\"Now for the first time, the photographs and diaries from the 1901 Robert Peary relief expedition provide an intimate and unforgettable impression of two friends aboard ship in the Arctic at the turn of the century. The 1901 expedition documented in this book was organized to deliver supplies to polar explorer Robert Peary and to search for his wife and child. Clarence Wyckoff and Louis Bement, close friends from Ithaca, New York, and members of the Peary Arctic Club, paid $500 each to travel on the Erik.\" \"They embarked looking forward to what twenty-first century travelers would call adventure tourism. They envisioned themselves hunting wild game, admiring and photographing magnificent scenery, and escaping the stresses of their lives as businessmen. The scenery did not disappoint as the photographs assembled here testify, but the stresses of sailing in polar seas were worse than the travelers imagined. The ice and the incompetence of the ship's crew, which they themselves became a part of, threatened their lives on more than one occasion. They endured maggoty food, head lice, and hives, but along the way, each man found time for reflection and documented the journey in the diaries and photographs in this book.\" \"In addition to the drama of the journey and the magnificent Arctic scenery, this travelogue is a valuable record of the American explorers' encounters with Inuit, many of whom are identified by name.\"--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved