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- [00:00]
Dana Schwartz
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. A man is waiting for the wind. Specifically, he's waiting for a northbound wind to carry him, his two man crew, and their balloon from an island in the Arctic Ocean all the way to the North Pole. They plan to map their journey, note the weather, the ice, and whatever else might be up there, and continue on their way to Alaska if they're lucky. Russia if they're not. It's 1897. For centuries, people have tried to reach the North Pole by boat or by foot or dog sled. But no one has come close. No one has ever tried going there in a balloon. Few have even dreamt of anything like this, except one man. Our man. Salomon Auguste. Andre. He is tall and blond, with a broad forehead and a dangling feathery mustache. For the past 20 years, he's spent his spirit time flying and studying balloons. He's become an expert of sorts. Enough that by July 1897, he's confident and ready. The balloon has been sewed, sealed, and triple checked. There's extra equipment and plenty of food. Andre has even packed a tuxedo for all of the celebratory dinners he imagines he'll attend upon landing. Now they just need that wind. Finally, on the morning of the 11th, clouds blow in from the south. The wind has picked up. It's time. A gentle snow falls as the three men climb into the ballooned basket. Andre gives a clear and simple command. Cut out comes a knife. The ropes are severed, and the balloon rises. It catches that northerly wind. The men are on their own now, and all the rest of the world can do is wait. Welcome to very Special Episodes, an I Heart original podcast. I'm your host, Dana Schwartz, and this is the Arctic Balloon. Okay, I'm gonna dive right in. Did any of you guys watch the TV show the Terror?
- [02:50]
Zarin Burnett
No.
- [02:51]
Jason English
No? Is it good?
- [02:52]
Dana Schwartz
I loved it. It's about a failed Arctic expedition, and I think I just sort of have a fixation a little bit on explorer voyages that go wrong.
- [03:03]
Jason English
Like Shackelford.
- [03:05]
Dana Schwartz
Yeah, Shackelford. There was just an article about, like, the way that journey was mismanaged. And I read the wager, which is a little different because it was a, you know, shipwreck survival story. But something about, like, the hubris of, like, 19th century explorers just really gets to me. And I had no idea about this story, which I found so exciting and so silly. Like, you also understand why it worked. But also, if you told anyone you were flying a balloon to the North Pole, you. Anyone would be like, That's a bad idea.
- [03:37]
Jason English
Yeah, like hot air balloon into freezing temperatures. This is not a good mix.
- [03:41]
Zarin Burnett
Yeah, I can't relate to most things in this episode. I'll never be up on a hot air balloon. I hate the cold.
- [03:49]
Jason English
Dana, what about you?
- [03:50]
Dana Schwartz
No, and I never would be. I like reading about it, but I would never submit myself to the elements in that way. Too dangerous.
- [03:55]
Zarin Burnett
The one part that I did relate to was the part where he's envisioning all the celebratory dinners he'll be invited to and decides to pack a tux. Like I say pack a tux. Just who knows? Like you. You gotta be ready. I like spirit.
- [04:13]
Dana Schwartz
If you were an explorer in the late 19th century, looking to go where no one else had gone, the North Pole would have held a certain appeal. What might lie up there? What might live up there?
- [04:27]
Alec Wilkinson
It was a very big time, this Victorian idea of we must know the Earth. It was also a period when myths were far more resonant in the lives of human beings than they are now. Absolutely anything could be waiting up there at the North Pole.
- [04:44]
Dana Schwartz
Alec Wilkinson wrote a book about Salomon Auguste Andre's voyage. It's called the Ice Balloon.
- [04:52]
Alec Wilkinson
These were God stricken people. They just believed that this is the holy place, the place where the myths gather, the spirits gather, the winds come from. We need to get there.
- [05:05]
Dana Schwartz
Over the centuries, many had attempted to reach the North Pole, but none were successful. The Arctic was and is a terrain that pushed the limits of the human mind and body. Ships were abandoned, frozen in the ice or crushed by it. Traveling by ski or dog sled was no better. The ice was a beast no one could tame. Everyone turned back or worse, didn't return at all. They died from starvation, from scurvy or lead poisoning, from exposure or cold, from going insane. And so for centuries, the North Pole remained un untouched. It, along with its sister, the South Pole, were considered the last unmapped lands in the world. By the late 1800s, there was a concerted effort among countries including the UK, Sweden, the US and Norway to research and map the area. It was the age of invention. And the intrigue had now turned scientific. How did the poles work? Was there land or ice or just swirling vortexes of wind? And even the simple question, what was the weather like? In 1893, the famed Norwegian explorer Fridjof Nansen set sail on a ship designed to withstand the crush of Arctic ice. Two years later, he had still not reached the North Pole. So Nansen and another man left the rest of the crew on the ship and decided to advance on skis. But the ice and cold were too much. Eventually, Nansen was forced to turn around. He made it back to Norway in August 1896, three years after the journey started. Which leads us to our guy, Salomon Auguste Andre. At first glance, Andre may not have been the most obvious polar explorer candidate. He had spent much of his professional life working at the Swedish patent office in Stockholm. He was a trained engineer and a scientist, and much of his job involved traveling around Europe looking for new and interesting inventions.
- [07:37]
Alec Wilkinson
Andre was a futurist. It was a period, I think, when the belief was pervasive that there was nothing that science couldn't accomplish. If you could imagine it and think it, you might be able to bring it about.
- [07:51]
Dana Schwartz
He was fascinated by innovation.
- [07:54]
Alec Wilkinson
He became interested in these hydrogen balloons, learned to fly them.
- [07:57]
Dana Schwartz
Andre had long been captivated by the possibility of using a hydrogen balloon to travel long distances over long periods of time, days or even weeks.
- [08:10]
Alec Wilkinson
Andre had this really quite revolutionary idea. Clearly, ships are never going to reach the pole. The ice is too formidable. The circumstances are just simply too dreadful to survive in the most hostile environment on earth. So he had this extraordinary idea of thinking, well, maybe we should use the Air.
- [08:34]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
Ballooning is mostly dependent upon the atmospheric conditions. When you go up in a balloon, you're trying to look for the air currents that will take you the direction in which you want to go.
- [08:48]
Dana Schwartz
Merrilee Schmidt Nason is a former curator at the Albuquerque Balloon Museum. She worked on an exhibit there called Art Arctic Air the Bold Flight of SA Andre. As she explains, flying balloons puts you very much at the mercy of the weather.
- [09:07]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
When you take off in a balloon, of course, you want to be launching within certain wind variables.
- [09:14]
Dana Schwartz
Balloons, especially gas balloons, are not like boats where you can try to plot a course through the water. With a balloon, it's a constant battle with physics, with wind, temperature, gravity, and weight. The goal is to maintain a certain altitude without losing too much gas, which is easier said than done. Baden Baden Powell from the Royal Aeronautical Society once described the precariousness of balloon flight. Like a ray of sunshine, a puff of cold or warm wind, a touch of damp mist, all caused the balloon to rise or fall. So Andre knew he couldn't just rely on the winds to guide him.
- [10:02]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
Most gas balloons at Andre's time just go up and they look for the different currents. Andre had the idea that he could steer his balloon by using a couple of different methods.
- [10:18]
Dana Schwartz
One way is to use an engine to go faster than the Wind. That's much of the idea behind something like a zeppelin. But Andre decided to use heavy ropes to slow down his balloon. This meant, in theory, he could then use a sail in much the same way as if he were on a boat. He tested his radio, rope and sail system in a small balloon, taking various short trips over and around Sweden. After spending a total of over 40 hours traveling over 900 miles, Andre was convinced it worked.
- [10:57]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
He had done enough test flights in his smaller balloon, the Svea, that, you know, he had some actual data that said that this method of flying was possible with the sails and the rope.
- [11:14]
Dana Schwartz
He now had proof of concept, but he also wanted the backing of his fellow scientific community. In the summer of 1895, Andre traveled to London to present his idea at the 6th International Geographic Congress. He pitched his idea of a flight to the North Pole with confidence.
- [11:35]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
It would seem as if it were about time to look into the matter carefully, with a view to ascertaining whether there is no other means of transportation than the sledge available for a journey in the regions referred to. I refer to the balloon.
- [11:51]
Dana Schwartz
The concept was now out in the public, which also meant it was open to public scrutiny.
- [11:58]
Alec Wilkinson
Well, he had all kinds of skeptics. The objections raised from you know you're going to die to you cannot justify bringing others along with you. It's one thing if you want to do it on your own, but to bring companions is to put at risk the lives of others for your not demented, but rather extravagant hope that this project of yours, which has no precedent, will succeed, because the other side of it is death.
- [12:29]
Dana Schwartz
But Andre also had a host of supporters and most importantly, two influential allies. The engineer and inventor Alfred Nobel and King Oscar II of Sweden. With their encouragement and resources, Andre quickly raised enough money for his expedition. Now all he needed to do was was build a balloon, one that could take him all the way to the North Pole. It's the summer of 1896. Andre is in Svalbard, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. He's camped on a small outpost called Danes island, about 700 miles south of the North Pole. He'd spent much of the past year in Paris overseeing the construction of his balloon and preparing for the trip. He's used the finest craftsman, and he spared no expense. The balloon, which was named Ernan, or the Eagle, was made of multiple levels of silk, the color of a dusty rose. Fully inflated, it was nearly 100ft tall. And there were dozens of innovations, many of which Andre devised himself, like a cook stove that hung below the basket so it could be lit and snuffed out at a safe distance from the extremely flammable hydrogen gas that kept their craft aloft. There was lots of storage, too. Andre packed provisions for four months. He had a first aid kit and extra clothes. There was also a Swedish flag, buoys to drop as markers, and a bottle of champagne. He had been careful in choosing the men who'd accompany him, too. The respected meteorologist Niels Ekholm, whose work later helped coin the term the greenhouse effect, and the young physicist Nils Strindberg. The one thing Andre left to chance was where they'd land after passing over the North Pole. They'd have to see what the wind was like up there, which way it blew them. So Andre also packed three big sleds for traveling across the snow and ice. He packed hunting guns, a sleeping bag that fit three men, a tent and a camping stove. And, of course, all the scientific equipment needed to plot their course and make observations and measurements, along with a banger of a camera to capture a world that no one else had seen.
- [15:26]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
One of his major things that he wanted to carry out was the mapping of of the Arctic so that future explorers to the region would know what they might find. I think that was probably the most important scientific reason for him to go.
- [15:44]
Dana Schwartz
That's museum curator and balloon expert Marilee Nason.
- [15:48]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
Again, in terms of the instruments that he took along, I think they were absolutely the best instruments that were available at the time. The camera was state of the art. It had both a single lens and stereoscopic lenses.
- [16:08]
Dana Schwartz
For every doubt raised, Andre had an answer or a solution. He was confident and unfazed.
- [16:17]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
You know, he was an engineer. He was very systematic in the way he went about how he might do this. He did a really good job of figuring things out. I mean, he had drawings of everything. I mean, he really thought about what he was doing.
- [16:35]
Dana Schwartz
And now here he was In August of 1896, some 700 miles from the North Pole, waiting for his dream to be realized, when his team, which included his two flight mates, plus dozens of scientists and carpenters to help with the launch, had sailed to Svalbard from mainland Sweden. In June, a crowd, 40,000 deep cheered as their boat pulled away from the docks. It had taken them weeks to set up. The crew first had to construct a massive wooden structure to hold the balloon until takeoff. There was also hydrogen to be concocted, silk to be varnished, ropes to be tested, and of course, the balloon itself had to be filled and checked again and again for leaks. Dozens of ships carrying both gawkers and reporters also arrived. So many journalists visited that Andre spent hours each day talking to them. He was hailed as a national hero in Sweden. Sweden. The world was on his side. Unfortunately, the wind wasn't.
- [17:50]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
The correct winds never came.
- [17:52]
Dana Schwartz
Yes. Andre had figured out a way to steer the balloon once it was in the air. But the eagle still relied on the wind to get going.
- [18:02]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
So he was waiting for winds from the south to take him to the north. That didn't happen. This happens very often in long distance balloon flight.
- [18:13]
Dana Schwartz
He couldn't afford to wait any longer. Literally, the insurance on the ship that had brought them, a ship that was still waiting there, was about to lapse. So he made a tough but practical decision. He called off the trip. The crew opened the valves on the balloon. It took seven hours to deflate.
- [18:38]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
A lot of people thought, oh, Andre's a failure. You know, he took all this stuff there in 1896 and he didn't take off. Well, that's kind of how it goes with gas balloon flying. I think one of the things that some people don't understand about the first Andre attempt is he was doing the right thing by not taking off. You know, the correct conditions did not exist.
- [19:05]
Dana Schwartz
To call this a disappointment was an understatement. Andre may have known he had made the right call, but the timing could not have been worse. The Norwegian explorer Fridjof Nansen had finally returned home from his three year journey. He never reached the Pole, but he had gotten close, closer than anyone else had before. And he'd survived an entire winter in the Arctic. He was a national hero for Norway. Andre had wanted to do this for Sweden. And now he returned to Stockholm unadorned and uncelebrated. No cheering fans, no scientific discoveries, no world records. Instead, he went back to work at the patent office. But despite the setback, his faith in his balloon never altered. He saw no reason not to try again. Critically, Alfred Nobel was still offering his support, as were many others. So Andre started planning for a new attempt the following year. But while Andre had no apprehensions, others did. One was Fridjof Nansen himself, himself, who told Andre he thought the plan was too dangerous. Another was Nils Ekhom, the meteorologist on Andre's own crew. After the disappointment of the previous summer, he publicly dragged the balloon's capabilities and decided to drop out. Andre paid it little mind. Nils Strindberg, the physicist and photographer, was still on board, and Eckholm was quickly replaced with Knut Fraenkel. Besides being trained as A civil engineer, Frankel was young and athletic. By June of 1897, the men were back on Svalbard, getting ready for liftoff. Take two. But again they waited for the wind. And waited. The days ticked by. The men kept busy. Strindberg used the state of the art camera to take photos of the launch area. He wrote letters to his fiance. Back on the mainland, Frankel helped supervise balloon preparations. Andre was always on the move, overseeing everything. There was always more to double, triple check. So when that north blowing wind finally came, the morning of July 11th, they were ready. The conditions were good, or good enough. It was time to go. Andre spoke to the press once more before departing.
- [21:50]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
At least not before Three months and one year, perhaps two years may elapse before you hear from us. And you may one day be surprised by news of our arrival somewhere. And if not, if you never hear from us, others will follow in our wake until the unknown regions of the north have been surveyed.
- [22:11]
Dana Schwartz
That afternoon, in front of a cheering crowd, the ropes holding the Eagle are cut.
- [22:22]
Alec Wilkinson
In the end, no matter what he had planned and how he had managed to cover himself, there was still going to be a moment when the balloon lifted off. And no one knew what would happen.
- [22:34]
Dana Schwartz
And almost immediately, they hit a snag.
- [22:37]
Alec Wilkinson
If one were looking for an omen, it happens immediately after launching.
- [22:43]
Dana Schwartz
There's a problem with the guide ropes which had been laid out on the beach.
- [22:48]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
As the balloon took off, the joints that held the different sections of the ropes were spinning and detached themselves.
- [22:59]
Dana Schwartz
This was not part of the plan.
- [23:02]
Alec Wilkinson
So they've lost some of their ability before they're even 200 yards from the launch site to control their altitude as carefully and as precisely as they'd like.
- [23:14]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
To be able to do so. Unfortunately, at the time of takeoff, he lost what he was really relying on to influence the direction of the balloon through the flight. So instead of being what he thought was going to be a dirigible, a directable balloon that he could orient the way that he wanted to, it became a free balloon.
- [23:40]
Dana Schwartz
Despite having no way to steer, the men are in good spirits. The balloon is in the air. They're heading north and making good time. Andre writes in in his journal.
- [23:51]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
It is not a little strange to be floating here above the polar sea, to be the first that have floated here in a balloon. How soon, I wonder, shall we have successors? Shall we be thought mad, or will our example be followed? I cannot deny that all three of us are dominated by a feeling of pride.
- [24:13]
Dana Schwartz
That night they celebrate, they drink some Alex, But Flight itself is becoming difficult because there is something amidst all their calculations that they hadn't thought about the sun, or rather the lack thereof.
- [24:31]
Alec Wilkinson
A hydrogen balloon has to be managed fairly carefully. As long as the sun falls on it and heats the gas, it will advance or it will stay aloft.
- [24:45]
Dana Schwartz
And as it turns out, the weather in July is quite foggy.
- [24:51]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
One of the problems, I think, was that there was very little weather science at that point. People really didn't know what the weather was at the North Pole or, you know, that whole region. I think Andre made some assumptions that it was going to be clear sailing. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't.
- [25:14]
Alec Wilkinson
It's not as if they had the records of the past 50 years to determine what's the best time for sunlight. They're going into the unknown in these overcast conditions.
- [25:26]
Dana Schwartz
Andre's balloon wants to descend. To counteract that, you need to drop weight.
- [25:32]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
The way you control a balloon is by controlling your altitude with your ballast and the amount of gas that you have in your balloon. If there's rain or mist coming down and settling on the top of the balloon, that adds weight and it forces the balloon down.
- [25:54]
Dana Schwartz
The men are tossing ballast, extra rope, anything they can do to keep the balloon in the air. It's not part of the plan, but they feel confident that they can keep going. On July 13, they release one of the carrier pigeons given to them for communicating their progress with the world. It arrives at a boat near Spitzbergen two days later. The message reads, all well on board. But while their spirits remain high, the eagle does not. Despite their best efforts, the balloon has lost too much air. On July 14, 1897, at around 7:30am, the Eagle lands on the Arctic ice. After nearly 65 hours in the air, longer than anyone had ever flown in a balloon before, the men had traveled 517 miles, though not in a straight line. They were still at least 300 miles from the Pole.
- [27:00]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
One thing that I've always been bothered by is the sensationalism that Andre crashed. Well, you know, it was actually a controlled landing. And I think when they figured out they should land, they landed. And he was prepared to travel on the land. Once he got there, he knew that was a possibility. He had anticipated that.
- [27:29]
Dana Schwartz
Strindberg takes some photographs of the eagle on the ice that day. The images show an inky black balloon. It's lying on its side, partially deflated, a fallen creature taking its last breaths. Andre and Frankel stand beside the basket, human shaped specks. All around them is white and gray ice. And sky. It was this particular photograph that actually drew Alec Wilkinson to Andre and his story. It's the COVID of his book the Ice Balloon.
- [28:07]
Alec Wilkinson
It was a very compelling image. It's the most wildly improbable photograph in the annals of exploration. For a while, I didn't even believe it was real.
- [28:16]
Dana Schwartz
It must have seemed unreal to Andre too. His balloon is gone, but his mission is not yet over. Not even close. The men spend the next week preparing. They pack their sleds heavy with clothes, provisions and guns. On July 22, they leave the balloon and head southeast toward Cape Flora on Franz Josef Land. It's a more than 200 mile journey, but Nansen had spent a winter there. And more importantly, they know they'll find a supply of food left especially for stranded explorers like them. They too plan to spend spend the winter there before making their way home. When your home system or appliance breaks down, American Home Shield will help fix.
- [29:15]
Ann Bancroft
Or replace the covered item, no matter its age.
- [29:18]
Dana Schwartz
Visit ahs.com listen for 20% off any plan.
- [29:22]
Nils Strindberg (readings from journal)
See ahs.com contracts for coverage, details, limitations and exclusions. July 22. It is nearly 7pm and we have just packed our sledges ready and intend to start from our landing place. We shall see how we manage to get to Cape Flora. The sledges are heavy to pull.
- [29:50]
Knut Fraenkel (readings from journal)
July 23. Temperature minus 1.5 degrees Celsius. Wind southeast 2.8 meters per second. Sunshine.
- [30:00]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
24Th of July. The salt water in a pool on the ice. The lanes of water on the ice. Troublesome.
- [30:09]
Dana Schwartz
As the men pull their sleds across the Arctic ice, they document their voyage in their journals. Neil Strindberg addresses his writings to his fiance Anna.
- [30:20]
Nils Strindberg (readings from journal)
July 25th. Well, now your Nils knows what it is to walk on the polar ice. We had a little mishap at the start. When we were crossing from our ice floe with the first sledge. It went crooked and fell in. Andre and Frankel crossed over and then suddenly we managed to get the sledge up. But I expect that my pack is wet inside.
- [30:42]
Dana Schwartz
Andre's entries are optimistic and particularly attuned to the details of nature.
- [30:48]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
5Th of August. Some drops of rain fell on all fours. Today, as in the spring of our youth. Great seal on the ice. Many bear tracks. Fulmers, one red gull.
- [31:02]
Dana Schwartz
And Frankl the engineer gets straight to the point.
- [31:06]
Knut Fraenkel (readings from journal)
August 12th. Temperature minus 1.6 degrees Celsius. Wind southwest 4.1 meters per second. Fog.
- [31:16]
Dana Schwartz
But as the weeks pass, it becomes clear that this way of traveling is no small task.
- [31:23]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
19Th of August, the terrain exceedingly tiring. The new snow preventing us from seeing.
- [31:28]
Knut Fraenkel (readings from journal)
Temperature negative 5.5 degrees Celsius. Wind northwest 6.8.
- [31:34]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
It now begins to feel cold. Tonight was the first time I thought of all the love.
- [31:39]
Nils Strindberg (readings from journal)
The immediate goal now is our wintering place. We hope to find things better in the future.
- [31:46]
Dana Schwartz
Reaching Franz Josef Land before winter is beginning to feel unrealistic.
- [32:02]
Ann Bancroft
It's very easy to underestimate, especially in 1897, what the ice is like up in the Arctic and on the Arctic Ocean in particular. It's not at all a flat surface.
- [32:15]
Dana Schwartz
Ann Bancroft, no relation to the actress, is a polar explorer and educator. In 1986, she, as part of an eight person and 49 dog crew, became the first recorded woman to reach the North Pole by crossing the ice.
- [32:33]
Ann Bancroft
Over time, it's that the currents of the ocean and the wind pushes that ice cap around. So as you're traveling on it, it's very deceiving.
- [32:44]
Dana Schwartz
In the Arctic, the ice you're on, it's not stationary. This is sea ice and it's constantly moving. The ice itself can warp, creating ridges and hills, some as tall as buildings. Traveling over or around them is exhausting work. Not to mention you're contending with strong ocean currents pushing you back the way you'd come.
- [33:11]
Ann Bancroft
So you can go 10 miles north, for instance, pushing and pulling, whatever the conditions are, whether they're kind of flat for periods of time or filled with 80 foot walls of ice buckled up like little mountain ranges, which are horrible. You can go to sleep and you'll drift back 10 miles so you can have a zero sum day.
- [33:33]
Dana Schwartz
Ann traveled to the North Pole as part of the Steger International polar expedition. By 1986, the North Pole was no longer terra incognita. Others had managed to reach it, including by aircraft, submarine and snowmobile. But the Steger expedition wanted to travel like how the early explorers did on foot with dog sleds. They wouldn't rely on planes for resupply. They would carry everything they needed for their journey on their own.
- [34:10]
Ann Bancroft
There is a monotony there, you know, it's putting one foot in front of the other.
- [34:17]
Dana Schwartz
So to a certain extent, her trudge across the Arctic ice would have been quite similar to Andre's.
- [34:24]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
9Th of August. At 2:20am we began to get up in the tent. 3:18, the steak ready and the coffee making begun. 3:29, the steak eaten. 3:48, the coffee made. 4:00, clock, the coffee drunk. 5:30 broke camp.
- [34:44]
Ann Bancroft
Our routine is very strict. About when we're moving, how we're moving, when we're eating, how we're drinking. Because everything is tremendous effort, particularly in the Arctic.
- [34:57]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
Our journey today has been terrible. We have not advanced 1000 meters, but with the greatest difficulty have been dodged on from flow to flow.
- [35:08]
Ann Bancroft
It is very, very hard travel. You are in extreme environments that can change very quickly. They can go from a very benign, you know, absolutely beautiful moment where you see the low lying sun and the wind isn't grinding you down and then all of a sudden something changes. You have to be constantly aware.
- [35:27]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
First thing in the morning, I got into the water and so did my son. So that nearly everything became wet through. Strindberg ran into Frankel's sledge and broke the boat. All the sledges turned somersaults repeatedly during the course of the day. The going was good, but the country terrible.
- [35:47]
Ann Bancroft
Just to give you an idea of how arduous the beginning of these journeys are because of the pack ice. The first day in Ada, hours of pushing and pulling, we only made a mile. I said, well, this is going to be the tenor, this is how it's going to be.
- [36:05]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
Tramp on our knees in deep snow, cut our way. The constant mist prevents us from choosing good road. Ever since the start, we have been in very difficult country.
- [36:18]
Dana Schwartz
Not only is the travel difficult, it can also be very dangerous.
- [36:24]
Ann Bancroft
Those currents can pull the ice apart. It's so incredibly strong. And sometimes right before you, you see the ice start to separate in fissures and you've got open water. You know, there's never a dull moment.
- [36:39]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
During the night. The ice had altered very much. Many seals in the large open waters between the floes.
- [36:46]
Dana Schwartz
But even with all this harmony, there's a beauty in the Arctic that's impossible to ignore.
- [36:53]
Ann Bancroft
The light in the Arctic is. It is somewhat different and it is certainly very magical. There were times when I just didn't think I could do it one more moment and then all of a sudden I look up and there's that low lying Arctic sun hitting all the ice crystals. And there's color dancing around the surface of the ice in a way I've never seen it before. And I think, how lucky am I, you know, to be a group of so few that have been able to see the splendor of the Arctic Ocean in this way.
- [37:24]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
The sun touched the horizon at midnight. The landscape on fire. The snow a sea of flame.
- [37:41]
Dana Schwartz
By the end of August, Andre and his companions have been traveling for more than six weeks, but they are still on Pack ice drifting haphazardly south and the already strenuous travel is now compounded by injuries, illness and increasingly worse weather.
- [38:03]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
24Th of August. Last night Frankel had severe diarrhea, but this probably was the result of catching cold. Strindberg's tender foot had been cured by rubbing boot grease on the stocking. Cramp relieved immediately by massage treatment.
- [38:20]
Knut Fraenkel (readings from journal)
August 30th. Temperature negative 6.6 degrees Celsius. Wind northwest 5.25 meters per second.
- [38:30]
Dana Schwartz
On September 7th 17th, however, something momentous happens. They spot an island called New Iceland, or White Island. It's the first land they've seen since leaving Spitsbergen in the balloon, and it instantly raises their spirits. The next day also happens to be a Swedish holiday, Jubilee Day. It's in honor of King Oscar ii, the same king who had supported this very expedition. The men celebrate accordingly.
- [39:06]
Knut Fraenkel (readings from journal)
Minus 3 degrees Celsius. Wind northwest 2.1 meters per second.
- [39:12]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
We had the Swedish flag hoisted and finished the day with a ceremonial meal.
- [39:19]
Nils Strindberg (readings from journal)
Seal steak and ivory gull fried in butter and seal blubber. Seal liver, brain and kidneys. Port wine given by the king. Speech by Andre for the King with royal hurrah. National anthem in unison. Biscuits, butter, cheese, glass of wine. Festive feeling.
- [39:38]
Dana Schwartz
But despite their cheerfulness, as the days pass, the weather continues to get colder, which means the ice starts to freeze together. This makes it harder to hunt for seals, a source of food not just for them, but for the polar bears that live up there.
- [39:58]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
29Th of September. We are still lying off the south side of New Iceland. The bears are coming. The one that visited us last night dragged away our big seal twice. And we should have lost it. If Strindberg had not succeeded in coming so near, the bear that he felt frightened him and made him drop his booty.
- [40:16]
Knut Fraenkel (readings from journal)
September 30th. Temperature negative 7.1 degrees Celsius. Wind north 2.1 meters per second. Stratocumulus.
- [40:27]
Dana Schwartz
And as always, life on the ice holds other perils.
- [40:33]
Knut Fraenkel (readings from journal)
October 2nd. Temperature minus 9 degrees Celsius. Clear sunshine.
- [40:40]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
At 5:30am we heard a thunderous crash. We found that our large, beautiful flow had been splintered into a number of little flows. Our belongings were scattered among several blocks so that we had to hurry. Luckily the weather was so beautiful we could work in haste. No one had lost courage. With such comrades. One should be able to manage under, I may say, any circumstances.
- [41:12]
Dana Schwartz
On October 5, 1897, after months of battling the Arctic fog, ice, snow, currents and polar bears, the trio finally makes it to New Iceland and takes Their first steps on solid ground in almost three months. But there's no time to waste. Winter is coming. In fact, it's here. They immediately get to work building their camp. They erect the tent and set up their stove. They collect driftwood to build a more permanent structure. They're prepared to spend months in the Arctic until spring comes and they can continue back to Sweden. They're prepared to wait.
- [41:57]
Alec Wilkinson
They kept very much to a sort of, you know, 19th century intrepid sense of let's keep our spirits up, boys. No room for gloomy fox here. Because at this point, a reader knows they're doomed. But they don't know. Right up to the end of when their records were kept, they appear to believe they'll be home.
- [42:19]
Dana Schwartz
Back in the lower latitudes, the rest of the world was also waiting for news of Andre's travels. No one had heard from them since July when the carrier pigeon was found. Search parties were sent out and returned empty handed. But people were still hopeful.
- [42:39]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
There were sightings all over the world. You know, we found Andre's balloon or there were three people that were found in different, you know, five, six different parts of the world. It was really kind of a worldwide phenomenon.
- [42:56]
Dana Schwartz
A few things that were found, like buoys marked Andre polar expedition were real. They had been dropped from the Eagle as the balloon had struggled to make its way north. But the other supposed sightings, the messages, they turned out to be just rumors. There was no sign of the men alive or dead. That is, until August 1930, more than three decades later. A Norwegian ship was up in the Arctic on a hunting and science expedition. It anchored near New Iceland. Some of the group went ashore. While exploring the island, the they made a discovery. They'd found a body. Andre's body, what was left of his skeleton was sitting up against a rock ledge. He had on layers and layers of clothes. His rifle was nearby. He even had cartridges in his pocket. Most importantly, there was his journal. The evidence of their trip, of everything they accomplished. Andre had carefully wrapped it in a sweater and a piece of balloon cloth to protect it from the elements. Eventually, the remains of the other two men were also found. Knut Frankl was inside the tent. Neil Strindberg's body had been buried in a shallow grave covered with stones. Canisters and canisters of his undeveloped fear film preserved by the cold were discovered among the men's possessions. More documentation of their journey across the ice. What was left of their bodies, their camp, their equipment was carefully packed up onto boats. It took 33 years, but the men were finally coming home. It's not clear how or why the men died. They still had plenty of food and their stove still worked. But based on when the diary entries end, it must have been only days after arriving on the island. Over the past century, there have been many theories proposed, from parasites to botulism to polar bears to hypothermia. There's no definitive answer. We still don't know what happened to Salomon Auguste Andre, Niels Strindberg and Knut Fraenkel in October 1897. Today, more than 125 years after the eagle flew for the first and last time, it's easy to criticize the choices Andre made, like continuing on after the early loss of the guide ropes. But as the explorer Anne Bancroft reminds us, decisions like that are never so simple.
- [46:06]
Ann Bancroft
There's a tremendous amount at stake. There's a lot of pressure. It doesn't matter if you're in the 1800s or the 20th century or the 21st century. In those older expeditions, you. You know, there was country at stake. In other words, it's very hard to know when the right moment is to back out. It can be very painful because you don't have very many opportunities to raise the funds. And in his case, this was not an uncomplicated venture into a landscape that is relatively unknown. And it's. It's very easy to sit back, maybe criticize, or just even analyze. I'll just be more gentle because we are trying to learn and understand the story.
- [46:57]
Dana Schwartz
In 1926, the famed Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen flew over the North Pole in a hydrogen drigible. He and the crew became the first people to. To cross the Arctic Ocean and the first to indisputably see the North Pole. To do it, they used something very similar to a balloon, which means in the end, Andre's idea was valid, even if it did ultimately lead to his death.
- [47:36]
Alec Wilkinson
He was risking his life for an idea, the radical idea of how this unknown part of the world could be visited so he can't be dismissed. He's the hinge figure that said there is a new and serious way to approach Arctic exploration. I still admire him. I still think it was an extraordinary accomplishment.
- [47:58]
Merrilee Schmidt Nason
The exhibition that we had at the Blue Museum in Albuquerque. The original title was going to be the Doomed Flight of SA Andre. And I don't think it was doomed. I really don't. I think he still wanted to prove some of the ideas that he had and that a balloon was really the way that we were going to reach the North Pole. People malignant Andre, because he tried to do something, and we keep trying to do something. We try to go to the moon or we try to go to Mars. Man always wants to try to do more and explore more and discover more. And, I mean, I think that's kind of the way we're made up. And I think that's what Andre was.
- [48:51]
Dana Schwartz
Trying to do as an explorer. Ann Bancroft sees Andre in herself and in the connective tissue of anyone who's dreamed of doing something that's never been done.
- [49:03]
Ann Bancroft
I think Andre's legacy is perhaps a little bit woven into all of our legacies. What is that? I always grapple with that with myself. You know, what made him kick, what made him be so curious and ambitious, really ambitious to take on what he took on, that persistence. I think those qualities of Andre is the thing that lures me in more so than the actual endeavor, because I try and be quite careful about my critiques. I'm not a historian, and I just think the human spirit to quest and go forward and go out of truly, in this case, comfort zone is really affecting. Fascinating element, you know, what drives us to want to go find that North Pole in a balloon or on the back of a dog sled.
- [50:01]
Zarin Burnett
All right. That was a lot.
- [50:02]
Jason English
Yeah.
- [50:02]
Zarin Burnett
Emotional voyage. It's very important to me that anyone who listened to this episode go look up the photos that we're talking about in there that were developed 33 years later. That was our kind of our entry point into finding the story. And it's just shocking. I mean, any kind of, like, found film is interesting, but these guys vanished off the face of the earth. And then we were able to retrace not only us, but through their diaries. Makes this a very, very special one.
- [50:30]
Dana Schwartz
And I love the mini hoax in this episode that there were fake bird messages that people allegedly received from this failed expedition that turned out to be completely fabricated.
- [50:42]
Jason English
And also, I mean, going back to the photos, I love the image of the eagle, the balloon on the ice, like, just sitting there. Then the guy uses it for the COVID of his book, the Ice Balloon. And by the way, what a great band name that would be. The Ice Balloon. Right. It's like feather hammer. It's just incongruous and memorable. You're just like the Ice Balloon. I'm gonna go see the Ice Balloon on Saturday. You wanna come?
- [51:02]
Zarin Burnett
That's good. I wrote down one other possible band name here. Not nearly as cool, different kind of style, but. Swedish Patent Office. Yes. I thought maybe I'd wear a T shirt with their logo.
- [51:15]
Dana Schwartz
Swedish Patent Office.
- [51:17]
Jason English
Yeah, I can totally see the font. It's perfect. Now, this one was very cinematic. Like, this one definitely had casting. And I kind of went off and I even cast Anne Bancroft. Like, I really had fun with this.
- [51:29]
Salomon Auguste André (readings from journal)
Woo.
- [51:30]
Zarin Burnett
Right.
- [51:30]
Jason English
So for Solomon Auguste, Andre Sa Andre, I was thinking Alexander Skarsgrd.
- [51:35]
Ann Bancroft
He.
- [51:35]
Jason English
He just has the right energy, right?
- [51:37]
Zarin Burnett
Yes, yes.
- [51:38]
Dana Schwartz
He's Nordic. Yeah, totally.
- [51:40]
Jason English
And then I thought for Niall Strindberg, you could do his brother Bill. Bill Skarsgrd. So that way you kind of get like a Casey Affleck, Ben Affleck thing. Like, oh, they're in the movie together. How cute. For Canute Frankel, I was thinking Alex Hawk Anderson. He played Ivar the Boneless in the TV show Vikings. And I thought, once again, Nordic, he'd be really solid. Now for Alfred Nobel, I thought Jared Harris from Chernobyl.
- [52:01]
Zarin Burnett
Ooh, right.
- [52:02]
Jason English
Wouldn't that be fun? Kind of has like a 19th century energy to him.
- [52:05]
Dana Schwartz
He played King George, I believe, in the crown, if I remember correct.
- [52:09]
Josh Fisher
Good call.
- [52:09]
Dana Schwartz
He has that vibe.
- [52:10]
Jason English
Yes, totally. Very regal cat. And for King Oscar II of Sweden, I was thinking Alexander Ludwig, Bjorn Ironsides from Vikings. So I doubled up on Vikings. And then for Anne Bancroft, the explorer, I thought Emily Cox, she played Breeda in the Last Kingdom. If you watch that Netflix series, she's the badass from that one. So I thought we got a bunch of Nordic types and a badass. So there we go.
- [52:33]
Dana Schwartz
I love it.
- [52:34]
Zarin Burnett
If we go the animated film route, I would like to nominate our voice actors from this film. Tom Antonellis, Chris Childs, Josh Fisher. Right here. Heck, yeah. I don't know if you have a SAG card, but maybe we can talk to somebody.
- [52:49]
Jason English
He's got the pipes.
- [52:50]
Zarin Burnett
Great work there.
- [52:54]
Josh Fisher
Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people. This show is hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zarin Burnett and Jason English. Today's episode was written by Mack Montanden and Marissa Brown. Our senior producer is Josh Fisher. Our story editor is Marissa Brown. Editing and sound design by Chris Childs. Additional editing by Mary Dew. Mixing and mastering by Behead Frazier. Original Music by Elise McCoy. Research and fact checking by Marissa Brown and Austin Thompson. Show logo by Lucy Quintanilla. Social clips by Yarberry Media. Special thanks to our voice act actors Tom Antonellis, Chris Childs and Josh Fisher. I am your executive producer and we will see you back here next Wednesday. If you want to email the show, you can always reach us at very special episodesmail.com Very Special Episodes is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
- [53:48]
Dana Schwartz
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.