Sailing through the Ice Gauntlet: The Maze of Icebergs | Explorer: Lost in the Arctic

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·Nov 10, 2024

This was a town. Some kind of a whaling station. Totally abandoned now. Look at this. This is what I've been looking for right here. An iron bollard in the shore, where Franklin tied up their ships. And this was the last anchorage for the Franklin expedition before they set off into the Northwest Passage.

At that time, sailing over the top of the world wouldn't have been too different from the idea of going to the moon. You know, in terms of the history of exploration, there's nothing more epic. You know, almost like a Knights of the Round table kind of thing to try to make it through there. It's wild to realize that Franklin and his men were walking all around here and preparing for their voyage into the Northwest Passage.

From here, the ice gauntlet begins. We just sailed into a fog bank. This is really really thick. So I can see about a boat length and the water is filled with chunks of ice. The radar shows the big stuff, it shows the bergs, but it doesn't show the small stuff. It doesn't show the growlers, and the growlers could tear the boat in half. Crossing the maze of ice bergs in Baffin Bay was the first real test Franklin and his men faced on their voyage into the unknown.

This is part of the reason why I wanted to sail to King William Island, to be faced with some of the same decision points that Franklin was 175 years ago. It was the most modern, the most well-equipped expedition in the history of the world at that point. And they disappeared without a trace.

The best way to describe kind of what it's like out there is I would call it a savage wilderness.

Oh!

BEN: There it goes!

Oh man, look at it bouncing!

MARK: We can see land! Woo hoo! I have to say, I really like the place where the land and sea meet. Especially when there's mountains involved.

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