent, including Antarctica, which he first visited while researching this book.The harrowing story of the Belgica, stuck fast in Antarctic sea ice for more than a year in the 1890s, reveals how isolation in the planet’s most hostile environment can cause even the hardiest explorers to lose their minds. His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, The New Yorker, Wired, among other publications. Julian Sancton is a senior features editor at Departures magazine, where he writes about culture and travel. Equal parts maritime thriller and gothic horror, Madhouse at the End of the Earth is an unforgettable journey into the deep.
The harrowing true survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly awry-with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter.ĭrawing on the diaries and journals of the Belgica’s crew and with exclusive access to the ship’s logbook, Sancton brings novelistic flair to a story of human extremes, one so remarkable that even today NASA studies it for research on isolation for future missions to Mars. Join us as we welcome Julian Sancton to talk about his gripping book, Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night.
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