Buddy Levy, an expert on Arctic exploration and author of "Empire of Ice and Stone," discusses the gripping tale of the Karluk expedition and its trials. He contrasts the leadership of Captain Bartlett, who worked tirelessly to save his crew, with the abandoning attitude of the ostensible leader. Levy reveals critical lessons on crisis management, morale, and endurance that resonate with today's leadership challenges. He highlights the significance of teamwork, strategic planning, and the psychological benefits of keeping active in extreme conditions.
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Discovering the Karluk
Buddy Levy learned about the Karluk disaster while in Greenland researching a different book.
This sparked his interest in Arctic exploration and led him to write "Empire of Ice and Stone."
insights INSIGHT
Karluk vs. Endurance
The Karluk expedition, overshadowed by Shackleton's Endurance, highlights different leadership styles.
Unlike Shackleton's miraculous survival story, the Karluk's tale emphasizes the harsh realities of polar exploration with a high mortality rate.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Stefansson's Unlikely Path
Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the expedition leader, had a varied background from a hardscrabble upbringing to Harvard Divinity School.
His ambitious and restless nature led him from plans for African fieldwork to Arctic exploration.
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This book details the almost two-year struggle for survival of the 28-man crew of the Endurance, which was beset and eventually crushed by ice floes in the Weddell Sea during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-1917. The crew drifted on ice floes, salvaged lifeboats, and eventually reached Elephant Island. Shackleton then led a perilous journey to South Georgia Island to secure rescue, culminating in one of the most remarkable survival stories in history. Lansing's narrative is based on extensive research, including interviews with surviving crew members and access to their diaries and personal accounts[4][5][3].
Labyrinth of Ice
Buddy Levy
Empire of Ice and Stone
Buddy Levy
Empire of Ice and Stone recounts the harrowing tale of the Karluk, a ship that became trapped in Arctic ice during the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913. Led by Captain Bob Bartlett and expedition leader Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the story contrasts their leadership styles—Bartlett's selfless efforts to save his crew versus Stefansson's self-serving ambitions. The book explores themes of survival, heroism, and scientific discovery against the backdrop of historical events like the Titanic disaster and World War I.
You've probably heard of Ernest Shackleton, and his ill-fated Antarctic expedition. The Endurance, the ship on which he and his crew sailed, famously became trapped in ice, sunk, and set the men and their indomitable leader off on an arduous journey to safety and rescue.
But the Shackleton expedition wasn't the only one to meet such a fate, and to become a crucible for leadership. The year before the demise of the Endurance, the Karluk, flagship vessel of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, became icebound and sunk, leaving its crew to trek 80 miles across dangerous ice floes to an island, and its captain to travel 1,000 miles more to obtain rescue for those marooned survivors.
Buddy Levy shares that compelling story in his new book Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk, and unpacks it for us today on the show. Along the way, he brings out the leadership lessons in planning, maintaining morale, and embodying endurance you can glean from the expedition's two dominant figures: its ostensible leader, who abandoned the ship, and the Karluk's captain, who did all he could to save its shipwrecked survivors.
The Art of Manliness 
