Ghosts of Cape Sabine: The Harrowing True Story of The Greely Expedition, In July 1881, 25 men sailed out on an American expedition to create an Arctic scientific base in the Lady Franklin Bay region. There were only six men still alive three years later. Their diet just before rescue was human flesh and shoe leather.
The Greely Expedition, so named for its commander, Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, was to have been a glorious triumph for America. On paper, it was. A three-hundred year old record (held by British polar expeditions) was broken for achieving the farthest point north toward the North Pole. But the cost in human suffering, as with so many early polar explorations, was a terrible one.