Fighting the Polar Ice

              Fighting the Polar Ice


Figure

CAMPING AFTER A LONG DAYS' MARCH




An Interesting, Instructive Lecture of Adventure, Exploration, and Discovery




Illustrated with exceptionally good photographs (colored) acknowledged by experts to be the best arctic photographs to date, and also the only moving pictures of life in the frozen zone.

BY ANTHONY FIALA Commander of the Ziegler Polar Expedition of 1903-4-5



THE moving pictures show the expedition ship steaming and 
bucking
 her way through the northern ice fields, the landing of the ponies and dogs at Teplitz Bay, and illustrate as nothing else can, the dragging of the heavily loaded sledges over the crystal fields of the north.




Figure

ANTHONY FIALA
 Photograph taken aboard the 
America
 after first Arctic night.




Figure

THE ICE WAS ROUGH, WORSE THAN IN 1904, AND VERY SLOW PROGRESS WAS MADE
 


FIGHTING THE POLAR ICE

THE THRILLING EXPERIENCE OF THE ZIEGLER POLAR EXPEDITION OF 1903-4-5


Figure

HAULING THE CARCASS OF A POLAR BEAR ABOARD THE SHIP



THE Ziegler Polar Expedition, financed by the late William Ziegler and commanded by Anthony Fiala, sailed in the 
America
 from Vardo, Norway, July 9, 1903, with 39 men, 30 ponies and 218 dogs.  After nearly two months' battling with the ice floes, the 
America
 went into winter quarters off Rudolf Island, the most northern island on the European side of the globe.  The ship was crushed by the ice in the beginning of the first polar night and disappeared.  The party made three attempts to reach the Pole in an unprecedented season of bad ice and high temperatures.




Many sledge journeys were made through the archipelago, one of 52 days duration taking place during the arctic night.  A large part of the two years were spent in tents; over 4,000 miles of sledging were accomplished and new islands and waterways added to the world's chart.




The first relief expedition was sent out on the 
Frithjof
 in 1904—two separate, but fruitless attempts were made to reach the explorers that season.




The second relief expedition sailed on the 
Terra Nova,
 rescuing the party July 31, 1905, Mr. Fiala reaching New York, August 31.




The Illustrations
 of scenes along the route pursued by Mr. Fiala, in the journey of exploration upon which the lecture is based, are all reproduced from the explorers' original photographic negatives and include the only series of
 
MOVING PICTURES
 
of real polar scenes in existence.  They are intensely and thrillingly realistic.
  A faint idea of the wealth of pictorial embellishment with which his subject is presented may be gained from the very limited number of views here shown.  Paper and ink are inadequate, however to illustrate the atmospheric brilliancy and realistic effect of the pictures upon the screen.  Many of them are projected in colors in the full gorgeousness of polar splendor, and all are shown under the added charm of intelligent description by the explorer whose efforts have made it possible to place them before the eyes of the public.





BROOKLYN YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION



Mr. F. R. Roberson, Walden, N. Y.




Dear Mr. Roberson:
—




I want to express the great pleasure I have had in listening to the lecture that Mr. Anthony Fiala gave is Association Hall on his Arctic Expedition.  The lecture was delivered with the modesty characteristic of the man, and full of thrilling interest from beginning to end.  The pictures are superb; the best pictures I judge of arctic conditions and experiences that have been presented to the public.  I have had so many inquiries from Young Men's Christian Associations concerning Mr. Fiala's lecture that I take this means of saying to all through you that this lecture would prove a worthy addition to their entertainment courses.




Yours sincerely,
EDWIN F. SEE, General Secretary.




Figure
(
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
)

ANTHONY FIALA'S LECTURE


THE 
AMERICA
 FAST IN POLAR ICE
 The 
America
 was crushed in the ice and lost in Teplitz Bay, November, 1903



The Brooklyn Explorer Tells of His Arctic Work and Shows Some Wonderful Pictures




Beyond a doubt Mr. Fiala has brought home with him the finest photographs ever taken in the polar regions, and the only moving pictures ever taken within the arctic circle.  As a record of the work done by arctic travelers in their attempts to reach the pole, they are invaluable.  Many explorers have told of the ice bucking adventures of their ships, of the hardships and difficulties of sledge work and of the countless incidents which have made work in the frozen North one of peril and daring, but it has remained for Mr. Fiala to show to the eye, with the aid of the kinetoscope, exactly how these things happen.  The difficulties of this achievement were great. . . .

 

(
Springfield, Mass., Republican
)
TRIALS OF ARCTIC EXPLORING

Anthony Fiala, commander of the Fiala-Ziegler Polar expedition, which battled over two years in the arctic regions to reach the north pole, gave a lecture to a crowded hall at the high school last evening.  The address was realistically illustrated with a large number of views taken at first hand by Mr. Fiala and included the only series of moving pictures of real polar scenes in existence.  The subject was treated with a view to bringing out the greater details by aid of personal experiences, and the presentation was as varied as it was interesting—enlightened with now some delicate touches of humor, and again some graphic sketches of real, heroic hardship which thrilled the audience. Mr. Fiala had his work well in hand from every point of view, for as former head of the art department of the Brooklyn 
Eagle,
 and later as a correspondent in Porto Rico during the Spanish war, he had gained such insight into what the American people wish as to keep him from going astray at any time in the lecture.  As briefly as was consistent with clearness, he went over the trip from May 12, 1903, when the expedition started out from Norway on the 
America
 until the return of the second relief expedition on the 
Terra Nova
 in July of 1905. . . .

 

(
Washington Post
)
WONDERS OF THE ARCTIC ANTHONY FIALA DESCRIBES EFFORTS TO REACH NORTH POLE

Leader of Expedition in 1903 Tells Geographic Society of the Phenomena and Recounts Experiences of His Party




Mr. Fiala gave an interesting account of the expedition, describing the several attempts to make a dash into the unknown North, and the discovery of new islands, which form part of Franz Josef archipelago; but that part of his lecture of greatest interest to the audience was his vivid description of the conditions and phenomena of the arctic. . . .






Figure
THE ICE FIELD IN BARENTZ SEA

The view is looking south from the 
America's
 crow's nest and shows the water through which the steamer forced her way



Brooklyn Daily Eagle

FIALA TELLS OF EFFORT TO REACH NORTH POLE

New Incidents of His Arctic Trip During Summer of 1903-04.
MANY THRILLING ADVENTURES




Explorer Fell into Treacherous Ice Crevasse and Comrade, in attempted rescue, Followed




Anthony Fiala told a good sized audience of Brooklynites at Association Hall last night a part of the story of the gallant, but unsuccessful, effort which he and his fellow explorers made during the short arctic summers of 1904 and 1905, to reach the north pole.  Most of the story has been told in the 
Eagle
 before, but there was a vividness and a dramatic power in the simple, straightforward recital of Fiala which far surpassed in intensity any possible description in cold printers' ink of the thrilling adventures and experiences undergone by the heroic men who made the effort with Fiala.




Like the scores of other heroes who have made the trial before, and one is almost forced to believe, the scores who are destined to try in the future, Fiala and his men did their level best and failed in the prime object of their expedition.  But Fiala added to the accomplishments of those who had gone before, his bit of the slowly accumulating fund of knowledge concerning things which exist within the charmed arctic circle.  He went equipped beyond all previous men with the knowledge and the implements of an expert photographer and he brought back pictures so strange and wonderful as to hold spellbound those who saw them projected on the screen at the lecture hall last night.




The photographs taken by Fiala are remarkable and admirable beyond description.  They must be seen to be believed.  Plain photographs in black and white of things which the vast majority of men and women may never hope to see in reality are interesting enough.  But when such pictures are enforced and supplemented by color pictures of the gorgeous effects of the midnight sun and the aurora borealis, and by moving pictures prepared with the best modern appliances in the hands of a master craftsman; pictures which transport to the room within which the spectators are listening to the words of the leading actor in the events they portray the very acts and movements of the men, the horses, the dogs, the ship, the ice and all the elemental forces which surge upward from the very inward life of Nature herself, the effect is marvelous and soul stirring.




Besides all this there is the knowledge that Fiala, the man who all this work and pitted his feeble strength against these titanic forces, is a Brooklyn boy, and the effect on an audience is remarkable.  It can only be described as soul-stirring. . . . . . . .




ANTHONY FIALA, 60 Liberty Street, New York City




Figure

IN OTHER PLACES WE TRAVERSED MONSTER PRESSURE RIDGES THAT SPLINTERED AND THUNDERED UNDER OUR FEET




Fighting the Polar Ice
 By ANTHONY FIALA
A thrilling story of human interest that every one who loves outdoor life should read.




The chapter on details of equipment and advice to explorers might well be called a 
Guide to the Pole.




The book is elaborately illustrated.  In this respect it has no superior, and the narrative is told modestly and yet with power. . . The book is full of scientific and geographical information; contains some fine maps, and is on the whole an important contribution to science, as well as a story of daring and suffering that will commend itself to everyone.—


Philadelphia Inquirer.




One can almost feel the stinging snow and shiver from imaginary blasts.—


Springfield Republican.




326 PAGES; 105 PICTURES, MANY IN COLOR.  $4.15 POSTPAID.




Figure

THE ARRIVAL AT CAPE FLORA, MAY 16, 1904—PUTTING UP THE TENTS AND UNHARNESSING PONIES AND DOGS




Figure

ANTHONY FIALA




Doubleday, Page & Co., 133 East 16th St., New York City:




Please send at once a copy of 
Fighting the Polar Ice,
 by Anthony Fiala, for which I enclose $4.15 in full payment.




Name




Address