One Way Trip: The Tragedy of the USS Jeannette

The Final Words of a Doomed Commander: "...Mr. Collins dying."

In 1879, the USS Jeannette, a former Royal Navy gunboat, sailed into the Bering Strait with 33 men and one singular, ambitious goal: to be the first to reach the North Pole. Their mission was predicated on the widely accepted, but catastrophically wrong, Open Polar Sea Theory—the belief that a warm current flowed to the pole, leaving it ice-free.

What they found instead was a devastating Arctic ice trap.

Join us for this cinematic documentary detailing one of history’s most compelling polar survival stories. For 21 grueling months, Commander George Washington De Long and his crew were held captive by the frozen wasteland, their ship drifting helplessly before being crushed and sinking. This forced the men into a desperate, 300-mile march across the perilous Siberian Wilderness towards the Lena Delta.

This film investigates the fatal 1879 expedition, tracing the crew's journey using the Captain's final journal entry as our guide. It is a haunting true account of human courage, scientific hubris, and the immense price paid for Arctic exploration. Of the thirty-three who sailed north, twenty never returned.

Watch now to uncover the full story of the USS Jeannette, a historical disaster that redefined humanity's understanding of the top of the world.


This saga of endurance sits alongside other great historical survival stories like Shackleton’s Endurance, the Franklin Expedition, and Scott's final march.




#USSJeannette #ArcticExploration #PolarSurvival #GeorgeDeLong #HistoricalDisaster #SurvivalStory #OpenPolarSea #Shipwreck #19thCenturyHistory #ArcticTragedy #LenaDelta #ArcticDrift #PolarExploration #TrueSurvival #DoomedExpedition