Andrée and His Balloon

This book chronicles the events of Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897, which was an effort to reach the North Pole by three Swedish expedition members – S. A. Andrée, Knut Frænkel, and Nils Strindberg. Andrée, the first Swedish balloonist, proposed a voyage by hydrogen balloon from Svalbard to either Russia or Canada, which was to pass, with luck, straight over the North Pole on the way. The scheme was received with patriotic enthusiasm in Sweden, a northern nation that had fallen behind in the race for the North Pole. Unfortunately, the expedition failed to make arrive at their destination point, and all three members tragically perished due to a combination of temperature, exhaustion, and hunger when their balloon was stranded in the middle of Svalbard.