Stranded at the Top of the World - by Mary R Tahan & Cornelia Lüdecke (Hardcover)

From the Back Cover

This book provides a well-researched, well-structured, interesting, and informative narrative depicting the little-known yet successful efforts of the Captain Arve Staxrud Norwegian Arctic Rescue Expedition of 1913 that searched for and saved members of the Lieutenant Herbert Schröder-Stranz German Arctic Expedition of 1912 in Spitsbergen (Svalbard). The book portrays the cooperative and strategic endeavors of the humans and animals involved in the Staxrud expedition who worked together to save human lives on the icy fjords and glaciers of the far north during an unseasonable time of year for exploratory expeditions. It examines and analyzes the unpreparedness and lack of training that resulted in the failure of the Schröder-Stranz expedition. It compares and contrasts concurrent rescue expeditions that failed, including the Kurt Wegener expedition and the Theodor Lerner expedition. It describes the crucial role of animals in both the Norwegian and German expeditions, as well as German interest and Norwegian activity in Spitsbergen leading up to the expeditions. And it reconstructs the interaction and organization of principal officers, overwintering experts, Norwegians, Sámi, draft reindeer teams, and experienced sledge dogs who made the Staxrud rescue mission a success and who created and enabled improved search and rescue capabilities for Spitsbergen and for the future of the Arctic archipelago.

About the Author

Mary R. Tahan is a Writer, Producer, and Documentarian, with a professional background in journalism and marketing. Internationally renowned for her informational and educational series, she has authored scholarly articles and historical books, and produced/directed documentary films. Her books, articles, and lectures/presentations focus on Antarctica and the Arctic. As part of her research for her films and books on Polar exploration, Mary R. Tahan was awarded a residency and traveled to Antarctica by invitation of the Dirección Nacional del Antártico (Instituto Antártico Argentino), where she performed on-site photography and videography of the Antarctic landscape, wildlife, and historical sites, as well as conducted interviews with scientists and curators. Her research has also taken her to Argentina, Norway, France, Russia, and England, where she has also interviewed descendants of early explorers of the Arctic and Antarctic. She has presented her work at SCAR and EHAL conferences, as well as at other international venues, and at CADIC-CONICET.
Cornelia Lüdecke is a retired Professor for History of Natural Sciences at the University of Hamburg. She focuses on the history of polar research, meteorology, and oceanography. Since 1991, she is leading the German History of Polar Research Working Group. In 2001, she became Vice President and (2006-2009) President of the International Commission on History of Meteorology. In 2004, she founded the Action (later Expert) Group on History of Antarctic Research within SCAR, which she led until 2018. From 2012-2021, she was one of Vice Presidents of the International Commission on History of Oceanography. In the same year, she became Corresponding Member of the International Academy of the History of Science in Paris. She received the Reinhard Süring Medal in 2010 and the Paulus Award in 2019 both from the German Meteorological Society.