Classic Scurvy: The Belgica Expedition

A wooden ship locked in Antarctic ice for 13 months. A captain who wouldn’t turn back. A doctor who broke the rules and saved the crew with the world’s least appetizing “medicine.” We tell the raw, human story of the Belgica—part survival epic, part scientific milestone, and a cautionary tale about leadership at the edge of the map.

We start with the chaotic launch and a crew stitched together from Belgium, Norway, and beyond. Storms slam the decks. A young sailor is swept into black water. Spirits lift at the Antarctic Circle, then crash as the pack ice clamps down and the sun disappears. Inside the Belgica, scurvy blooms and tempers fray. Dr. Frederick Cook recognizes the pattern from the Arctic, reframes penguin and seal as medicine, and forces a grim menu change that stops the bleeding—literally. Alongside first mate Roald Amundsen, he builds routines that keep minds from breaking: theater nights, mock card games, grooming, “fire baths,” and purposeful work.

The dark months take a toll. One man dies. Another falls into psychosomatic silence. A veteran sailor unravels into paranoia, “mailing” letters into snow as the crew gently humors him to keep everyone safe. When light returns, the ice refuses to let go. So the men do the unthinkable: cut a mile-long canal through feet-thick ice with saws, picks, and carefully rationed dynamite. It closes; they reopen it. Day by grinding day, fueled by “Antarctic beefsteak,” they force a passage until the engine finally turns and the ship creeps into open water.

This is a story about survival tactics that became polar best practice—fresh meat against scurvy, structure against despair, clear roles against drift. It also foreshadows Amundsen’s precision at the South Pole and highlights how fragile leadership can be when the plan is a gamble. If you’re into Antarctic history, extreme survival, expedition psychology, or the roots of polar exploration, you’ll want this one in your queue.

Enjoyed the ride? Follow, rate, and review to support the show—and share this episode with a friend who loves true survival stories. What moment shocked you most?

Transcript

Cold Open And Beer Picks

SPEAKER_05 0:15

Oh, hey there.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Oh, hey there.

SPEAKER_05 0:17

How's it going today?

SPEAKER_02 0:19

I'm good. How are you?

SPEAKER_05 0:20

I am well. We are the history buffoons.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

I am Kate.

SPEAKER_05 0:24

I'm Bradley.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

And it's still winter. We was it that funny?

SPEAKER_05 0:34

I mean, it wasn't, but I mean, it is, you know, we are recording this on the second to last day of January, and here in Wisconsin, we've had what you would call quite the cold stretch.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Yes, it's been very cold.

SPEAKER_05 0:46

It's getting fucking old. I like you know, I like colder weather, but this time of year is like, all right, fucking enough. Seriously, move on to spring. Anyways.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Um, so what do we have for our drinks today?

SPEAKER_05 1:02

We have Polaner. Munchen. It's uh from Munich.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

I have a grapefruit rattler.

SPEAKER_05 1:12

I have three different beers. She chose to pick one. But she does a lot of talking, so sometimes it's hard for her to get through a beer, and these are 16.9 ounces, so they're a little bit more uh more to them, we'll say. But I have the I have the heavy vice. Don't know if you can see that one. I have the the Munich Lager, the Munchener Lager. And then I have the pills. So I used to sell this beer. Um I had it over in Germany when I went to Oktoberfest. So I thought you've never had these.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

So mine's a whole 2.5 um percent alcohol.

SPEAKER_05 1:56

Yeah, so they're rattler. I didn't I guess I never realized it was that light in terms of alcohol, but whatever.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:03

It's about the flavors.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

I'm ready.

SPEAKER_05 2:05

Mine's already opened, so apologize. Cheers.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Cheers.

SPEAKER_05 2:16

How is that compared to the other rattlers that we've had?

SPEAKER_02 2:19

It's very grapefruity.

SPEAKER_05 2:20

This one is. More grapefruity than the other ones?

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Yeah, but it's delicious.

SPEAKER_05 2:23

Okay, good. Yeah. I'm glad you like it.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Okay, so this is a longer story, so I'm just gonna kind of get into it right away.

SPEAKER_05 2:30

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Um, we're gonna talk about Adrian de Gerloche.

SPEAKER_05 2:35

Adrian de Gerloche.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

He's he's Belgian.

SPEAKER_05 2:41

Oh, well, fucking perfect.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

I know. Pretty close, right?

SPEAKER_05 2:44

Pretty close.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Um, he was a 30-year-old Belgian um naval officer. Okay, and he was dying to explore okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:55

What year are we talking about?

SPEAKER_02 2:56

We are talking about 1895. Oh, that's a good year. And the Geographical Congress wants to explore Antarctica, and he put his name into the hat.

SPEAKER_05 3:08

Did they actually actually have a hat, do you think? I mean, that's an idiom, right? Put your name in the hat.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Put your name in the hat. Um, you know, it was probably a giant salad bowl.

SPEAKER_05 3:20

That seems weird that they would say hat then, because I guess people might wear salad bowls as hats. Do you think that's how they cut their hair? They put the salad bowl on bowl cut.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

That's how you get the bowl cut. I'm gonna continue.

SPEAKER_05 3:32

I hope so. If you don't mind. I'd like you to stop me talking.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

So despite Belgium being more interested in colonizing Africa at the time, right? Um, he did raise nearly 300,000 francs. Wow. Um, lobbying, fundraising, and there was a subsidy from the government.

SPEAKER_03 3:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Um, 300,000 francs back then, where it was about fifty-eight thousand dollars back then.

SPEAKER_05 3:58

Uh US dollars.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

US dollars, gotcha, which is equal to approximately 2.2 million today.

SPEAKER_05 4:04

Holy shit. Inflation, am I right?

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Yeah. So with that money, he bought a sturdy old Norwegian whaling ship called the Patr Patria.

SPEAKER_05 4:15

Patria. I feel like I've heard of that before.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

He renamed it to the Belgica.

SPEAKER_05 4:20

The Belgica? Yes. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

So his goal was a true scientific expedition. He wanted to map uncharted coastlines, he wanted to study the weather, the biology.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Um, he did not have any seasoned polar sailors.

SPEAKER_05 4:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Um, so Deja Lush uh built a an international team, if you will.

SPEAKER_05 4:44

So you said he was a naval officer, is that right?

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:47

How many years in the service did he have at this point? Because you said he was 30.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Yes, I did not research that.

SPEAKER_05 4:53

That's okay. I'm just I would assume it's not like he was just joined up for the service. So he probably has at least, if I had to guess, eight to ten years minimum.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

Maybe.

SPEAKER_05 5:02

If I had to guess, and that's all I'm doing is guessing. But so he he is experienced, but he had to kind of put the put the band back together with different yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

So he had a couple of scientists to do all the scientific stuff. He had a second in command, which was um Lieutenant George Lakwan.

SPEAKER_05 5:24

Lacquan?

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Mm-hmm. And he had a young Norwegian named Roald Amundsen.

SPEAKER_05 5:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

And he was taken on his first mate. And these people come up a little bit later, which is why some of them I'm just saying, they're a scientist, and then actually naming a couple.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

Yeah.

A Chaotic Start And Crew Troubles

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Um in Rio, when they eventually get down there, they do pick up Dr. Frederick Cook as well. Okay, who was an American explorer. Oh. And he was a medical doctor, and he was pretty much the key to this story. Oh, really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:57

So this who is this story about then? Is it about the naval officer guys?

SPEAKER_02 6:01

It's about um Adrian Degerlache.

SPEAKER_05 6:04

Which is let's call him Adrian, because I'm like, I'm gonna butcher his last name all the time.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

And the cook. And the story of the Belgica getting trapped in Antarctica.

SPEAKER_05 6:17

Is this where they find Megatron buried in the ice?

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Um, that's the next um exploration.

SPEAKER_05 6:23

Oh, wait, that was Whitwiki. My bad.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Yeah, that was Witwiki.

SPEAKER_05 6:28

Sorry. Anyways, so this is this okay, I'm not saying I know this story, but I think I know a variation of it or a retelling that's you know, fictional about this. Well, it seems familiar that they get stuck in the ice, everything.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:46

All right.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

So there's a couple expeditions, and this one's not as famous.

SPEAKER_05 6:51

All right. I would also like to just preempt by sorry, I have to blow my nose. My my right nostril is not cooperating, so I apologize in advance for if I have to do that.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

I was waiting for you to do it. Well now I'm gonna not into the mic.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

That sounded very stuck.

SPEAKER_04 7:15

It it is stuck. Maybe I should just do this. All right. No, what do you got?

SPEAKER_02 7:22

So um, before I continue, actually, I forgot to mention that um my dad actually gave me this story. Oh, did he? In he let me borrow his book Madhouse at the end of the earth. Oh, thanks, Dwayne. Yeah. So um, this is by Julian Sancton, and he just heard about um Adrian de Jurash and wanted to research it, and he wrote a book about it. So that's what this is based off of. So thanks, Dad.

SPEAKER_05 7:52

I'd also like to say I love how your your mom and dad's name rhyme. Anyways.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Okay, so he has a 23-man crew. It was a mixed bag of Belgian, Norwegian, and others. And that includes him, or is that and um many of them were unvetted and ultimately not suited for this journey?

SPEAKER_05 8:16

Well, it sounds like he just kind of put it together like a rag tag group of like, hey man, I need I need bodies. I need people here. Yeah, so you you can walk, right? All right, get on.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

So the Belgica left Antwerp, Belgium on August 16th of 1897.

SPEAKER_05 8:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Just 12 hours later, still on the coast of Belgium. Uh oh. They had to stop in Ostend for repairs.

SPEAKER_05 8:41

What happened?

SPEAKER_02 8:42

I just I don't know. Oh, just it's just funny because there was like a bunch of like quick little things that happened, and that was one of them.

SPEAKER_05 8:50

They're literally not even they're half day in on their journey and they have to stop.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

They stopped for repairs. Two men were got deserted right away. Not desert, like they chose to desert right away.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

Two got drunk and had to be dragged dragged back on board. Oh boy. One sailor refused to get out of bed during a near collision with another vessel.

SPEAKER_05 9:12

Um, so maybe he's like, someone's gotta go down with the ship.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

And then when they get to Montevideo, which is I think Argentina, um, their cook got into a brawl and then was fired. Oh. So they hired a Swedish sailor last minute as the cook.

SPEAKER_05 9:32

Do you think he made meatballs a lot?

SPEAKER_02 9:34

And then an engineer nearly caused a boiler explosion and was fired as well.

SPEAKER_05 9:41

So what you're telling me is they had a lot of turmoil early on. Early on. Holy shit. And that's before they even got their ship stuck. Good lord.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 9:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

So by the time that they reached Punta Arenas, Chile, um, crew tensions were boiling over.

SPEAKER_05 10:00

Like the boiler, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Um, De Gerlash even asked the Chilean Navy to stand by in case he needed backup. He ended up purging a few more offenders and then he left port in December with 19 men.

SPEAKER_05 10:13

So four down from his initial crew.

Southward Push And A Sailor Lost

SPEAKER_02 10:16

Jesus. So the remaining crew were quieter. Well, that's good. But veterans like Amundsen and Cook, um, Dr. Cook, yeah, had a new concern. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 10:32

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

The ice was starting to close in and they haven't even tried to get there yet.

SPEAKER_05 10:37

Well, I mean, okay, it's relatively unexplored at this time, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Yeah, there's been a couple of expeditions.

SPEAKER_05 10:45

Right. Relatively unexplored.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 10:48

So why the fuck would you leave on August 16th? I mean, that's like pretty late in the year, and it's not like you can take a flight down there and get there by the 18th.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

So they left Antwerp, Belgium.

SPEAKER_05 11:05

I understand that. In August.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

And so our winters is Antarctica summers.

SPEAKER_05 11:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

So they left um Chile in December.

SPEAKER_05 11:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

So they're almost like halfway through summer.

SPEAKER_05 11:22

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

So that that was the point. So they were thinking, was De Gerloche like planning to explore and then turn back quickly?

SPEAKER_03 11:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Or was he gambling on staying through the polar winter?

SPEAKER_05 11:34

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

So no one knew for sure.

SPEAKER_05 11:36

Well, right.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

But everyone kind of understood one thing. Pressing further south now meant crossing a line that they could not easily come back from.

SPEAKER_05 11:44

Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

So as the Belgian pushed into the um the high latitudes of the southern ocean, um, they met with some gale force winds, like 40s and 50 mile an hour winds and these monstrous waves on the way to Antarctica. And the ship was tossing violently left and right. And on January 22nd, 1898, a storm struck as they neared the Antarctic Peninsula.

SPEAKER_05 12:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Icy rain and salt spray all over the decks. And in the chaos, a young Norwegian sailor named Carl Venka was out on the deck trying to secure some equipment when a massive wave slammed over the bow.

SPEAKER_05 12:30

Took them over.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

There was a sudden scream and a desperate cry. And the cre the crew looked around in confusion, and Dr. Cook ran to the stern and saw that Venka was in the freezing water. Oh boy. Struggling and being pulled away by foaming waves.

SPEAKER_05 12:47

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Venka had been swept overboard, and the crew threw a line, which Venka managed to grab in the surge.

SPEAKER_05 12:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

And Captain Lequant volunteered to be tied to a rope and lowered into the sea to save his crewmen.

SPEAKER_05 13:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

So if you can imagine this in the middle of like an Arctic gale with the ship heaving to and fro, literally like being dipped like a, I don't know, worm on a hook, I guess. Excuse me.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

No worries. Oh my. Oh dear. That's my pearls. I do declare.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Um, but tragically, um, his heroism was not enough, and Laquant himself was nearly lost in the attempt. Um, Venka lost his grip and disappeared into the sea.

SPEAKER_05 13:39

Oh, that's sad.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

The crew hauled uh Laquant back, shivering and empty-handed. Uh, Venka was gone, and the men were really heartbroken by this, and this actually set quite a bit quite a precedent for them.

SPEAKER_05 13:52

Set the tone. It set the tone big time. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

Yeah. Um, this Venka was really, really well liked. He was in his 20s. Um, so De Gerloche later named a small island on the Antarctic coast called Venka Island.

SPEAKER_05 14:09

Is it still named that today?

SPEAKER_02 14:10

You know, I didn't look that up.

SPEAKER_05 14:12

You don't have to right now. I was just curious if you knew.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

So it was the expedition's first loss of life.

SPEAKER_05 14:18

That's crazy. That that would be tough. Yeah. I mean, way to start. They already had a really fucked up start, and then uh once they finally are on their way and they lose a guy, that sucks.

Crossing The Antarctic Circle

SPEAKER_02 14:28

So the Belgium sailed on, and within a day the storm abated, and on January 23rd of 1898, the crew sighted the barren icy coast of Graham Land, the Antarctic peninsula, which is the northernmost finger of the continent.

SPEAKER_05 14:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

So it's like, I don't know, it's a big circle with a little doink.

SPEAKER_05 14:50

With a little doink.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

With a little doink.

SPEAKER_05 14:52

Oh, he's like, Yeah, I'm sorry, it's cold. Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

So this was the first human contact with that coast in over half a century. Wow. Yeah. And then over the next couple of weeks, the Belgica threaded through like a maze of a bunch of like little islands along the peninsula.

SPEAKER_05 15:10

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

And they like would get out and like try to find scientific things. Stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:15

They just found a lot of ice?

SPEAKER_02 15:17

They found a lot of ice, but there was like random like Arctic worms and shit.

SPEAKER_05 15:22

Did they run into any penguins?

SPEAKER_02 15:24

They did. Did they eat oh they did?

SPEAKER_05 15:28

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

On February 15th, 1898, they achieved one more major goal. Okay. The Belgica crossed the Antarctic Circle.

SPEAKER_05 15:38

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

So there is an actual like invisible line around Antarctica. The peninsula is just outside that line. So they reach the Arctic Circle.

SPEAKER_05 15:47

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Or excuse me, the Antarctic Circle.

SPEAKER_05 15:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

Um, so the men celebrated this milestone, but they also knew it meant that from this point on, the sun would soon start to vanish for the winter.

SPEAKER_05 16:02

Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Time was running out to head back north, and yet Desjaloche was not turning back.

SPEAKER_05 16:09

No, he's like, we just started, boys.

Trapped In Pack Ice

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Yeah. So as February continued on, the Belgica pushed deeper south and west into the sea ice. Okay. And on February 28th, 1898, the ship became wedged in a pack of ice.

SPEAKER_05 16:26

Was that a leap year? Bradley. Well, I want to know if what happened on February 29th, if it's there. I mean, I think it's a valid question. What? Alright, continue.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

I need to be drunk for the rest of this.

SPEAKER_05 16:46

Um you're not gonna get enough of that.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

I know. Okay, so the Belgique was trapped, and the crew worked furiously for days to break the ship free. But it was no use. Summer's end had basically sealed them in.

SPEAKER_05 17:04

So how would they have like what would they have done to do to try and break loose? Because I mean, I would imagine like they have ice saws and stuff. Oh, do they imagine because if they weren't power tools, could you imagine just oh dude, I am tired. Yeah. Holy boss.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Oh, just wait.

SPEAKER_05 17:22

I'm sure. They don't eat each other, do they?

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Oh, just wait.

SPEAKER_05 17:26

Oh, jeez. Okay. I'm kidding, they don't. Oh, good.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

By March 2nd, De Gerloche gathered his men and informed them of the very desperate truth that they were gonna have to spend the winter in Antarctica, whether they liked it or not.

SPEAKER_05 17:41

Well, I mean, there's really nothing they can do about it now. They are stuck.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Nature made the decision for them.

SPEAKER_05 17:47

It's like, hey, we want you guys here. Yeah, really. Celebrate with us. So this is already in March, though. Yeah. And you said the winter is the summer months here, correct? So they're just getting into like actual winter. Winter. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:04

Wow. All right.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

So some of the crew suspected that this was Deja Losh's plan all along. Why would he have wanted that? Because they would be the first crew to spend Antarctica over winter.

SPEAKER_05 18:20

Okay. That seems like a sh I mean, I don't know, obviously, but why would you want that to be like a thing, I guess? Yeah. Hey man, we froze our asses off first for a whole winter.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 18:34

Cool. Good for you.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

So for the next few days, Tacum and the crew suggested that DeJerlosh intentionally trapped them in the ice, but whether or not it was deliberate, the reality was still the same.

SPEAKER_05 18:45

Can you resay deliberate?

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Deliberate.

SPEAKER_05 18:47

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

They were now prisoners of the ice for an entire year or more. Ahead of them lay oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. The foam on that.

SPEAKER_05 18:59

Holy balls. I dripped on my shirt. Gotta turn it all. Heavens to Betsy. My pearls. Oh. Well, I do declare I lost some of my beer. You good? I don't know. Shit. Okay, let me continue. I'm sorry, that wasn't intended. Wow. Wow. I didn't even shake it.

Preparing For The Polar Night

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Okay, so the crew prepared for winter the best that they could. They reinforced the Belgica against the ice, banked snow along the hull for insulation. And built a small shack on the ice, kind of part science lab part like break room.

SPEAKER_05 19:42

Break room.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

I mean, I need to get away from everybody. We're in a small ship. Like get away from everybody, go to the shack.

SPEAKER_05 19:49

Yeah. You just see like smoke coming out of the little shack chimney, like people having a cigarette or something.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

So every scraping their pipe. Yeah, every scrap was used, sails became insulation, coal was rationed.

SPEAKER_05 20:01

Coal was rationed, you said? Coal. Okay. So at first. At first I heard cold. I'm like, there's plenty of it to go around. Doesn't have to be rationed. Doesn't have to be rationed at all.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

So at first the morale was fairly optimistic.

SPEAKER_05 20:15

Well, that's nice that they I mean, you would hope so.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Yeah, I mean, they just had that death and then being stuck in the ice.

SPEAKER_05 20:23

And yeah, so for being optimistic after everything that started the vert the journey and then losing a person, that's that's a good start, at least. But yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Well, the March and April were getting cold and really monotonous, and there was still like a twilight during the day. Okay. So the crew still tried to manage some routine. So they kept busy by oh, I feel like I was ahead of my microphone there.

SPEAKER_05 20:51

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Um they kept busy with scientific observations. They would make small trips onto the ice and they would try to make the ship's interior a little bit more cozy.

SPEAKER_05 21:03

Um I wonder how they did that. Like, because you only have so much on a ship.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

Yeah, they they played a lot of games, they told a lot of stories, well, especially and just kind of made it like more of a tavern type feel, maybe? Maybe.

SPEAKER_05 21:19

I mean, a bunch of dudes hanging out telling stories. Yeah. Sounds like a an old timey tavern. I mean, we're talking about 1898.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:26

I mean, I guess that's the way the feel I would think it would be, but I obviously I never experienced it, so I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:32

But yeah, I mean, you can only do so much to make it cozy.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Um, Dr. Cook, the American, yeah, set up improvised theater nights and encouraged the men to like do mock card games. So all the the money that they would bet would be um imaginary.

SPEAKER_05 21:51

Oh, so they just like I'd raise you twenty fifth dollars or whatever. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

So it r really helped with the boredom and the dread um of. The day. Um, but time started weighing heavily on them, and then by like March 21st, yeah, the sun's like little arc over the horizon just kept getting lower and lower and lower.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

On May 17th, the sun finally dipped below the horizon.

SPEAKER_05 22:19

So this is a period of time where it's completely dark. Yes. Like no daylight at all. No. Oh and that happens I don't know what time of year, but that that's what happens in Alaska, right? Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Yeah. Um, Alaska pretty much, I think they have the same winter as we do. It's just longer.

SPEAKER_05 22:37

Did you ever see the the movie 60 Days and 60 Nights? Um what's his name? Oh, Josh Hartnett, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:46

That's 40 Days and 40 Nights.

SPEAKER_05 22:48

Is that for I'm sorry, I said 60, right? Um have you seen that?

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:52

Okay, so you haven't seen the sequel, 60 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

I have not seen the sequel.

Scurvy, Short Tempers, And Isolation

SPEAKER_05 22:55

I'm sorry, it is 40 days and 40 nights. My apologies. I watched that when I was in Germany. Yeah. It's one of the few American movies that they had on. And I watched Sex in the City too. I've mentioned this before, but anyways. All right, sorry. Not 60, 40. My apologies.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

So inside the ship, conditions deteriorated. Right. The Bel Belgica had been um provisioned with canned foods, dried meats, and biscuits to last two years.

SPEAKER_05 23:24

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

But the diet was monotonous and deficient in crucial nutrients.

SPEAKER_05 23:29

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

They ate the same salted um canned meatballs and tinned peas every day. Yeah. They did manage to hunt for penguins and seals back before they got stuck. Okay. So they were actually storing this meat on deck, because I mean it's frozen.

SPEAKER_05 23:49

Well, yeah, it's cold, cold enough. You don't need a freezer.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

But Commander Des Girlash disliked the taste of these animals so much that he forbade the men from eating the penguin and seal meat.

SPEAKER_05 24:04

But what what if they didn't mind it?

SPEAKER_02 24:07

Well, they were all like, okay, you're the commander. We'll we'll do it.

SPEAKER_05 24:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:13

Yeah, they all fell in line.

SPEAKER_05 24:15

I get that, but like, just because you don't like it, there might have been somebody who's like, man, have you had penguin fin? It's fucking delicious. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

So naturally, without all these nutrients, the men's gums began to bleed.

SPEAKER_05 24:31

Is that is that scurvy?

SPEAKER_02 24:33

It's scurvy.

SPEAKER_05 24:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

Their joints ached, purple blotches appeared on their skin.

SPEAKER_05 24:38

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Classic scurvy. Classic scurvy scurvy. Classic scurvy.

SPEAKER_05 24:44

That's got a that's a contender for a fucking for a title.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

If no one knows what, if anyone doesn't know what scurvy is, it is um a vitamin C deficiency disease.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Yeah. And 1898, no one really knew what that was. What that was.

SPEAKER_05 25:04

So it's not like, oh boys, your gums are all bleeding. Yeah. Get you some vitamin C. Like, where would they even have gotten vitamin C at that point?

SPEAKER_02 25:13

Penguin and seal meat.

SPEAKER_05 25:15

Would that have been rich with vitamin C? Really? So oranges. Maybe not rich, but better. But so oranges or penguin meat. You make the call. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

So Dr. Cook, the American, he he has been on an expedition before and he actually has seen scurvy before.

SPEAKER_05 25:37

Not knowing exactly what it was, but he's he recognizes the symptoms like I've seen this before. We need to fix this.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

And he knew that fresh meat and um raw foods could help manage this. Um, of course, they were surrounded by ice and no fruit and vegetables at the local vestibule or whatever. Bodega.

SPEAKER_05 25:57

There wasn't a Whole Foods there?

SPEAKER_02 25:58

No. Fuck. For thousands of miles, let alone just a hundred.

SPEAKER_05 26:02

Let alone just a you know, a hundred years.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

But deja lush's ban on the penguin and the seal meat meant much of that meat just sat there.

SPEAKER_05 26:12

Couldn't he like, dude? I get it. You don't like it. But our our men are suffering here. We need this.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

They do eventually.

SPEAKER_05 26:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

Yeah. So by May, there was muscle spasms and lethargy that were plaguing the men. They were exhausted and irritable.

SPEAKER_03 26:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Um, minor disagreements would blow up into huge arguments. Fights, I would imagine. And of course, these were multilingual crew. So many of them did not speak the same language. So there was lots of communication problems.

SPEAKER_05 26:45

When you put a rag type crew together from different areas, you're gonna get language barriers, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

And then they were sick of each other, and there's they're in this tiny tin can of a space. Yeah. So they were getting claustrophobia as well.

SPEAKER_05 26:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

They were trapped not only in the ice, but in the ship. In the ship.

SPEAKER_05 27:04

Even those little call them expeditions out to their little break room or whatever we call it before. That's not enough time away. That's you're you're gonna be. It's like, I just saw you. Even if it's like I saw you just saw you 12 hours ago. You're still fucking here.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

You're still ugly.

SPEAKER_05 27:25

Same got the same.

Death Of Emile Danco

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Well, you know they aren't getting the uh the the you know the uh shaven down. What's the word?

SPEAKER_05 27:34

I don't know what you're going for here.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Their their hygiene isn't on point at this point.

SPEAKER_05 27:38

No, I can't clearly not.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

On point at this point, anyway.

SPEAKER_05 27:43

Wow, that was redundant. Yeah, but I like that. Let's continue.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

All right, their clothing was inadequate, they hadn't expected to be there over winter, so not everyone had proper gear.

SPEAKER_05 27:55

But they had provisions for two years.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

They did.

SPEAKER_05 27:59

It seems weird that they wouldn't have enough gear or the proper gear, but yet they had the provisions for two freaking years. That seems weird.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

And it was probably two years worth of with the 24 men that they originally started with, perhaps, not the 19 that they had. Well, 18 now.

SPEAKER_05 28:18

Maybe they had two years and four months now.

SPEAKER_03 28:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:21

I mean, I obviously don't didn't I didn't math it out that I also don't know the pounds.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:26

So yeah, I suppose they technically would have had a little extra because four they got rid of four on the way, one died. So I mean they're they're five down already. I mean, that that's quite significant. I mean, that's what, uh almost 20% of the fucking crew. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

So inside the ship, there was a small stove and it barely kept the chill at bay. Most of the time they shivered in their bunks, wrapped up in all the blankets they could find, constantly cold and damp. If they had been near land or shelter, um, they might have tried to desert the ship as well. Um, but out there on like the shifting ice, hundreds of miles, there was there was nowhere to go. They had to endure with each other. Right. So June arrived, yeah, and Emile Danko, a 23-year-old Belgian geophysicist, oh wow, had been weak for weeks.

SPEAKER_05 29:26

Weak W E A K for W E multiple weeks, yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

Danko suffered from a heart condition.

SPEAKER_05 29:34

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

And the extreme cold and scurvy was making it worse.

SPEAKER_05 29:39

Did he know about do you have any idea if he knew about this heart condition?

SPEAKER_02 29:43

I think he did. Yeah. Um, his crewmates did what they cur could, but medical science at the time had like little to offer, of course. Well, you know, even on a ship.

SPEAKER_05 29:52

Right. Um especially on a ship.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

Yeah. No amount of care for Danko would help his failing heart. Right. And on June 5th of 1898, Emile Danko died.

SPEAKER_05 30:03

Fresh meat.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

No.

SPEAKER_05 30:06

Well, it helps scurvy. How did uh did the did they have to like bury him in the ice or something for like a funeral?

SPEAKER_02 30:13

They did take him out, yeah. I don't know. No, they were they didn't bury him in the ice. They actually they might have like tried to cut a hole or something and put him in the water.

SPEAKER_05 30:22

Oh, so a burillette sea in a way kind of thing. Yeah. Okay.

Polar Madness On Board

SPEAKER_02 30:26

Um, so the crew was already physically weakened and mentally frayed, and now they lost one of their own.

SPEAKER_05 30:33

So now they're down to 17.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Yeah, exactly. Wow. Yes. So Danko's death left the crew demoralized and terrified.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

And at the this was a low point, and several men started verging on like a complete breakdown.

SPEAKER_05 30:53

Were they were they going towards a mutiny here or something? Not quite.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

No, not a mutiny.

SPEAKER_05 30:57

Because I don't know what they would really do even if they took over. You're still stuck in the ice.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Yeah, there was not a mutiny. Good. These were actually fairly um respect respectful gentlemen.

SPEAKER_05 31:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

And they cared about the higher ups and you know, and that chain of command.

SPEAKER_05 31:15

Well, that's good at least.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

So one one Belgian sailor, Jan sorry, Jan van Mierlo. Jan. I think it's Jan. I'm sure it's Jan. Yeah. Yeah. Um, he suffered what the ship's doctor, Dr. Cook, recognized as a hysterical affliction.

SPEAKER_05 31:34

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

Van Mirlo awoke one day claiming that he could not hear or speak. I don't know how you can claim.

SPEAKER_05 31:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:42

But I wrote that anyway.

SPEAKER_05 31:43

Did he did he blink Morris code? I think so. That that's gotta be it.

SPEAKER_02 31:47

Yeah. Or he like wrote it in the sand or the ice.

SPEAKER_05 31:51

I'm like, there's he wrote it in the ice. Hey, we gotta go to the beach real quick. I gotta write something in it.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

He went up to a window and went, ha.

SPEAKER_05 32:00

Drew Drew a heart. Jesus. Can't speak.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

It was psychosomatic deafness and muteness, which was a reaction to extreme stress.

SPEAKER_05 32:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

So Dr. Cook examined him and found nothing physically wrong.

SPEAKER_05 32:16

Right. It's all mental.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

It was all a mental strength. Yeah. And so for a week he was practically cataconic.

SPEAKER_05 32:24

Well, at least that week went by pretty quick for him.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

When he finally recovered the ability to talk, the first thing that he said was that he intended to murder an officer. Wow. The ship's chief engineer, Henry Summers, at the first opportunity. Of course, everyone was like, Wait a minute. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_05 32:44

Did they have a like a brig type or uh my nose is dripping?

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_05 32:51

Did they have a brig type thing or like a brig. It's like a it's a a jail on a boat, basically. Throw them in the brig.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

You've never heard that before? Uh-uh.

SPEAKER_05 33:00

Oh man, you're young. Um I mean, most places most places, most boats at least, you know. Even in like you've watched Pirates of the Caribbean or Caribbean, depending on where you're from. Yeah. And um Jack Sparrow was thrown in the brig.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

So I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 33:20

Okay. Well, I mean, I just it's not that type of chip, so I don't know if it would have that, obviously. Yeah, I don't know. But um, it's just curious. Yeah. Because like shit, if you all of a sudden wake up from this delirium and be like, I'm gonna kill an officer.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

Right. What the fuck? So, of course, Captain Lequant says if he sh if he said he would murder Summers, what was gonna stop him from killing someone else? Right. So um the shipmates began discreetly watching Van Murlo on like rotating shifts even at night to ensure that he didn't hurt anyone or himself.

SPEAKER_05 33:58

Did he?

SPEAKER_02 33:59

No.

SPEAKER_05 33:59

Okay, good. No, so he was probably still actually just delirious waking up and I'm gonna kill you. And it subsided because he finally fully woke up, we'll call it. I don't know what to better say there, but yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:15

Yeah, so well, Van Meyerlowe's was outwardly um suffering, others were quietly suffering. Sure. Um, the weeks after Danko's death were probably the darkest period for the Belgica. Physically, men were ill with scurvy.

SPEAKER_03 34:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:33

Um, and Adrian de Gerlache himself um had resisted eating the penguin meat for as long as he could. And by early July, he was bedridden, his joints were swollen, gums were spongy, teeth were loose. Oh, gross. Classic scurvy.

SPEAKER_05 34:48

Classic scurvy.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Yeah, and he could hardly stand. So both De Gerlash and his um second in compan command, Lequan, were so sick they each actually wrote out each other's will. Sorry, they they wrote their will.

Dr. Cook’s Hard Medicine: Eat Penguin

SPEAKER_05 35:03

Oh, not each other's. No. They each wrote out their own will. Yes, gotcha. Yeah. I mean, that's so please tell me the revelation of having to write out his will. Did you be like, we should probably eat that?

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Not quite yet, but we're getting close. We're getting close. So, Dr. Frederick Cook finally rose to the occasion. Not finally, but like he was the one that did.

SPEAKER_05 35:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

Coco was one of the few who had still some energy left. Good for him. Yes. He had been quietly eating penguin meat.

SPEAKER_05 35:38

On the on the DL. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

And he was keeping off the biggest bouts of the scurvy. Of the scurvy.

SPEAKER_05 35:48

Biggest bouts of the scurvy. So was he still having some symptoms of it, but not as much because he was secretly eating this penguin meat?

SPEAKER_02 35:57

Yeah, and he has also had experience up in the Arctic.

SPEAKER_05 36:01

Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:02

So, and he saw what scurvy did. So I think he was just like, I'm just gonna eat a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 36:09

Well, I mean, good good on him. Yeah, at least someone had some sensibility, and you know, obviously being a doctor, good that he was the one that did that. Right. Because then at least, could you imagine what would have happened if Dr. Cook succumbed to all this nonsense and woke up and I'm gonna kill the captain or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

They would all be dead because exactly.

SPEAKER_05 36:31

Cook literally saved them. That's my point.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

So Cook and the other veteran explorer, um Almundson, yeah, the first mate, they officially took charge of like daily affairs.

SPEAKER_05 36:44

Because the captain was down for the calibre. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

So Cook's top priority was to save the men's lives, and he made the taboo decision of eating penguin meat. We're gonna eat penguin and we're gonna eat seal, and it's you're gonna eat it whether you like it or not. So even raw, they'll cook it, they'll eat it raw, whatever it takes to get it down.

SPEAKER_05 37:08

If you eat penguin meat raw, is it sushi? Because they go in the water.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

But they're not considered fish, I don't think.

SPEAKER_05 37:15

No, they're you don't think? No, they're definitely not considered fish.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

They're not fish. So it's you like sushi, would you eat penguin sushi I would probably try it cooked first, which is what I did with sushi when I first started.

SPEAKER_05 37:30

I feel like the fact that you would try penguin at all makes you a terrible person. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 37:34

Hey, I'm dying of scurvy, okay? I'm gonna eat it.

SPEAKER_05 37:37

I'm not talking about you dying of scurvy. I would eat it if I was dying of scurvy too. I'm joking around, obviously. Um well, good. I mean, at least so did they have to catch fresh penguins at this point, or do they st are they still going off because I would imagine that'd be frozen, so it's not fresh meat, like which was what they needed.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

So they would um, so this is based off of um other accounts that I've read, and I did not put it in the story.

SPEAKER_05 38:06

That's fine.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

But they would try to catch penguins by playing music.

SPEAKER_05 38:12

Really?

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Uh-huh. Because penguins are like, dude, it's silent out here. What is that?

SPEAKER_05 38:17

Let's check it out, boys. I mean, okay. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

And they would catch penguins that way. They would actually put them on like a rope and like a leash. Um, so they would- They would put a penguin on a leash?

SPEAKER_05 38:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

They would, so they would still like catch penguins throughout the fresh penguins, if you will. Okay. Like they would catch like five to eight at a time for a not at a time, but like for a week.

SPEAKER_05 38:43

Could you imagine like alright, kill it?

SPEAKER_00 38:48

Like, no, it's like penguins. I know it. Did you see the way it waddled to us?

SPEAKER_02 38:54

He wants, he just wants to hear music.

SPEAKER_05 38:56

Yeah, he's he's a maestro.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

But um, they also, I don't know how exactly they caught the seals, but um, eventually it it they became kind of non-existent, like they wouldn't come around anymore, obviously. Because you're like, every time my friend Joe would get up on the ice, he'd disappear.

SPEAKER_05 39:13

Have you seen Brent?

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Yeah.

Morale Hacks, Routines, And “Fire Baths”

SPEAKER_05 39:15

Who? Who? You know, my friend Brent. Brent. We grew up together. Yeah, we're sort of. Oh, I haven't seen him in weeks. I don't know why I picked Brent. Okay. I was gonna say Brock. I actually worked with a guy named Brock once. Anyways.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

Okay, so he had seen um so um Dr. Cook had seen Inuit in the Arctic.

SPEAKER_05 39:41

There there's natives there?

SPEAKER_02 39:44

Yeah, there's a couple.

SPEAKER_05 39:46

Really? It's like five. Maybe six.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

They probably had a kid by now, but but they would have a diet of fresh game, and that prevented scurvy.

SPEAKER_05 39:56

Right.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

So he convinced the crew.

SPEAKER_05 39:59

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Repeat the Inuit thing. Where did he see them? In the Arctic. My bad.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

Oh, you're thinking Antarctica. No, the Arctic. That's okay.

SPEAKER_05 40:10

I I've got to be a big thing. That's why I pointed. Well, no, I got that. I got that, I get that now. Yeah. My bad. I I'm like, wait, what?

SPEAKER_02 40:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:18

But that's on his other expedition. Yes. I I mixed them together. That's okay. Sorry about that.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

So so he had to convince these new these rec recruits really to recruits. To freaking eat the penguins.

SPEAKER_05 40:29

So crew members.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

Of course they resisted at first.

SPEAKER_05 40:33

Um Yeah, because they're so fucking adorable.

SPEAKER_02 40:37

So um they described penguin as black, oily, and tough. Like oily.

SPEAKER_05 40:45

I'm sure it's not.

SPEAKER_02 40:47

Yeah. So Dr. Dr. Cook said, quote, imagine a piece of beef.

SPEAKER_05 40:53

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

An odoriferous codfish.

SPEAKER_03 40:57

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 40:57

And a canvas back dock roasted in a pot with blood and cod liver oil for sauce, and you have the taste of penguin.

SPEAKER_05 41:09

Do you know what Peter Pan called Cap uh Captain Hook? Codfish. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

Codfish. So remember the cook? I don't know if it was in Chile or Uruguay or Argentina.

SPEAKER_05 41:23

The new one they picked up?

SPEAKER_02 41:25

Yes, the new one that they picked up.

SPEAKER_05 41:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:27

Um he was inexperienced.

SPEAKER_05 41:31

Oh, of course.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

And he tried to make penguin stew, but it was so foul that the men gagged and refused to eat it.

SPEAKER_05 41:39

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

So Dr. Cook was like, all right, now we're gonna play hardball.

SPEAKER_05 41:44

They force fed him.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

Cook went to the weekend commander de Garlog and appealed to him to set an example.

SPEAKER_05 41:50

Yeah. He said I'll be honest, I'm sorry to interrupt you. It sounded like he said the weekend commander, not the weekend. I'm like, wait. Weekend. There was one that was just in charge on the weekends. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

That's okay.

SPEAKER_05 42:04

That's my shitty hearing coming in.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

So Dr. Cook said, consider this meat as medicine. If you, the leader, start eating it, others will follow. Yeah. Because they're good crewmen.

SPEAKER_05 42:15

Please tell me you didn't go. I'm vegan.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

Um, Dager Losh was like finally ready to like, okay, yeah, I'm really sick.

SPEAKER_05 42:25

Yeah. Did he still refuse? No. Oh, thank God.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

Dr. Cook said, ignore the taste, swallow it down as a duty. Hold your nose, choke it down, or we all die.

SPEAKER_05 42:35

Pretty much just yeah, put it in your mouth, swig some whatever they had to drink at this time. What did they have to drink on this? Is it just water? Like, did they melt snow?

SPEAKER_02 42:45

I mean, what did they do for I didn't look into that? It's okay. But I want to say they might have had a little liquor as well. Well, you wouldn't.

SPEAKER_05 42:52

But they would like try to I'm sure that was honestly back then. I could see that being part of their provisions.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

I mean, let's just melt some ice water.

SPEAKER_05 43:00

Well, that too.

SPEAKER_02 43:01

But um, I just curious because like that.

SPEAKER_05 43:06

They have I mean, I would imagine they eventually melted some ice, snow, whatever. Hopefully they didn't get the yellow stuff, but or worms. Bring back the worms again.

The Long Wait For Thaw

SPEAKER_02 43:17

Yeah, okay. So Dagerlosh, sorry, De Gerlosh, yeah, who once cursed that meat, finally choked it down, and one by one his crew followed. So they even coined the new name for the seal and penguin dishes as Antarctic beefsteak.

SPEAKER_05 43:39

Should we should we go to a restaurant, a random restaurant, be like, Do you have any Antarctic beef steak? They'll be like, What? You know, penguins at sale.

SPEAKER_02 43:47

So at first the men curse and complained at every meal this stuff was so greasy and fishy, but eventually their gums stopped bleeding and they began to heal.

SPEAKER_05 43:57

And they're like, Oh shit.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Mm-hmm. So vitamin C in the fresh meat, though they didn't realize it was starting to save their lives. And even De uh Gerlash regained some vigor to his own surprise. And Cook also set up a routine of fire baths, which fire baths. Yeah, people would basically he would allow like a root um a rotating shift schedule of people like just um cuddling up to the warm stove for like an hour or so.

SPEAKER_05 44:29

Were they in the water?

SPEAKER_02 44:30

No, they're still in the in the ship, but it's so cold, they only have one little stove.

SPEAKER_05 44:34

So they call it a firebath? Yeah, just to that's so weird.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

Just to soak themselves in the heat in warmth. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:41

No, I'm okay. I mean, I get it. I just my my brain went to like, were they heating some water? I mean, okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

So he organized more card games and tournaments, and there was a big provision of like magazines, and they would like cut out these actresses and athletes and pinups, pinups, and they there was over like 500 pictures or something, and they made like a um it's kind of like an animation thing where they're like no, they they made like a challenge to figure out who was like the hottest or something. Oh, okay, like a tournament that way.

SPEAKER_05 45:20

So they had like a voting contest, whatever you want to call it, type thing. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 45:25

So for the for a while the Belgi Belgica felt like a cramped, icy casino with all these women on the walls.

SPEAKER_05 45:33

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

Yeah. Um, Cook encouraged them to keep regular routines with grooming, cleaning the ship, even though it seemed kind of pointless.

SPEAKER_05 45:42

Yeah, but I mean, again, routine.

SPEAKER_02 45:44

And idle minds would sink into despair, basically.

SPEAKER_05 45:48

Well, do you know what idle hands are the devil's playground?

SPEAKER_02 45:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:52

So did you ever see the movie Idle Hands? It's actually decent.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

So through June and early the and early July, the crew's health stabilized.

SPEAKER_05 46:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

Um, so proof that Dr. Cook um his measures were working.

SPEAKER_05 46:08

So it it took about two months for them to really kind of get back to their yeah, I don't want to say their selves, but enough strength to be like, we got you, boys. Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

Yes.

unknown 46:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

So on July 23rd, 1898, after 63 days of total darkness, someone spotted a faint glow on the horizon.

SPEAKER_05 46:29

Look, boys, it's the sun.

SPEAKER_02 46:31

It was still twilight. It was not over the horizon yet, but they saw the glow.

SPEAKER_05 46:37

So if it was still twilight, was this breaking dawn?

SPEAKER_02 46:40

It was breaking dawn.

SPEAKER_05 46:41

I don't remember the other books off the top of my head. What are the other books? Twilight, Breaking Dawn, New Moon, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

Um, Breaking Dawn, I think it was the last oh, Eclipse was the third one.

SPEAKER_05 46:53

That's right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:55

I'm sorry I even brought that up to be honest.

Carving A Mile-Long Ice Canal

SPEAKER_02 46:57

Yeah, I know. Rude. So the fucking so the uh race to escape was finally on through late 1989. Nope. 1898.

SPEAKER_05 47:13

Dyslexic.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

The Belgica stayed locked in ice despite longer days and slightly warmer temperatures. Yeah, the crew um hoped spring would kind of set them free, but the ice wasn't budging.

SPEAKER_03 47:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

The ship drifted like like just with the ice pack. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

And it would bob west with the current.

SPEAKER_05 47:34

Well, you remember you've seen National Treasure in the very beginning when they go look for the um the Charlotte. They found it by doing meth and all that stuff and whatever because it was constantly moving.

SPEAKER_02 47:48

Yeah. So because it's in the ice, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:50

Yeah, so the ice is floating.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

It's not in the ground, it's in ice.

SPEAKER_05 47:54

Exactly. So that ice floats and moves and temperature changes and so on. So yeah, I mean, it makes sense that they would have been moving with the ice at that point. So, okay.

SPEAKER_02 48:04

So sometimes open water would be present, but then it would just shut just as quickly.

SPEAKER_05 48:11

Oh shit, really?

SPEAKER_02 48:12

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So they started noticing that there were some puddles of water on top of the ice. Oh, but then a cold snap would come through and refresh them. Freeze them.

SPEAKER_05 48:21

Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 48:22

So it was like a roller coaster of hope and disappointment.

SPEAKER_05 48:26

And dismay.

SPEAKER_02 48:27

Yeah. So over a year in, the mental strain was starting to break them, even though they're starting to see these glimpses of spring and summer.

SPEAKER_05 48:37

Year in, so they're in August already.

SPEAKER_02 48:40

No, they they left Belgian. They got they got um stuck in March.

SPEAKER_05 48:47

Right.

SPEAKER_02 48:49

Right?

SPEAKER_05 48:50

Yeah. I mean, they were there before that, they got but then they got stuck.

SPEAKER_02 48:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:55

I'm just saying you're year long for the trip.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Yes, is what I meant.

SPEAKER_05 48:59

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 49:00

Yes, year long for the trip.

SPEAKER_05 49:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:02

So November of 1898, one of the toughest men on board, because they haven't been in the ice for a year. So yeah, it's when they've left Belgium. Um, a Norwegian named Adam Tol Tolfsen began to unravel.

SPEAKER_05 49:18

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_02 49:19

He had been one of the most reliable sailors as he had lots of experience in Arctic seas.

SPEAKER_05 49:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:28

And Almundsen um noted um that Tolfson was showing very strange symptoms indicative of insanity.

SPEAKER_05 49:38

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_02 49:39

Tolson asked Amundsen one night, are we really on the Belgica?

SPEAKER_05 49:45

Oh boy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

Tollofson frowned and confessed that he had no memory of ever boarding the ship. And the next day, Tolfson was seen pacing nervously with his eyes like protruding and darting at every noise of the ice cracking.

SPEAKER_05 50:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 50:03

And he was starting to get like insane headaches.

SPEAKER_05 50:06

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:07

So he started avoiding the rest of the crew, hiding in the dark corners of the ship. He refused to sleep in the communal uh places.

SPEAKER_03 50:15

Right.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

Um, he would creep into like a like a freezing hold in the in the in the ship at night. Um sounds terrible. Yeah, he would sleep with the rats. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:25

There are still rats? Why didn't they eat those?

SPEAKER_02 50:28

I don't know if they would have caught them. There's not much there. There's not much meat there. Have you seen a rat?

SPEAKER_05 50:34

But less oily. Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying it would be good.

Setbacks, Dynamite, And Stubborn Ice

SPEAKER_02 50:39

Yeah, so Tolfson would flinch in cower as if expecting expecting a blow whenever anyone would approach. Oh, really? Yeah. So Captain Lequant recorded that the man's quote spirit is troubled by delusions of grandeur and mad terrors, noting that Tollifson had become paranoid that others were plotting against him.

SPEAKER_05 51:01

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 51:03

Yes. Tollofson became fixated on a French word he kept hearing.

SPEAKER_05 51:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:09

And I'm sorry I'm not French.

SPEAKER_05 51:10

You're definitely not.

SPEAKER_02 51:11

It's written like the word chose.

SPEAKER_05 51:14

Chose?

SPEAKER_02 51:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:15

Chose?

SPEAKER_02 51:16

Chose.

SPEAKER_05 51:17

Chosa.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Something like that.

SPEAKER_05 51:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:19

And it means thing.

SPEAKER_05 51:20

Thing.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

Like that thing over there.

SPEAKER_05 51:22

Did you ever see the movie The Thing with Kurt Russell? It was in the I want to say 82 fuck 82? We should watch that. It's a really good movie. It's actually I I I haven't watched it in years, but it's really good. So anyways.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

Tollipson didn't speak French and somehow still convinced himself that the word Chosa meant kill.

SPEAKER_05 51:46

Not thing.

SPEAKER_02 51:50

He didn't know French.

SPEAKER_05 51:51

No, no, no, I know. That's my point. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

So every time the crew would say the word, he thought that they were signaling a plan to execute him.

SPEAKER_05 52:02

So they know look at that thing. Yeah. Oh dear.

SPEAKER_02 52:05

So he took a physic he took to physically lunging at anyone who said choose up. Oh, Jesus. Attacking them to preempt his imagined murder. And it reached the point where Dr. Cook and the others had to watch Tollifson constantly in case he would hurt someone else or himself.

SPEAKER_05 52:22

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 52:23

Now the only person that Tollison seemed to trust was Jan Van Mirlo, the same um soldier who had suffered his own breakdown earlier.

SPEAKER_03 52:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

So Van Mirlo, having recovered from his hysterical bout, volunteer volunteered to act as Tollison's caretaker.

SPEAKER_05 52:42

At least he took on that duty because clearly he went through it. I don't know what he remembers from it, but hey, I got you, buddy. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 52:50

So um Van Mirlo later recalled that Tolfson's decline truly began after Danko's death back in June.

SPEAKER_05 52:57

Oh, gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 52:59

And that was like a broken spirit in this Norwegian.

SPEAKER_05 53:02

Right.

SPEAKER_02 53:03

So Tollifson would spend hours writing letters to his sweetheart, a woman named Agnes back home pouring out his misery and his parapho paranoid fantasies.

SPEAKER_05 53:14

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 53:14

He had no way to actually send these letters.

SPEAKER_05 53:17

Well, of course.

SPEAKER_02 53:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 53:18

But But it's almost kind of like journaling. That's it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

Well, he would go out onto the ice and mail them.

SPEAKER_05 53:24

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_02 53:24

He would actually place them in a snow mound.

SPEAKER_05 53:27

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_02 53:29

Thinking it was a mailbox. And the crew actually played along. They would go out and retrieve the letters and then tell Tollifson that they were on their their way to the side.

SPEAKER_05 53:37

I was just gonna ask. Okay, good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:39

So I know, like.

SPEAKER_05 53:42

No, I know.

SPEAKER_02 53:43

It it's it's kind.

SPEAKER_05 53:45

It is. I mean, at that point, it's like, yeah, yeah, we'll play along.

SPEAKER_02 53:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

So Tollifson's condition worsened as November turned to December. He stopped speaking altogether. His eyes would become vacant. Um he wasn't fully there.

SPEAKER_03 54:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

The only test that he could do was scrape seal hides, kind of a mindless repetitive work. Sure. And he did that pretty um ineffectively.

SPEAKER_05 54:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

He would drop the tool and then he would like stare in his face for a while. Yeah. Um, the others would find him muttering or whimpering in corners. Oh dear. And again, when anyone would come near, Tolfson cringed and bowed his head as if awaiting like a blow to the head.

SPEAKER_05 54:28

Jesus Christ. Yeah. Although no one ever No.

SPEAKER_02 54:33

No.

SPEAKER_05 54:34

All right. Wow. Nope.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

He was just paranoid.

SPEAKER_05 54:36

Sure. He was almost going like schizophrenic.

SPEAKER_02 54:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 54:39

I don't know if that's the right word, but you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 54:42

By January of 1899, nearly a year trapped in the ice, the Belgica was still sealed in by seven feet of packed ice. Holy fuck. Summer was slipping away, and if they didn't break free soon, a second winter would most certainly kill them.

Breaking Free After 13 Months

SPEAKER_05 54:58

Well I mean, if the winter didn't kill them, they would kill each other at this point.

SPEAKER_02 55:04

So and then there's that mutiny we were talking about.

SPEAKER_05 55:07

Mutiny and the bounty.

SPEAKER_02 55:09

So supplies were low, scurvy was always kind of lurking, um, and desperation was rising. Now Degur Gerloche, who was now mostly recovered, met with Cook and Amundsen.

SPEAKER_05 55:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:21

And they spotted open water maybe half a mile away.

SPEAKER_05 55:25

So they're like, let's break our way to it? Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:28

So Cook prov uh proposed that they carve a canal through the ice by hand all the way to freedom.

SPEAKER_05 55:34

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 55:35

Hand saws, pickaxes, chisels, and a little bit of dynamite.

SPEAKER_05 55:42

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

Yes, and they would work under these 24-hour daylights, because it's fully day now. Like daylight now.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

Yeah, yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 55:50

They chipped and blasted through thick, stubborn ice, gaining just a few yards per day. Oh boy. Now, their unlikely fuel was penguin meat. Penguin meat.

SPEAKER_05 56:03

Fuel for the people?

SPEAKER_02 56:06

No. Yes, because it was eaten in bulk now.

SPEAKER_05 56:10

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 56:12

And the vitamin C was being provided for them now.

SPEAKER_05 56:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:17

And so now they're becoming strong enough to actually dig their way out.

SPEAKER_05 56:22

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 56:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 56:23

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 56:24

So for leaks weeks the labor continued, and by the end of January 1899, they had sought a channel over a mile long through the ice. Three. Three feet thick at minimum.

SPEAKER_05 56:37

Like three feet wide or thick.

SPEAKER_02 56:39

Like water.

SPEAKER_05 56:41

No, the ice is three feet. Oh my God.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:44

Holy balls.

SPEAKER_02 56:45

So with every foot gain, Morel would inch up a little bit. They could see the progress. The a little dark ribb ribbon of water would extend behind them where there once was solid ice.

SPEAKER_05 56:56

So I don't know if you came across this. I apologize if you haven't. When they're cutting this channel, whatever you want to call it, were they moving forward as they went with the ship?

SPEAKER_02 57:10

They were. So they were cutting at like angles.

SPEAKER_05 57:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:14

They would cut at angles and like those would like push out and then would push out and then push out and then push out.

SPEAKER_05 57:21

So the ship would push out or they would push that out.

SPEAKER_02 57:24

I think they would push that out.

SPEAKER_05 57:25

So how did because like I I'm sure I'm just not mentally thinking of this properly. Because I've never had to go through this. I know. But like having that the the the hull of the ship stuck in ice, right? You would have to chip that away too, correct?

SPEAKER_02 57:43

You would, yes.

SPEAKER_05 57:44

So like you would have to make it wide enough. Not only is it three feet fucking deep of ice.

SPEAKER_02 57:50

So I don't know if you can see this.

SPEAKER_05 57:51

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 57:54

But that's like what the channel would look like while it's being cut.

SPEAKER_05 57:58

Wow.

unknown 57:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:59

That's weird.

SPEAKER_02 58:00

Is that on the camera?

SPEAKER_05 58:01

Yeah. You can. I'll I'll try and zoom in on it when we when we uh get to that point. But man, that because if fuck, that would be tough as shit.

SPEAKER_02 58:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:12

And you would think they would keep moving the ship as they're doing this, because otherwise it's like, all right, go and do this mile long or however long it was stretch, then we'll move the boat. No, keep fucking moving the boat closer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:25

But we're also working with currents here, too.

Homecoming, Legacy, And Lessons

SPEAKER_05 58:27

Well, right, of course, because the ice is moving, the water's moving. I just hit my nose and that was weird. I'm sorry. But yeah, no, currents, ice, everything is against them at this point. So okay.

SPEAKER_02 58:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

Okay, so just as they would near completion, a sudden shift of winds. And current in early February caused the pack ice to press in again. Come on. And their cut channel had was closed up again.

SPEAKER_05 59:01

Like completely? Oh fuck. Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 59:05

Some men wanted to give up right then and there.

SPEAKER_05 59:08

Well, can you blame them? No. They literally just spent all this time and energy, even though they're, you know, fueled by fucking penguin meat. And then it's like, nope, JK.

SPEAKER_02 59:19

Yeah. Wow. So one diary entry hinted that they even discussed the possibility of abandoning ship and trying to sled north to safety, but obviously that was a little bit suicidal.

SPEAKER_05 59:35

Well, where would you go?

SPEAKER_02 59:36

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 59:37

I mean, you yeah, you can go north to the water.

SPEAKER_02 59:39

Belgica was their only lifeline.

SPEAKER_05 59:41

Yeah, because otherwise you're fucked. You can't get off this ice continent.

SPEAKER_02 59:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 59:47

Right?

SPEAKER_02 59:48

I mean so they decided we're gonna try again.

SPEAKER_05 59:53

Dynamite.

SPEAKER_02 59:56

They would save the dynamite for really, really thick pieces.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:00

Sure, makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:02

So they would re-clear the channel, constantly keeping it open by patrolling for new ice formation, and by now it was February, which was the last month of summer. Yeah, the weather would soon turn, and any chance of escape would have vanished.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:15

And like you said, they probably would have died.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:17

So okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

So in the pre-dawn hours of February 15th, 1899, around 2 a.m., it's probably still light out.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:25

A sailor on watch poked his head above deck and saw something.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:28

What did he see?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:29

The channel was finally free of ice. Like it just started like just open water just happened.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:35

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:37

The winds or currents had shifted in their favor this time, breaking the last of the barriers.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:43

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:44

And Dave uh Gerloche was sleeping in his cabin and was awoken with the good news. Like, hey cap. Um, for the first time in over a year, since March 2nd of the previous year.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:56

Oh my god, that's a long time.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:58

The Belgica's engines were engaged and her propeller began to turn.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:02

Oh, they actually had engines. Was it a coal like that was fueled by coal? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:06

But they had not run it for a year.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:09

Almost a year, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:10

Slowly the ship shuttered and began to move under her own power. Wow. Um, gliding into the the channel of water. It took them nearly a month to actually escape the pack.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:25

Holy shit. So they're already like mid-March, later a little bit past mid-March. Oh my God.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:32

The channel would start to close up behind them, and at times they had to stop and recut or wait wait for another breakup. Jesus. They inched along, covering only seven miles in those weeks.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:44

God, that sucks.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:46

Men were stationed at the bow with long poles to push like stray flows away.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:51

Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:52

They navigated pressure ridges and dense flow fields, and finally they pushed forward through the ice. And then at last, on March 14th of 1899, they sighted clear, open ocean ahead. The Belgica broke into free water and left the last of the flows behind them. They were finally clear of the ice pack exactly 13 months after becoming trapped.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:18

Do you think when they're going through they're like free at last, free at last? I don't remember the quote. Blah, blah, blah. We're free at last. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:27

I don't know what that is.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:28

I'll have to look that up because I see don't.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:32

I hate it.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:34

Excuse you. Jesus. So Wow, so 13 months trapped in the ice.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:43

Holy fuck.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:44

They had saved it themselves. Their ordeal was essentially over. Like, well, no additional hiccups on the way home.

Beers Recapped And Closing

SPEAKER_05 1:02:54

None? No. So they had all those hiccups on the way out. They lost a guy early on. They got frozen in the fucking ice for 13 months. Like, smooth sailing, boys. What the fuck?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:06

The Belgic. So the Belgica um almost obviously the overnight, the mood instantly arose and everything.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:14

Obviously.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:15

Yeah. It would still be many months before they like saw home. But it was it was happy and it was light and it wasn't entrapment.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:28

They're like, We got this, boys. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:31

So they stopped at Punta Arenas, Chile. And the locals, this is where they started from.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:38

That's right, yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:39

So the locals were like, oh shit, we thought you guys were dead.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:43

Holy crap. You're still alive?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:46

Yeah. So Roald Amundsen and two other Norwegian crew members jumped off there and ended up catching like a male boat back to Europe. I'm sure they were like, get me out of this ship.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:58

Is that full of men?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:00

A male boat? Yeah. Well, they're probably like, get me out of this ship. I don't care.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:06

I would have hopped on the female boat.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:08

Well.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:09

Anyways.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:10

So the rest returned home on the Belgica, arriving in Antwerp, Belgium, on November 5th, 1899, over two years after they had left.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:20

November 5th. So remember, remember the 5th of Antwerp. Um so Jesus, two years and just under three months. Holy fuck. Yes. And it's honestly everything you've said. That's it. You know, it feels like it should have been like fucking seven years that they were gone, but holy crap.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:46

So their welcome was full of brass bands and church bells and speeches and decorations, and every crew member received the order of Leopold, um, which was uh an honor, I guess. It was like a high honor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Their names were etched into Antwerp's book of heroes. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:06

Of Antwerp's.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:09

Um, excuse me, they were pioneers who brought scientific glory to a young nation. So they um collected a lot of meteorologic, um, meteorological meteorological, scientific data, magnetic data, I don't know if I got it right, biological data, all of that.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:32

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:33

Um, most of the men regained their physical strength, but the psychology, the psychological effects kind of lingered on.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:40

Um I'd be shocked if they fucking didn't.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:42

Tollifson. The one that went crazy, he was institutionalized after returning home.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:48

Oh shit, really? He couldn't even make it through.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:51

Some others died young. Um, that's sad. Deja Losh um faced quite criticism for leading this. Into the ice in the first place.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:01

That's the captain. For some reason, I'm like, that's first mate. No, that's the captain. Okay. Well, he wanted to spend a winter. Yeah. I feel I still feel like that's not accurate, but I obviously don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:15

So Amundsen.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:17

That's the first mate.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:20

Yes. He was the one that was a veteran from the Arctic.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:24

Yeah. So he found out that fresh meat prevents scurvy.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:30

Um, he went to the South Pole in 1911.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:34

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:34

So South Pole was different than where they were.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:37

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:38

They were on the edge of the island. South Pole is like 800 plus miles inland.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:43

It's the bottom of the earth.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:45

It is the bottom of the earth.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:46

What year did you say? 1911?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:47

1911.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:48

Oh, that's when Reagan was born.

unknown 1:06:51

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:51

Baba Venga.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:52

Um, Dr. Frederick Cook, the savior.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:57

Is that what's on his tombstone?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:59

Oh, I'm sure. But he was the one that was credited with feeding and treating and rallying the crew.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:05

Well, he he made the captain be like, dude, yeah, you gotta Wow, I did not mean to hit that. You gotta do this, dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:12

Because look at your gums. I can see your fucking roots of your teeth for the love of God. You're bleeding, your joints are.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:19

Some of their teeth just came out all together.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:21

I'm sure they did. So he, if it wasn't for Cook, they would have been cooked. Sorry, I couldn't resist. I'm sorry. That was really bad, and I intended it to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:32

So anyways, the polar madness, the phrase polar madness started gaining um traction because of the b uh this Belgica.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:45

Future expeditions took note. There were better crews, fresher food, more structured routines.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:50

Less scurvy.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:52

The men were hailed as heroes, but carry memories like Emile Danko's death, um, the endless nights, the crewmates unraveling, and this had seen like the limits of sanity survival and had survived all of this.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:07

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:08

Now, at the very beginning, you had mentioned that you think you've heard of this story. Is that the story that you've heard?

SPEAKER_05 1:08:14

Not exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:16

So the Belgica's legacy is huge because it was the first overwinter expedition, but it's often overshadowed by Ernest Shackleton's endurance expedition. That might be the one in 1914 to 1917.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:32

Okay. So that might be the one I'm thinking of.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:35

Yeah. So um he set out to cross Antarctica via the South Pole.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:39

His ship, the Endurance, got trapped and eventually crushed by pack ice before they even reached the continent.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:46

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:46

And stranded with no way forward, Shackleton led his 27-man crew through an a survival saga, camping on ice flows, sailing lifeboats across brutal seas, and eventually hiking across South Georgia Island to get help. Miraculously, not a single man died.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:05

That's crazy. Yes. Maybe that's what I was thinking of.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:08

Many, yeah, many people who know of an Antarctica explorer is it's about the endurance.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:13

Okay. Maybe that's what I was thinking of, but I mean, obviously, similarities, but not the same, but okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:20

Um all this information is in the Madhouse at the end of the Earth book, and this is by Julian Sancton. Nice. And um there are pictures in here as well, and I will put some of them up on our YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:32

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:33

Yeah, so how was your beer?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:36

All three of them are delicious.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:37

I really like the grapefruit one.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:39

So you had said it's pretty grapefruity early on. How is it now that you've had you've even opened the second one?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:46

It's not as like pow in your face.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:48

It's definitely subtle now.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:49

So it was oh shoffen hype. I don't remember the goddamn name. Fuck. It's also an import. I pointed it out when we bought this. The bottles, whatever. And then we also have obviously the Domingo. What's your favorite?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:10

Oh, I probably couldn't tell you without one, two, three there to try.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:14

Domingo, but alright. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:15

I hope that's the same.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:16

Domingo's the right answer.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:19

Anyways. No, um, I've had. As you know, I'm not as big of a lager fan. Uh the pills was better than I expected. I've never had that one. I have had the Munich Lager, the Munchner lager, better than I remember. And the Heffy Not as good as I remember. I don't know if it's because if it's in a can, not on tap or something or other.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:44

I'm not saying it's bad.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:46

But like meh meh. But I like the others. I think you're gonna like the other two, so we'll have you try those as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:54

Sounds good. Well, I suppose.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:56

Alright, buffoons. That's it for today's episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:59

Buckle up because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you next time. Feeling hungry for more buffoonery? Or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:10

Hit us up on social media. We're History Buffoons Podcast on YouTube, X, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also email us at History Buffoons Podcast at gmail.com. We are Bradley and Kate, music by Corey Akers.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:24

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SPEAKER_05 1:11:29

Until next time, stay curious and don't forget to rate and review us.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:33

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