~ The Terrors of Ice and Darkness ~

"Roll Call for a Drama at the End of the World"

Karl Weyprecht - commander of the ship
Julius Payer - leader of the land journeys
Gustav Brosch - 1st officer
Eduard Orel - 2nd officer
Dr. Julius Kepes - doctor
Elling "Olaf " Carlsen - ice pilot & harpooner
Pietro (Petar) Lusina - captain, boatswain
Anton (Ante) Vecerina - carpenter
Otto Krisch - engine man, mechanic
Josef Pospischil - stoker, fireman
Johann Oratsch - cook
Johann Haller & Alexander Klotz - hunters, healers & glacier-guides

Sailors:

Antonio (or Josip?) Latcovich / Latkovic
Lorenzo Marola & Pietro Fallesich / Falesic
Antonio Zaninovich / Zaninovic
Antonio Cattarinich / Katarinic
Vincenzo (Vicko) Palmich
Giorgio Stiglich / Stiglic
Antonio Lukinovich / Lukinovic
Antonio Scarpa
Giacomo (Jakov) Succich / Susic
Franzesco (Fran) Lettis

♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠

Plot of a true tale.

In 1872 takes place the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition: a crew of 24 people sails with the Admiral Tegetthoff, heading for the North.
Their journey will soon become a frozen hell: their ship gets stuck in the pack and they are forced in spending two winters in the North. They will discover an unknown land that they will name "Franz Joseph Land", but to avoid a third and probably lethal winter over there, they make their way through the pack, marching with 4 boats stuffed with food and other things they need to survive. They finally find a Russian ship near Novaja Zemlja that will take them home.
All those men suffer of many diseases during the arctic years, but they get back, except one: Otto Krisch, who dies because of a lung disease and will be buried on Franz Joseph Land ground.

♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠ ~ ♠

Personal note.

I have just read this book by Christoph Ransmayr, titled "The Terrors of Ice and Darkness", (in Italian it's "Gli Orrori dei Ghiacci e delle Tenebre") and I've been strongly hit by it.
Tough it's told another minor tale, regarding a character named Josef Mazzini, the main line is the 1874 expedition. Those men live again through the pages, because of words taken by their diaries, so it's like they tell us their stories in first person; and this thought moved me to tears.
Julius Payer, one of the commander, was also an artist, a painter in particular, and the image you see in my video is one of his works, titled "Starvation Cove" and made in 1897. It's a very powerful image, possibly it represents some other Polar expedition, but during the march among the pack it probably wasn't very different for the desperate crew of the Admiral Tegetthoff. And also this picture has been used as the book cover for the Italian edition of the book, so that's why I used it.
The music is taken from the OST of Final Fantasy X: this emotional music was created for a scene of death and sadness, but also hope (to guide the souls on their way to the Heaven), so for me was good to use.
The video is meant to be a kind of a tribute for those men, and also a way to put outside the powerful emotions I got reading this book.
Oh, and the headlines you see in the video at the beginning and at the end are titles of chapters 3 and 15.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• christoph
• ransmayr
• the
• terrors
• of
• ice
• and
• darkness
• die
• schrecken
• des
• eises
• und
• der
• finsternis
• 1984
• austro-hungarian
• north
• pole
• expedition
• admiral
• tegetthoff
• 1872
• franz
• joseph
• land

[Hatsumomo0x]

Che belle immagini..☆

[newLucypupy]

Grazie per aver guardato! ^_^

[yulialan]

Good combination of music and picture. But I have this story is terrifying. Probably, this is really heroism - to give own life for the discovery of unknown horizons. But ... I do not know, it's too hard

[newLucypupy]

Yes, the reading is pretty hard when they describe the hard times among ices...

Anyway, the 2 captains had different views about that: Payer was nearly obsessed with "his" new land, he wanted to explore it at any cost, and he almost put in danger his crew. Weyprecht was more for the scientific research, with the condition to have the human lives protected and not "used" for the discovery and then who cares if someone dies. When they're back home, Payer will realize his friend was right...

[yulialan]

@newLucypupy And thank God that Payer realized all

[Gwenelan]

Quoto Demonsday, perfetto uso della song!

[JoshiejSF]

Beautiful, it's really good :)!

[Demonsday]

Very beautiful and passionate, great use of the Hymn of the Fayth.