Collins Maps - Extreme Survivors - 60 of the World’s Most Extreme Survival Stories

There are so many compelling character traits to admire in all the survivors featured in this book, even in the ‘bad-guys’ – the bank robbers and prisoners who escaped or the hijacker who vanished into legend. These people, too, show the enduring spirit for survival, adventure and for freedom. They were motivated to escape whatever it was that restrained them. It is the same motivation felt by many adventurers to avoid the nine-to-five, the desk job and the pension scheme. Fear of injury and death must be ever-present during a daring escape, just as on a dangerous climb, but the fear of the mundane, of accepting the humdrum, can be far more terrifying. And, of course, there is a price to pay for high adventure – in unending sweat, fear, discomfort and pain.

But no one ever said it would be easy.

BEAR GRYLLS

image/svg+xml Double tap on map and activate links to navigate to details (not all devices support this functionality) or select from links below. 14 Survival14 Fridtjof Nansen 88 Prison152 Cornelius Rost 114 War138 Jan Baalsrud 174 Shipwrecks142 The Great Escape 230 Hostages234 Natascha Kampusch 208 Soviet submarine K-1928 Gary Powers 30 Apollo 13230 Terry Anderson 240 82 Ruben van Assouw 218 Steven Callahan118 William Brydon 200 Robert Tapscott Roy Widdicombe246 Roy Hallums 188 Whale ship Essex236 Naheeda Bi 174 Commodore George Anson64 Wilco van Rooijen 124 Leo Bretholtz24 Climbing Haramosh 122 Gunther Pl146 Heinrich Harrer 108 Antonio Ferrara130 Freddy Spencer Chapman 250 Jasper Schuringa252 Freighter Maersk Alabama 222 Richard Charrington70 Bahia Bakari 212 Maurice Maralyn Bailey164 Dith Pran 202 Poon Lim204 USS Indianapolis 192 Ernest Shackleton158 Captain Anthony Farrar-Hockley 182 Captain James Riley20 Tokyo earthquake 168 Major Phil Ashby178 Mutiny on the Bounty 134 Operation Frankton198 William Shotton 114 196 Cargo steamer Trevessa 102 Dan Cooper98 Escape from Alcatraz 94 Henri 90 Hugo Grotius 88 Mary, Queen of Scots84 Darlene Etienne 76 Chilean miners rescue72 Flight 1549 Hudson crash 60 Aron Ralston56 9/11 terrorist attacks 50 Joe Simpson46 Mt St. Helens eruption 40 Norman Ollestad22 Aboriginal relocation 32 Juliane K18 Douglas Mawson 34 Flight 571 Andes crash

WHEN FRIDTJOF NANSEN STEERED HIS SHIP INTO THE PACK ICE NORTH OF SIBERIA ON 20 SEPTEMBER 1893, HE INTENDED TO CATCH AN UNDISCOVERED CURRENT IN THE SEA ICE THAT WOULD TRANSPORT THEM TO THE NORTH POLE. THIS PLAN WOULD FAIL, LEAVING NANSEN AND A COLLEAGUE STRANDED IN THE ARCTIC WASTES FOR FIFTEEN MONTHS.

Fridtjof Nansen was an explorer with a very bold plan. It was 1890 and no man had yet made it to the North Pole. Nansen proposed a mission to do just that, by sailing a boat into the pack ice and using its natural drift to journey north.

There was a scientific basis for this theory. In June 1881 the US Arctic exploration vessel Jeannette was crushed and sunk off the Siberian coast. Wreckage from this ship was later found on Greenland.

Henrik Mohn, a distinguished Norwegian meteorologist, predicted the existence of an ocean current that flowed east to west across the polar sea, possibly over the pole itself. If a ship could be built strong enough it could, in theory, enter the ice by Siberia and simply drift to Greenland via the pole.

Nansen kept this idea in the back of his mind for the next few years as he cut his adventuring teeth. He made a triumphant expedition to Greenland then began to develop a serious plan for a polar venture in earnest.

In February 1890 he presented his plan to the Norwegian Geographical Society. He needed a small, manoeuverable and immensely strong ship. It must be able to carry fuel and provisions for twelve men for five years. He would sail this ship through the North East Passage to where the Jeannette sank and then enter the ice. The vessel would then catch the ice’s natural drift west towards the pole and beyond, eventually coming out into the sea between Greenland and Spitsbergen.

‘an illogical scheme of self-destruction’

Many other experienced explorers laughed at him, including Adolphus Greely, Sir Allen Young and Sir Joseph Hooker.

But Nansen was driven, passionate and eloquent. He persuaded the Norwegian parliament to give him a grant. Several private investors also chipped in and the remaining balance came from a public appeal. Crazy idea or not, he was going to do it.

Nansen asked Norway’s top shipbuilder, Colin Archer, to create the unique vessel that would take him to the pole. Archer rose to the challenge, building a squat, rounded ship that the ice could not grip. He used South American greenheart, the hardest timber available. The hull was 60–70 cm (24–28 inches) thick, increasing to 1.25 metres (48 inches) at the bow. The ship was launched by Nansen’s wife Eva at Archer’s yard at Larvik, on 6 October 1892, and was named Fram (‘Forward’ in English).

Thousands of men applied to join the expedition, but only twelve could go. Competition for places was so intense that the dog-driving expert Hjalmar Johansen had to sign on as ship’s stoker. Nansen appointed Otto Sverdrup from his Greenland expedition as captain of Fram and his second-in-command.

Fram left Christiania on 24 June 1893, cheered on by thousands of well-wishers, and headed north round the coast of Norway. After a final stop in Vardø, the expedition set out through the North East Passage along the northern coast of Siberia.

These waters were largely uncharted and their progress through the treacherous fog and ice floes was slow. They also spent days hindered by ‘dead water’ where a layer of fresh water lying on top of heavier salt water creates enough friction to stop a boat.

‘At last the marvel has come to pass—land, land, and after we had almost given up our belief in it!’

Eventually, they passed Cape Chelyuskin the most northerly point of the Eurasian continental mass. Then, on 20 September, Fram reached the area where the Jeannette had been crushed. Nansen followed the pack ice northwards to 78°49’N, 132°53’E, before cutting the engines and raising the rudder.