Classic Scurvy: The Belgica Expedition

0:15 Oh, hey there. Oh, hey there. How's it going today? I'm good. How are you? I am well. We are the history buffoons. I am Kate. I'm Bradley. And it's still winter. We was it that funny? 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. Yes, it's been very cold. 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.

0:57 Anyways. Um, so what do we have for our drinks today? We have Polaner. Munchen. It's uh from Munich. I have a grapefruit rattler. 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.

1:38 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. So mine's a whole 2.5 um percent alcohol. Yeah, so they're rattler. I didn't I guess I never realized it was that light in terms of alcohol, but whatever. Yeah. It's about the flavors. I'm ready. Mine's already opened, so apologize. Cheers. Cheers. How is that compared to the other rattlers that we've had?

2:19 It's very grapefruity. This one is. More grapefruity than the other ones? Yeah, but it's delicious. Okay, good. Yeah. I'm glad you like it. Okay, so this is a longer story, so I'm just gonna kind of get into it right away. Let's do it. Um, we're gonna talk about Adrian de Gerloche. Adrian de Gerloche. He's he's Belgian. Oh, well, fucking perfect. I know. Pretty close, right? Pretty close. Um, he was a 30-year-old Belgian um naval officer. Okay, and he was dying to explore okay. What year are we talking about? We are talking about 1895. Oh, that's a good year.

3:00 And the Geographical Congress wants to explore Antarctica, and he put his name into the hat. Did they actually actually have a hat, do you think? I mean, that's an idiom, right? Put your name in the hat. Put your name in the hat. Um, you know, it was probably a giant salad bowl. 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. That's how you get the bowl cut. I'm gonna continue. I hope so. If you don't mind. I'd like you to stop me talking. So despite Belgium being more interested in colonizing Africa at the time, right?

3:41 Um, he did raise nearly 300,000 francs. Wow. Um, lobbying, fundraising, and there was a subsidy from the government. Okay. Um, 300,000 francs back then, where it was about fifty-eight thousand dollars back then. Uh US dollars. US dollars, gotcha, which is equal to approximately 2.2 million today. Holy shit. Inflation, am I right? Yeah. So with that money, he bought a sturdy old Norwegian whaling ship called the Patr Patria. Patria. I feel like I've heard of that before. He renamed it to the Belgica. The Belgica? Yes. Interesting.

4:23 So his goal was a true scientific expedition. He wanted to map uncharted coastlines, he wanted to study the weather, the biology. Right. Um, he did not have any seasoned polar sailors. Okay. Um, so Deja Lush uh built a an international team, if you will. So you said he was a naval officer, is that right? Yeah. How many years in the service did he have at this point? Because you said he was 30. Yes, I did not research that. 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. Maybe. If I had to guess, and that's all I'm doing is guessing.

5:05 But so he he is experienced, but he had to kind of put the put the band back together with different yeah. 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. Lacquan? Mm-hmm. And he had a young Norwegian named Roald Amundsen. Okay. 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. Yeah. Um in Rio, when they eventually get down there, they do pick up Dr.

5:45 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. So this who is this story about then? Is it about the naval officer guys? It's about um Adrian Degerlache. Which is let's call him Adrian, because I'm like, I'm gonna butcher his last name all the time. And the cook. And the story of the Belgica getting trapped in Antarctica. Is this where they find Megatron buried in the ice? Um, that's the next um exploration. Oh, wait, that was Whitwiki. My bad. Yeah, that was Witwiki.

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. Yeah. All right. So there's a couple expeditions, and this one's not as famous. 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. I was waiting for you to do it. Well now I'm gonna not into the mic.

7:13 That sounded very stuck. It it is stuck. Maybe I should just do this. All right. No, what do you got? 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. I'd also like to say I love how your your mom and dad's name rhyme.

7:58 Anyways. 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? 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. So the Belgica left Antwerp, Belgium on August 16th of 1897. Okay. Just 12 hours later, still on the coast of Belgium. Uh oh.

8:38 They had to stop in Ostend for repairs. What happened? 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. They're literally not even they're half day in on their journey and they have to stop. They stopped for repairs. Two men were got deserted right away. Not desert, like they chose to desert right away. Oh wow. 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. Um, so maybe he's like, someone's gotta go down with the ship. And then when they get to Montevideo, which is I think Argentina, um, their cook got into a brawl and then was fired.

9:27 Oh. So they hired a Swedish sailor last minute as the cook. Do you think he made meatballs a lot? And then an engineer nearly caused a boiler explosion and was fired as well. 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. Exactly. Okay. So by the time that they reached Punta Arenas, Chile, um, crew tensions were boiling over. Like the boiler, yeah. Um, De Gerlash even asked the Chilean Navy to stand by in case he needed backup.

10:08 He ended up purging a few more offenders and then he left port in December with 19 men. So four down from his initial crew. 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. Oh boy. The ice was starting to close in and they haven't even tried to get there yet. Well, I mean, okay, it's relatively unexplored at this time, right? Yeah, there's been a couple of expeditions. Right. Relatively unexplored. Yes.

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. So they left Antwerp, Belgium. I understand that. In August. And so our winters is Antarctica summers. Okay. So they left um Chile in December. Yeah. So they're almost like halfway through summer. Right. So that that was the point. So they were thinking, was De Gerloche like planning to explore and then turn back quickly?

11:30 Okay. Or was he gambling on staying through the polar winter? Right. So no one knew for sure. Well, right. But everyone kind of understood one thing. Pressing further south now meant crossing a line that they could not easily come back from. Right. 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.

12:14 Okay. 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. Took them over. 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. Sure. Venka had been swept overboard, and the crew threw a line, which Venka managed to grab in the surge.

12:55 Yeah. And Captain Lequant volunteered to be tied to a rope and lowered into the sea to save his crewmen. Okay. 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. No worries. Oh my. Oh dear. That's my pearls. I do declare. 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.

13:39 Oh, that's sad. 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. Set the tone. It set the tone big time. Okay. 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. Is it still named that today? You know, I didn't look that up. You don't have to right now. I was just curious if you knew. So it was the expedition's first loss of life. That's crazy. That that would be tough.

14:20 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. 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. Okay. So it's like, I don't know, it's a big circle with a little doink. With a little doink. With a little doink. Oh, he's like, Yeah, I'm sorry, it's cold. Jesus. So this was the first human contact with that coast in over half a century.

15:02 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. Oh, okay. And they like would get out and like try to find scientific things. Stuff. Yeah. They just found a lot of ice? They found a lot of ice, but there was like random like Arctic worms and shit. Did they run into any penguins? They did. Did they eat oh they did? Oh boy. On February 15th, 1898, they achieved one more major goal. Okay. The Belgica crossed the Antarctic Circle. Oh, sure. So there is an actual like invisible line around Antarctica.

15:44 The peninsula is just outside that line. So they reach the Arctic Circle. Gotcha. Or excuse me, the Antarctic Circle. Yes. 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. Right. Time was running out to head back north, and yet Desjaloche was not turning back. No, he's like, we just started, boys. 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.

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. I need to be drunk for the rest of this. Um you're not gonna get enough of that. 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. So how would they have like what would they have done to do to try and break loose?

17:09 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. Oh, just wait. I'm sure. They don't eat each other, do they? Oh, just wait. Oh, jeez. Okay. I'm kidding, they don't. Oh, good. 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. Well, I mean, there's really nothing they can do about it now. They are stuck. Nature made the decision for them. It's like, hey, we want you guys here. Yeah, really.

17:50 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. Yeah. Wow. All right. 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. 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.

18:33 Exactly. Cool. Good for you. 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. Can you resay deliberate? Deliberate. Thank you. 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. 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.

19:14 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. 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. Break room. I mean, I need to get away from everybody. We're in a small ship. Like get away from everybody, go to the shack. Yeah. You just see like smoke coming out of the little shack chimney, like people having a cigarette or something.

19:55 So every scraping their pipe. Yeah, every scrap was used, sails became insulation, coal was rationed. 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. So at first the morale was fairly optimistic. Well, that's nice that they I mean, you would hope so. Yeah, I mean, they just had that death and then being stuck in the ice. 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. Well, the March and April were getting cold and really monotonous, and there was still like a twilight during the day.

20:41 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. Oh. 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. Um I wonder how they did that. Like, because you only have so much on a ship. 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. I mean, a bunch of dudes hanging out telling stories.

21:21 Yeah. Sounds like a an old timey tavern. I mean, we're talking about 1898. Yeah. 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. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, you can only do so much to make it cozy. 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. Oh, so they just like I'd raise you twenty fifth dollars or whatever. Exactly. 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.

22:14 Yeah. On May 17th, the sun finally dipped below the horizon. 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. Yeah. Um, Alaska pretty much, I think they have the same winter as we do. It's just longer. Did you ever see the the movie 60 Days and 60 Nights? Um what's his name? Oh, Josh Hartnett, right? That's 40 Days and 40 Nights. Is that for I'm sorry, I said 60, right? Um have you seen that? Yeah. Okay, so you haven't seen the sequel, 60 minutes.

22:54 I have not seen the sequel. 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. 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. Oh, wow. But the diet was monotonous and deficient in crucial nutrients. Of course. They ate the same salted um canned meatballs and tinned peas every day.

23:37 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. Well, yeah, it's cold, cold enough. You don't need a freezer. But Commander Des Girlash disliked the taste of these animals so much that he forbade the men from eating the penguin and seal meat. But what what if they didn't mind it? Well, they were all like, okay, you're the commander. We'll we'll do it. Okay. Yeah, they all fell in line. 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?

24:22 It's fucking delicious. Oh. So naturally, without all these nutrients, the men's gums began to bleed. Is that is that scurvy? It's scurvy. Yeah. Their joints ached, purple blotches appeared on their skin. Oh dear. Classic scurvy. Classic scurvy scurvy. Classic scurvy. That's got a that's a contender for a fucking for a title. If no one knows what, if anyone doesn't know what scurvy is, it is um a vitamin C deficiency disease. Yeah. Yeah. And 1898, no one really knew what that was.

25:03 What that was. 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? Penguin and seal meat. 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. So Dr. Cook, the American, he he has been on an expedition before and he actually has seen scurvy before. Not knowing exactly what it was, but he's he recognizes the symptoms like I've seen this before. We need to fix this. And he knew that fresh meat and um raw foods could help manage this.

25:49 Um, of course, they were surrounded by ice and no fruit and vegetables at the local vestibule or whatever. Bodega. There wasn't a Whole Foods there? No. Fuck. For thousands of miles, let alone just a hundred. Let alone just a you know, a hundred years. But deja lush's ban on the penguin and the seal meat meant much of that meat just sat there. Couldn't he like, dude? I get it. You don't like it. But our our men are suffering here. We need this. They do eventually. Okay. Yeah. So by May, there was muscle spasms and lethargy that were plaguing the men. They were exhausted and irritable.

26:30 Yeah. 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. When you put a rag type crew together from different areas, you're gonna get language barriers, obviously. 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. Yeah. They were trapped not only in the ice, but in the ship. In the ship. Even those little call them expeditions out to their little break room or whatever we call it before.

27:11 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. You're still ugly. Same got the same. Well, you know they aren't getting the uh the the you know the uh shaven down. What's the word? I don't know what you're going for here. Their their hygiene isn't on point at this point. No, I can't clearly not. On point at this point, anyway. Wow, that was redundant. Yeah, but I like that. Let's continue. All right, their clothing was inadequate, they hadn't expected to be there over winter, so not everyone had proper gear.

27:55 But they had provisions for two years. They did. 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. Yeah. Okay. 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. Maybe they had two years and four months now. Yeah. I mean, I obviously don't didn't I didn't math it out that I also don't know the pounds. Yeah. 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.

28:35 I mean, that that's quite significant. I mean, that's what, uh almost 20% of the fucking crew. Yeah. 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.

29:26 Weak W E A K for W E multiple weeks, yeah. Wow. Danko suffered from a heart condition. Oh shit. And the extreme cold and scurvy was making it worse. Did he know about do you have any idea if he knew about this heart condition? 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. Right. Um especially on a ship. Yeah. No amount of care for Danko would help his failing heart. Right. And on June 5th of 1898, Emile Danko died. Fresh meat. No. Well, it helps scurvy.

30:09 How did uh did the did they have to like bury him in the ice or something for like a funeral? 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. Oh, so a burillette sea in a way kind of thing. Yeah. Okay. Um, so the crew was already physically weakened and mentally frayed, and now they lost one of their own. So now they're down to 17. Yeah, exactly. Wow. Yes. So Danko's death left the crew demoralized and terrified. Yeah. And at the this was a low point, and several men started verging on like a complete breakdown.

30:53 Were they were they going towards a mutiny here or something? Not quite. No, not a mutiny. Because I don't know what they would really do even if they took over. You're still stuck in the ice. Yeah, there was not a mutiny. Good. These were actually fairly um respect respectful gentlemen. Yeah. And they cared about the higher ups and you know, and that chain of command. Well, that's good at least. 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.

31:34 Oh boy. Van Mirlo awoke one day claiming that he could not hear or speak. I don't know how you can claim. Yeah. But I wrote that anyway. Did he did he blink Morris code? I think so. That that's gotta be it. Yeah. Or he like wrote it in the sand or the ice. 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. He went up to a window and went, ha. Drew Drew a heart. Jesus. Can't speak. It was psychosomatic deafness and muteness, which was a reaction to extreme stress. Okay. So Dr. Cook examined him and found nothing physically wrong.

32:16 Right. It's all mental. It was all a mental strength. Yeah. And so for a week he was practically cataconic. Well, at least that week went by pretty quick for him. 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? Did they have a like a brig type or uh my nose is dripping? Yeah, it was. Did they have a brig type thing or like a brig. It's like a it's a a jail on a boat, basically.

32:57 Throw them in the brig. You've never heard that before? Uh-uh. 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. So I don't know. 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. 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?

33:44 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. Did he? No. 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. 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.

34:30 Physically, men were ill with scurvy. Yeah. 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. Classic scurvy. 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. 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.

35:15 Did you be like, we should probably eat that? 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. Yeah. Coco was one of the few who had still some energy left. Good for him. Yes. He had been quietly eating penguin meat. On the on the DL. Oh shit. And he was keeping off the biggest bouts of the scurvy. Of the scurvy. 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?

35:57 Yeah, and he has also had experience up in the Arctic. Right. So, and he saw what scurvy did. So I think he was just like, I'm just gonna eat a little bit. 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. They would all be dead because exactly. Cook literally saved them. That's my point. So Cook and the other veteran explorer, um Almundson, yeah, the first mate, they officially took charge of like daily affairs.

36:44 Because the captain was down for the calibre. Okay. 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. If you eat penguin meat raw, is it sushi? Because they go in the water. But they're not considered fish, I don't think. No, they're you don't think? No, they're definitely not considered fish. 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.

37:30 I feel like the fact that you would try penguin at all makes you a terrible person. I'm just kidding. Hey, I'm dying of scurvy, okay? I'm gonna eat it. 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. 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. That's fine. But they would try to catch penguins by playing music.

38:12 Really? Uh-huh. Because penguins are like, dude, it's silent out here. What is that? Let's check it out, boys. I mean, okay. Exactly. 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? Wow. 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. Could you imagine like alright, kill it? Like, no, it's like penguins. I know it. Did you see the way it waddled to us?

38:54 He wants, he just wants to hear music. Yeah, he's he's a maestro. 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. Have you seen Brent? Yeah. 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. Okay, so he had seen um so um Dr.

39:37 Cook had seen Inuit in the Arctic. There there's natives there? Yeah, there's a couple. Really? It's like five. Maybe six. They probably had a kid by now, but but they would have a diet of fresh game, and that prevented scurvy. Right. So he convinced the crew. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Repeat the Inuit thing. Where did he see them? In the Arctic. My bad. Oh, you're thinking Antarctica. No, the Arctic. That's okay. 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?

40:17 Yeah. But that's on his other expedition. Yes. I I mixed them together. That's okay. Sorry about that. So so he had to convince these new these rec recruits really to recruits. To freaking eat the penguins. So crew members. Of course they resisted at first. Um Yeah, because they're so fucking adorable. So um they described penguin as black, oily, and tough. Like oily. I'm sure it's not. Yeah. So Dr. Dr. Cook said, quote, imagine a piece of beef. Oh boy. An odoriferous codfish. Oh.

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. Do you know what Peter Pan called Cap uh Captain Hook? Codfish. Yeah. Codfish. So remember the cook? I don't know if it was in Chile or Uruguay or Argentina. The new one they picked up? Yes, the new one that they picked up. Yeah. Um he was inexperienced. Oh, of course. And he tried to make penguin stew, but it was so foul that the men gagged and refused to eat it.

41:39 Oh, yeah. So Dr. Cook was like, all right, now we're gonna play hardball. They force fed him. Cook went to the weekend commander de Garlog and appealed to him to set an example. 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. That's okay. That's my shitty hearing coming in. 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. Please tell me you didn't go. I'm vegan. Um, Dager Losh was like finally ready to like, okay, yeah, I'm really sick.

42:25 Yeah. Did he still refuse? No. Oh, thank God. Dr. Cook said, ignore the taste, swallow it down as a duty. Hold your nose, choke it down, or we all die. 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? 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. But they would like try to I'm sure that was honestly back then. I could see that being part of their provisions. I mean, let's just melt some ice water. Well, that too. But um, I just curious because like that.

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. 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. 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.

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. And they're like, Oh shit. 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.

44:29 Were they in the water? No, they're still in the in the ship, but it's so cold, they only have one little stove. So they call it a firebath? Yeah, just to that's so weird. Just to soak themselves in the heat in warmth. Yeah. Yeah. 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. 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.

45:18 Oh, okay, like a tournament that way. So they had like a voting contest, whatever you want to call it, type thing. Okay. So for the for a while the Belgi Belgica felt like a cramped, icy casino with all these women on the walls. Oh, nice. Yeah. Um, Cook encouraged them to keep regular routines with grooming, cleaning the ship, even though it seemed kind of pointless. Yeah, but I mean, again, routine. And idle minds would sink into despair, basically. Well, do you know what idle hands are the devil's playground? Yeah. So did you ever see the movie Idle Hands? It's actually decent. So through June and early the and early July, the crew's health stabilized.

46:02 Okay. Um, so proof that Dr. Cook um his measures were working. 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. Yes. Wow. So on July 23rd, 1898, after 63 days of total darkness, someone spotted a faint glow on the horizon. Look, boys, it's the sun. It was still twilight. It was not over the horizon yet, but they saw the glow. So if it was still twilight, was this breaking dawn? It was breaking dawn. I don't remember the other books off the top of my head.

46:44 What are the other books? Twilight, Breaking Dawn, New Moon, that's right. Um, Breaking Dawn, I think it was the last oh, Eclipse was the third one. That's right, okay. Yeah. I'm sorry I even brought that up to be honest. Yeah, I know. Rude. So the fucking so the uh race to escape was finally on through late 1989. Nope. 1898. Dyslexic. 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.

47:25 Okay. The ship drifted like like just with the ice pack. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it would bob west with the current. 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. Yeah. So because it's in the ice, yeah. Yeah, so the ice is floating. It's not in the ground, it's in ice. 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. So sometimes open water would be present, but then it would just shut just as quickly.

48:11 Oh shit, really? 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. Okay, gotcha. So it was like a roller coaster of hope and disappointment. And dismay. 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. Year in, so they're in August already. No, they they left Belgian. They got they got um stuck in March. Right. Right? Yeah.

48:52 I mean, they were there before that, they got but then they got stuck. Yeah. I'm just saying you're year long for the trip. Yes, is what I meant. I'm sorry. Yes, year long for the trip. Yeah. 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. Oh dear. He had been one of the most reliable sailors as he had lots of experience in Arctic seas. Okay. And Almundsen um noted um that Tolfson was showing very strange symptoms indicative of insanity.

49:38 Oh shit. Tolson asked Amundsen one night, are we really on the Belgica? Oh boy. Yeah. 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. Okay. And he was starting to get like insane headaches. Well, yeah. 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. Right. Um, he would creep into like a like a freezing hold in the in the in the ship at night.

50:21 Um sounds terrible. Yeah, he would sleep with the rats. Yeah. There are still rats? Why didn't they eat those? 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? But less oily. Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying it would be good. 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.

51:01 Oh boy. Yes. Tollofson became fixated on a French word he kept hearing. Okay. And I'm sorry I'm not French. You're definitely not. It's written like the word chose. Chose? Yeah. Chose? Chose. Chosa. Something like that. Okay. And it means thing. Thing. Like that thing over there. 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. Tollipson didn't speak French and somehow still convinced himself that the word Chosa meant kill.

51:46 Not thing. He didn't know French. No, no, no, I know. That's my point. Oh yeah. So every time the crew would say the word, he thought that they were signaling a plan to execute him. So they know look at that thing. Yeah. Oh dear. 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. Oh boy. Now the only person that Tollison seemed to trust was Jan Van Mirlo, the same um soldier who had suffered his own breakdown earlier.

52:32 Yeah. So Van Mirlo, having recovered from his hysterical bout, volunteer volunteered to act as Tollison's caretaker. 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. So um Van Mirlo later recalled that Tolfson's decline truly began after Danko's death back in June. Oh, gotcha. And that was like a broken spirit in this Norwegian. Right. 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.

53:14 Sure. He had no way to actually send these letters. Well, of course. Yes. But But it's almost kind of like journaling. That's it's a good thing. Well, he would go out onto the ice and mail them. Oh dear. He would actually place them in a snow mound. Oh dear. 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. I was just gonna ask. Okay, good. Yeah. So I know, like. No, I know. It it's it's kind. It is. I mean, at that point, it's like, yeah, yeah, we'll play along. Yeah. Okay. So Tollifson's condition worsened as November turned to December. He stopped speaking altogether.

53:55 His eyes would become vacant. Um he wasn't fully there. Right. 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. Okay. 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. Jesus Christ. Yeah. Although no one ever No. No. All right. Wow. Nope. He was just paranoid.

54:36 Sure. He was almost going like schizophrenic. Yeah. I don't know if that's the right word, but you know what I mean. 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. Well I mean, if the winter didn't kill them, they would kill each other at this point. So and then there's that mutiny we were talking about. Mutiny and the bounty. 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.

55:21 Okay. And they spotted open water maybe half a mile away. So they're like, let's break our way to it? Yes. Okay. So Cook prov uh proposed that they carve a canal through the ice by hand all the way to freedom. Oh my god. Hand saws, pickaxes, chisels, and a little bit of dynamite. Oh shit. Yes, and they would work under these 24-hour daylights, because it's fully day now. Like daylight now. Yeah, yep, yep, yep. They chipped and blasted through thick, stubborn ice, gaining just a few yards per day. Oh boy. Now, their unlikely fuel was penguin meat.

56:01 Penguin meat. Fuel for the people? No. Yes, because it was eaten in bulk now. Oh. And the vitamin C was being provided for them now. Yeah. And so now they're becoming strong enough to actually dig their way out. Oh, okay. Yes. Gotcha. 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. Like three feet wide or thick. Like water. No, the ice is three feet.

56:42 Oh my God. Yeah. Holy balls. 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. 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? They were. So they were cutting at like angles. Yeah. 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. So the ship would push out or they would push that out.

57:24 I think they would push that out. 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? You would, yes. So like you would have to make it wide enough. Not only is it three feet fucking deep of ice. So I don't know if you can see this. Yeah. Okay. But that's like what the channel would look like while it's being cut. Wow. Yeah. That's weird. Is that on the camera? Yeah. You can. I'll I'll try and zoom in on it when we when we uh get to that point.

58:08 But man, that because if fuck, that would be tough as shit. Yeah. 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. But we're also working with currents here, too. 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. Yeah. Wow. Okay, so just as they would near completion, a sudden shift of winds.

58:52 And current in early February caused the pack ice to press in again. Come on. And their cut channel had was closed up again. Like completely? Oh fuck. Yes. Okay. Some men wanted to give up right then and there. 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. 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.

59:35 Well, where would you go? Exactly. I mean, you yeah, you can go north to the water. Belgica was their only lifeline. Yeah, because otherwise you're fucked. You can't get off this ice continent. Yeah. Right? I mean so they decided we're gonna try again. Dynamite. They would save the dynamite for really, really thick pieces. Sure, makes sense, yeah. 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.

1:00:15 And like you said, they probably would have died. Yes. So okay. So in the pre-dawn hours of February 15th, 1899, around 2 a.m., it's probably still light out. Yep. A sailor on watch poked his head above deck and saw something. What did he see? The channel was finally free of ice. Like it just started like just open water just happened. Right. Yeah. Okay. The winds or currents had shifted in their favor this time, breaking the last of the barriers. Oh wow. 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.

1:00:56 Oh my god, that's a long time. The Belgica's engines were engaged and her propeller began to turn. Oh, they actually had engines. Was it a coal like that was fueled by coal? Okay. But they had not run it for a year. Almost a year, yeah. 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. Holy shit. So they're already like mid-March, later a little bit past mid-March. Oh my God. The channel would start to close up behind them, and at times they had to stop and recut or wait wait for another breakup.

1:01:39 Jesus. They inched along, covering only seven miles in those weeks. God, that sucks. Men were stationed at the bow with long poles to push like stray flows away. Yep, yep, yep. 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. Do you think when they're going through they're like free at last, free at last?

1:02:23 I don't remember the quote. Blah, blah, blah. We're free at last. I don't remember. I don't know what that is. I'll have to look that up because I see don't. I hate it. Excuse you. Jesus. So Wow, so 13 months trapped in the ice. Yes. Holy fuck. They had saved it themselves. Their ordeal was essentially over. Like, well, no additional hiccups on the way home. 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.

1:03:03 Like, smooth sailing, boys. What the fuck? The Belgic. So the Belgica um almost obviously the overnight, the mood instantly arose and everything. Obviously. 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. They're like, We got this, boys. Yeah. Yeah. So they stopped at Punta Arenas, Chile. And the locals, this is where they started from. That's right, yes. Okay. So the locals were like, oh shit, we thought you guys were dead. Holy crap.

1:03:45 You're still alive? 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. Is that full of men? A male boat? Yeah. Well, they're probably like, get me out of this ship. I don't care. I would have hopped on the female boat. Well. Anyways. So the rest returned home on the Belgica, arriving in Antwerp, Belgium, on November 5th, 1899, over two years after they had left. November 5th. So remember, remember the 5th of Antwerp.

1:04:25 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. 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.

1:05:06 I don't know. Of Antwerp's. 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. Right. Um, most of the men regained their physical strength, but the psychology, the psychological effects kind of lingered on. Um I'd be shocked if they fucking didn't. Tollifson. The one that went crazy, he was institutionalized after returning home.

1:05:48 Oh shit, really? He couldn't even make it through. Some others died young. Um, that's sad. Deja Losh um faced quite criticism for leading this. Into the ice in the first place. 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. So Amundsen. That's the first mate. Yes. He was the one that was a veteran from the Arctic. Yes. Yeah. So he found out that fresh meat prevents scurvy.

1:06:29 Yes. Um, he went to the South Pole in 1911. Oh. So South Pole was different than where they were. Right. They were on the edge of the island. South Pole is like 800 plus miles inland. It's the bottom of the earth. It is the bottom of the earth. What year did you say? 1911? 1911. Oh, that's when Reagan was born. Oh. Baba Venga. Um, Dr. Frederick Cook, the savior. Is that what's on his tombstone? Oh, I'm sure. But he was the one that was credited with feeding and treating and rallying the crew. Well, he he made the captain be like, dude, yeah, you gotta Wow, I did not mean to hit that.

1:07:11 You gotta do this, dude. Yeah. 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. Some of their teeth just came out all together. 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. So anyways, the polar madness, the phrase polar madness started gaining um traction because of the b uh this Belgica. Yeah. Future expeditions took note. There were better crews, fresher food, more structured routines. Less scurvy.

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. That's crazy. 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? Not exactly. 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. Okay.

1:08:33 So that might be the one I'm thinking of. Yeah. So um he set out to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. Yeah. His ship, the Endurance, got trapped and eventually crushed by pack ice before they even reached the continent. Right. 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. That's crazy. Yes. Maybe that's what I was thinking of. Many, yeah, many people who know of an Antarctica explorer is it's about the endurance.

1:09:13 Okay. Maybe that's what I was thinking of, but I mean, obviously, similarities, but not the same, but okay. 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. Awesome. Yeah, so how was your beer? All three of them are delicious. I really like the grapefruit one. 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? It's not as like pow in your face. Okay. It's definitely subtle now. So it was oh shoffen hype.

1:09:55 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? Oh, I probably couldn't tell you without one, two, three there to try. Domingo, but alright. Yeah. I hope that's the same. Domingo's the right answer. Yeah. 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.

1:10:37 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. Yeah. I'm not saying it's bad. Yeah. 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. Sounds good. Well, I suppose. Alright, buffoons. That's it for today's episode. 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? Hit us up on social media. We're History Buffoons Podcast on YouTube, X, Instagram, and Facebook.

1:11:17 You can also email us at History Buffoons Podcast at gmail.com. We are Bradley and Kate, music by Corey Akers. Follow us wherever you get your podcasts and turn those notifications on to stay in the loop. Until next time, stay curious and don't forget to rate and review us. Remember, the buffoonery never stops.