In 2011, 18-year-old Samuel Massie and his 33-year-old captain, Jarle Andhoy, found themselves in a dire situation on a polar expedition. Trapped in the middle of Antarctica’s most dangerous storm in decades, their three shipmates having perished, the two Norwegians were part of a controversial adventure gone very wrong.
Blair Braverman wrote at length about the expedition for Outside magazine, and RealClearLife has distilled it into some of its most surprising details.
-Andhoy was a star in Norway long before he launched his polar escapade with Massie, having become a professional adventurer and captaining a 27-foot sailing boat, painted to look like a shark and called the Berserk, which refers to the “frenzied state in which Vikings entered battle.” The Berserk would be what was taken on the polar expedition.
-In 2002, Andhoy was charged with disturbing a polar bear by singing it opera.
-The two, along with a small crew, set off from New Zealand in 2010, with the following, per Braverman: “[Two] ATVs, two kayaks, a dinghy, tents, metal ladders for bridging crevasses, food to last them six months, and matching wool socks and skull-and-crossbones hats ….”
-Andhoy and Massie broke off from the Berserk to take the ATVs 1,000 miles to the pole; the Berserk‘s remaining crew was supposed to meet them there. Shortly after, the worst storm in 19 years hit Antarctica.
-The two made it onto the last flight from American research base, McMurdo Station, to safety. But the Berserk had gone missing, along with its crew of three.
-Of course, that was only the beginning of the adventure: Andhoy bought a 54-foot yacht called the Nilaya (renamed Berserk), which he brought back to Antarctica in search of his three lost comrades. But the trip was short-lived, having been in the crosshairs of the authorities (the original trip had been illegal, too).
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.
