The White South by Hammond Innes (1975 Illustrated Hardcover)

Description

The White South” is a story of the sea and of the vast Antarctic icefields. The great whaling factory ship Southern Cross, of more than 20,000 tons, is caught and crushed in the deadly embrace of the polar ice, and five hundred men face death in the frozen wastes of the Antarctic. News that the ship had been abandoned was the last message to reach the outside world – and then came silence. The impenetrable barrier of the ice had closed around the Southern Cross and her men, the rescue ships were forced to return to base, and all hope was abandoned.

It was a disaster that caused a nine-day wonder in the flaring headlines of the world’s newspapers, and then quietly faded out. But the story was not ended. As the whaling stations of South Georgia were preparing to close down for the long, dark Antarctic winter, two battered lifeboats sailed into harbour…

Those are the bare facts. But though modern methods and equipment have made whaling big business, the human element remains. And it was human conflict that was the cause of the disaster. “The White South” is the story behind this tragedy.

This is the epic story of the indomitable courage and endurance of a handful of English and Norwegians plunged through unforeseen circumstances into a fight with the pitiless forces of nature in the frozen South.