The Impossible Rescue

The Impossible Rescue: The True Story of an Amazing Arctic Adventure by Martin W. Sandler tells the story of how eight whaling ships were ice-bound in Arctic waters off the coast of Point Barrow, Alaska, the most northern point in the United States in 1897.  That year the winter storms came early and it caught 300 sailors off their guard, locking the ships in thick ice with no way to escape.  The sailors had limited provisions to last themselves for what turned out to be nearly a year of being trapped.

The book goes on to tell how three men were appointed by President McKinley to go rescue the trapped sailors by trekking on land over 1500 miles through horrific terrain and freezing temperatures in the dead of an Alaskan winter using reindeer, sled dogs, and native peoples to carry thousands of pounds of provisions to Point Barrow before the sailors stave to death.  It was truly a race against time.

Sandler takes readers on every step of the journey providing first hand accounts of the rescuers, their journal entries, and vivid descriptions of raging blizzards, ice peircing cold temperatures, injured rescuers and animals, and the test of man's strength.  The book also includes black and white photographs throughout giving readers visual accounts of the men and women who were involved in the heroic rescue.  This is definately one unfortettable impossible journey!