Hell on Ice cover art

Hell on Ice

The Saga of the Jeannette

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Hell on Ice

By: Edward Ellsberg
Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £21.99

Buy Now for £21.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

The thrilling adventure of one crew's harrowing journey back from the Earth's most foreboding frozen hell

In the 1870s, newspaperman James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald drummed up excitement and publicity for his paper through highly publicized missions of exploration. In 1879, Bennett's idea for a voyage was his most audacious to date: the North Pole. To do this, he hired a team of naval veterans in addition to a smattering of civilians with specialized knowledge in meteorology, whaling, and naturalism. The men on board the Jeannette set off in September of 1879. This would be the last time anyone saw them for two years.

The product of devoted research into personal histories, memoirs, and classified congressional investigation records, Hell on Ice is a remarkable document: a novelization of history, turning the horrible ordeal of the brave men of the Jeannette into a riveting narrative. Written with a weathered seaman's familiarity, the story brilliantly captures a most perilous voyage from the perspective of the ship's chief engineer. The men of the Jeannette endure months trapped in an Arctic ice pack, and then begin a desperate trek for home.

©1938 Edward Ellsberg and Lucy Buck Ellsberg (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Action & Adventure Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Military Sea Adventures Adventure Polar Region Sailing

Listeners also enjoyed...

 On the Bottom cover art
No Banners, No Bugles cover art
Adrift cover art
Sunk Without Trace cover art
Soldier, Sail North cover art
On the Irrawaddy, A Story of the First Burmese War cover art
The Sea Wolf cover art
Rowing the Northwest Passage cover art
Midshipman Bolitho cover art
Emperors of the Ice cover art
Until the Sea Shall Free Them cover art
Wake of the Perdido Star cover art
Voyage of the Liberdade cover art
Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex cover art
Killing Ground cover art
Fatal North cover art
All stars
Most relevant
The story of the Jeanette was one I hadn’t read prior to seeing it on Audible.

Glad I downloaded it.

This is an epic story of a battle against the odds and the ferocity of two Arctic winters.

Just when you think the worst is over three little boats set out on a voyage that should sit alongside Shackleton’s voyage of the James Caird.

The ending is tinged with tragedy, but the whole book frames this with an incredible account of human endurance.

Another superb book from the oen of Edward Ellsberg

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.