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The first two attempts to reach this remote and frigid outpost by air are examined, starting with a failed balloon attempt by a Swedish engineer in 1897. 31 illustrations.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
A Select Chronology of Northern Expeditions and Events
A Note on Norwegian Geography
Introduction
PART ONE - History: The aerial Polar expeditions of Salomon A. Andre¿e and Walter Wellman, 1896-1909
1 Saint of Swedes: The Implacable Mr. Andre¿e
2 The Greatest Show in the Arctic: The Unsinkable Mr. Wellman
PART TWO - Archaeology: Exploring the aerial Polar base camps of Salomon A. Andre¿e and Walter Wellman on Danes Island, Spitsbergen, 1993
3 Arctic Ghosts: Technology and Memory on the Island of Airships
4 The Spam What Am: Advertising in Search of a North Pole
5 Broken Dreams: The Airship Wrecks of Danes Island
6 Gasbag or Windbag: Was Wellman a Liar?
Conclusion: Virgo Harbor and the Archeology of Failure
Acknowledgments
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
About the author
P. J. CAPELOTTI is a lecturer in the social sciences department at Pennsylvania State University at Abington and the author of Our Man in the Crimea: Commander Hugo Koehler and the Russian Civil War. He is a Fellow of the Explorers Club and a member of the advisory board for the Program in Maritime History and Archaeology at the University of Hawaii.
Summary
By Airship to the North Pole chronicles the adventures of Swedish engineer Salomon August Andree, who made the first failed attempt to reach the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon in 1897, and of American journalist Walter Wellman who organized and led three unsuccessful air expeditions from 1907 to 1909.
