Solid telling of a lesser-known essay into Arctic exploring and one of the first attempts by the United States. I had heard the Jeanette mentioned before but had never really read about it.

I had heard plenty about August Petermann and this was kind of a capper on some of his kookier ideas, held in the face of ever-increasing evidence to the contrary.

A small backdrop story is with the Jeanette, as with other "lost" Arctic explorations, the effort expended on search-and-rescue follow-ups, which themselves sometimes ended problematically.

Human resilience is documented well in this book, as is the fact that, contra Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, let alone 20th century dictators, the power of human will does not always conquer all.