N-4 DOWN

A chronicle of a doomed Italian expedition to the Arctic in 1928.

Umberto Nobile was an undeniable genius: a brilliant engineer and fearless traveler who had no problem getting into shouting matches with Mussolini or fierce rivalries with Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. As Piesing observes, Amundsen and a host of other travelers had been swarming all over the Arctic in a kind of colonial land rush, hoping to claim Svalbard and other boreal lands for their respective nations. Though he was wary and querulous, Amundsen enlisted Nobile to join an expedition that the Italian piloted aboard one of the “jumbo-jet-sized airships” that he had designed and built. Their relationship was fraught, but when Nobile crashed on a second expedition to the Arctic, Amundsen rushed to join the rescue effort. For various reasons, so did everyone else. “The Swedes, Danes, and Finns began to organize missions,” writes Piesing. “The Americans, Germans, French, and Russians all wanted to help, if in a somewhat independent manner that made coordination difficult.” The tale involves rivalry, treachery, a little vainglorious incompetence here and there, bruised feelings, plenty of missing persons, some acts of true heroism, and perhaps even the “custom of the sea”—i.e., cannibalism. Granted that there are many moving parts to the story, Piesing stretches out each episode to nearly the breaking point, with plenty of portentous utterances: “Some things aren’t forgotten even in death”; “Amundsen wasn’t stupid. He could smell a rat.” Still, the author has visited the places about which he writes, and his sketches of remote locales make for interesting reading. He also offers useful insights on the strange blend of competition and cooperation that characterized Arctic exploration, and he closes on a thoughtful note: “The story isn’t finished. The Arctic ice holds many secrets. Global warming may soon reveal the last resting place of Amundsen…and of the Italia and the six men.”

Labored and long but of interest to would-be Arctic explorers and armchair adventurers.