A Wretched and Precarious Situation: In Search of the Last Arctic Frontier. This item is unavailable.A Wretched and Precarious Situation: In Search of the Last Arctic Frontier

In 1906, from atop a snow-swept hill in the ice fields northwest of Greenland, Commander Robert E. Peary spotted a heretofore unknown land looming in the distance. He called it "Crocker Land." Scientists and explorers agreed that Peary had found a new continent. Several years later, two of Peary's disciples, George Borup and Donald MacMillan-with the sponsorship of the American Museum of Natural History-assembled a team of amateurs to investigate. They pitched their two-year mission as a scientific tour de force that would fill in the last blank space on the globe. Instead, the Crocker Land Expedition became a five-year ordeal that endured Arctic blizzards, dwindling supplies, a fatal boating accident, a drunken sea captain, a shipwreck, marooned rescue parties, disease, dissension, and a crewman-turned-murderer. Based on a trove of unpublished letters, diaries, and field notes, A Wretched and Precarious Situation is a harrowing Arctic adventure unlike any other.

David Welky is a professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas.