The Tragedy of the Italia: With the Rescuers to the Red Tent

Abstract

THE author of this book is an Italian newspaper correspondent who was the only journalist on board the Krassin, the Russian ice-breaker that took a prominent part in the rescue of the crew of the itatia airship off Spitsbergen in the spring of last year. His story is supplemented by accounts of several of the survivors. The italia was wrecked off North East Land on a return flight from the North Pole. The cause of the disaster is not clear, but the result of it was the loss of seventeen lives, including that of Capt. R. Amundsen, who gallantly flew to the rescue, and the expenditure of large sums of money on search expeditions. In these operations the Krassirt took a notable part. The ship was well handled, but her consumption of fuel, as much as 150 tons a day in open water, limited her sphere of work, and she was unable to force a passage in ice more than about six feet in thickness. In her second voyage, in September, the Krassin crossed the unexplored seas north of Giels Land on the way to Franz Josef Land. No new land was found.

The Tragedy of the Italia: With the Rescuers to the Red Tent.

By Davide Giudici. Pp. viii + 216 + 34 plates. (London: Ernest Benn, Ltd., 1928.)12s. 6d. net.