Against The Odds Wondery

In July 1879, 33 men set sail aboard USS Jeannette on a two-year mission to become the first humans to reach the North Pole. Though many other expeditions have failed, Captain George De Long is confident that a warm northbound current will give them enough momentum to escape getting stuck in the treacherous arctic pack ice. But not long after the journey begins, De Long and his crew realize their journey will be far more daunting than they could have ever imagined.

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It’s September 1879 and the crew of USS Jeannette encounters pack ice that’s thicker than they expected, due to unseasonably cold weather. Captain George De Long is at a loss for how to push through it until the ship’s engineer George Melville proposes an ingenuous solution. But as the arctic winter looms, De Long isn’t sure how long Melville’s plan will work. Their expedition risks getting trapped in one of the harshest environments on Earth.  

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Trapped in polar pack ice, the crew of USS Jeannette settle in for a long, dark winter. As the temperature drops and the ice floes press against her sides, the ship risks suffering grave damage. Morale drops, as the sailors begin to wonder if they’ll ever return safely from the endless expanse of ice. 

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It’s June 1881, and USS Jeannette has been crushed between ice floes and sunk to the bottom of the Arctic Sea. The crew now find themselves stranded on the ice, a thousand miles from Siberia, the nearest inhabited land. If they’re ever going to reach it, they’ll have to endure a brutal march over an inhospitable icescape.

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After months of trekking across the polar ice, the crew of USS Jeannette finally reach open water. Now, they must endure a harrowing ocean crossing in three small, leaky boats to reach Siberia, where they hope to make contact with the native residents, and beg for food and shelter. But finding help in the frozen, maze-like swamps of Siberia’s Lena Delta is easier said than done – and another punishing winter is closing in.




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When author and historian Hampton Sides was deep into researching another polar expedition, he stumbled upon the tragic journey of USS Jeannette. He couldn’t believe Captain De Long’s voyage wasn’t common knowledge. The 33-man crew endured extreme hardship, and only 13 survived what Sides calls “the American Shackleton story.” Hampton Sides joins host Mike Corey to share his own story of tracing the forgotten voyage for his book In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette.