The Insane Arctic Balloon Expedition of 1897 

Hey everyone! I just wanted to give a huge shoutout to my editor, who has been hitting it out of the park recently with the visuals. Have a great week! - Sean

This is one of the most insane things I’ve ever heard. I can’t believe there were so many red flags yet all those men were still like “yep, we’re good, let’s take off over the arctic.” 🤦🏾‍♀️

"Hey, you guys wanna float over uninhabited regions in a leakyboi?"

I can't believe how long they survived on their own. This is amazing.

Another important detail is that they were extremely unprepared for the arctic and brought a lot of unnecessary shit. Like, their clothes were too cold for a start, and instead of bringing you know, useful stuff, they brought champagne and chandeliers and silverware and whatnot because they were only preparing for the fancy reception they’d get when they landed. Andrée ignored all the red flags because all he could think about was the honour and glory he’d receive. He even noticed that the balloon was leaking while they were setting it up and went and filled it up in secret so people wouldn’t notice! They also seemed like, totally unafraid of the polar bears and didn’t realise that they’re vicious killers. We don’t know exactly how they died, but it was probably a combination of bear attacks, malnutrition, disease, hypothermia and too much morphine (which can cause you to not realise you’re freezing). A swedish doctor and writer named Bea uusma have Ben pouring over this case for the last ??? 20 years or something, her book about it is fantastic and I highly recommend it to anyone who understands swedish.

It seems like some people do these expeditions in the most dangerous way possible sometimes.

As a Swede, a few comments: - At the time Sweden and Norway were the same country, as part of the "United Kingdoms of Norway and Sweden", you can see the union flag on many of the photos. - Sweden doesn't have and never had a federal government, "Royal Government" would be more appropriate. - When their remains were found, one of them, Stringberg I think, had been buried under a cairn of rocks and it is theorized that he was killed in a polar bear attack just days before the other two succumbed. - Describing the remains as skeletons is not quite accurate, "half-eaten, frozen corpses" would be more accurate as the bodies hadn't really decomposed and polar bears eaten what they could. - The Trichinosis hypothesis is very old fashioned and these days the theory you outline at the end is generally accepted, that Andrée died of suicide following the deaths of the other two. - Andrée didn't have morphine bottles but rather blister packs of morphine pills. That said, this mystery continues to fascinate Swedes to this day and is always a popular subject of discussion if it comes up. As a kid I went to an exhibition featuring some of the recovered items at the Royal Technical Museum in Stockholm. There is also an Andrée museum in his hometown of Gränna.

With you, MrBallen, and a few history channels, y'all are the equivalent of Saturday morning cartoons for me!

They didn't even put the sleds together correctly, that's why they were so hard to pull. Also one guy packed an encyclopedia, you'd think it was because it had useful information but no. It was just random stuff that didn't apply to their situation. One guy was probably killed by a polarbear, they found his thermals missing a leg. It looked ripped off like by an animal. One guy lost a few fingernails when putting on his gloves, he noticed a red brown liquid in my glove and he pulled his hand out and found his fingernails had come off(they're in the museum in Gränna, Sweden). Lots of things went so wrong. I highly recommend going to the Polar museum in Gränna, it has so many of the objects they found. It's a tale of men dying from their hubris.

I remember this story...more Arctic/Antarctic exploration videos please!

You have to wonder about this guy who opted out because he didn't trust the balloon. How must he have felt as these people never returned? Some mix of relief and undeserved guilt about what, if anything, he could have done maybe. He probably knew he'd been right already when learning about the launch, but he'd have spent the rest of his life very aware that they still hadn't been found.

"It seemed that the airworthiness was over-exaggerated by the manufacturer" Turn-of-the-century manufacturer lying about the capabilities of it's products? No waaaaaay

“The balloon has also been equipped with carrier pigeons” just made me absolutely GUFFAW

Balloon leaks helium constantly but let’s try to float it over the arctic anyway. Insane is an understatement.

This is literally something straight out of my nightmares. I've always had a fear of the ocean, icebergs, and everything related to it. And the thought of being stuck in a situation like this would give me a heart attack before the environment gets me.

Definitely the most detailed coverage of this incident that I've seen. Great video!

With how horribly their journey began, it's remarkable they survived for that long on their own and in relatively good conditions. They seemed to have a reasonably good food supply and shelter, and were just kind of waiting it out for a while until whatever happened that killed them.

My uncle is an avid hot air balloonist, and he’s nucking futs. All balloonists are. I’ve been on a few flights, but stopped after one time when we were at an event with about twenty balloons, and as we were waiting for his balloon to fill, the wind began to really pick up. The forecast hadn’t indicated wind, but soon it was getting really strong, almost gale force. One balloon colored like a strawberry had already been floating a few feet off the ground, and there was a loud crack as its main anchor ropes snapped and the strawberry balloon became a weapon of mass destruction. It immediately rose into the air and crashed into the two nearest balloons on the ground, one of which became tangled up with the strawberry’s basket, and the strawberry dragged the tangled blue balloon through the crowd of people and balloons, sweeping people up and tangling into a mass of partially inflated balloons, which then began to catch fire. The lady pilot of the blue balloon was stuck inside the basket and screaming, and another person jumped out of their basket and fell 20 or 30 feet and broke his legs. Other people were getting knocked down and dragged across the ground, it was absolute mayhem. And the craziest part? My uncle refused to abandon his balloon. While I ran away to hide in the car, he was still out there adjusting the flame on his balloon while chaos erupted all around him. Said the wind would calm down by the time it was ready to fly. Like I said, balloonists are nucking futs.

Your editor is def pulling their weight, these vids look great! I like the blend of emotional inflection and stoic simplicity your voice has as well. A lot of RU-vidrs in this genre have an extremely affectless and flat voice, or a bombastic and hyperbolic overstressed one, I like that you have a soothing middle ground. It's like I'm listening to one of my friends explain their latest research.

I've been fascinated with the age of polar exploration for a while now, & this has always been one of my favorite stories from it. It's absolutely INCREDIBLE to me that those men managed to survive so long! Sean, if you're interested in doing another video like this, DEFINITELY look into the Airship Italia disaster of 1928. If that story isn't the absolute epitome of "scary interesting," then I don't know what is. To give you just a quick rundown: In 1928 an Italian team led by eccentric Italian General & engineer Umberto Nobile tried to reach the North Pole via dirigible, but crashed, resulting in half the crew spilling out onto the ice & the other half still in the envelope of the airship... which then began to drift away. 😳 One of the survivors "would later recall that he saw the envelope drifting above him, & (starboard engine mechanic) Ciocca halfway out of the starboard engine car staring down in horror." It's a truly fascinating story. Roald Amundsen (the first man to reach both the North Pole & South Pole) actually disappeared himself while helping to search for the survivors. I highly suggest looking into it -- it seems like just the type of thing that would be PERFECT for this channel!

Just wanted to let you know at 10:14 the year reads 1987. Hope this is helpful. Really enjoy your videos! 😊

Just wanted to say, I found your channel last night, and I'm about 60% through watching all your videos already and I wnated to say Sean, I love the way you listen to feedback and even went about changing things slightly so that disabled fans can listen and enjoy easier and take all feedback so seriously. I've been here not even 24 hours but it genuinely feels like we're all a part of the channel, and as someone with auditory processing issues and being partially deaf, thank you so much for genenuinely listening and working out new ways to bring scary and interesting content to all of us (plus the descriptions of videos for those just listening/with sight impariments are awesome. never seen another channel do this personally). Love the content, loved this video and I can't wait to see what else you discover and share with us.

Most people don’t know that eating the liver of a polar bear will kill you 😱 it’s something about the way the animals liver functions which makes it toxic to humans if eaten. If they were eating polar bears and were unaware of this fact it is quite possible this is what killed them. 🤔🤷🏼‍♀️ As always this was a fascinating video and I thank you 🙏 Cheers

"You ready?" "But the balloon is leaking!" "No matter, let's go!" "But, it's laying on the ground empty!" "Stop being Debbie Downer! Drag it!!"

Thank you Sean from Sweden for an EXCELLENT video about this famous and tragic expedition! You tell it so well and interestingly, with many details! I thought of some interesting additional facts that you may already know, or not. :-) 1. Most famous is the love story between Nils Strindberg and his fiancee Anna, the love of his life, whom he was going to marry when he got back. He had a gold locket with him with a lock of Anna's hair in it. In his calendar was a drawing Anna had made of the balloon with the three men, and a girl on the ground waving with a handkerchief. Under the drawing she had written "I can not follow you." Anna eventually married another man, but made a request that her heart should be buried in Nils' grave after her death. It was put there secretly by Nils' brothers and rests in a little box.🖤 2. Nils Strindberg was a close relative of August Strindberg (1849-1912), who is one of Sweden's most famous and popular authors and playwrights, known internationally. 3. I have visited the grave of the members of the Andree expedition. They are buried together at the cemetary Haga Norra where lots of other famous Swedes are buried, and the grave has a large obelisk on top with cut outs in the rock that show the key moments of the expedition. Around the obelisk are placed large rocks brought from the island Vitön where they were found. 4. The Swedish author and physician Bea Uusma is obsessed with the Andree expedition and did research for over 15 years, studying material, letters and autopsy reports (there were autopsies but very superficial). She formed the theory about the polar bear attack, based, among other facts, on Nils Strindberg's missing trouser leg. 5. The movie "Ingenjör Andrees luftfärd" (Engineer Andree's air travel) was made in 1982 by the very talented director Jan Troell. Andree is played by Max von Sydow. It's dramatic and also feels almost like a documentary. Of course we don't know what they said to each other and what their secret thoughts were, but in the movie they discuss and argue in a way that feels very likely. A good movie, in Swedish but available with English subtitles. I recommend it! The Grenna museum in Gränna with the Andree exhibition is a "scary interesting" experience with all the personal items, handwritten documents and the eerie photographs. Very well worth a visit. I think I might be a bit obsessed about this myself... ;-)

I downloaded this video and took it with me to my arctic cabin. Watched it at 4 am under the sun that never sets. Knowing the weather up here and how the winds howl CONSTANTLY I could never imagine thinking "you know what would be a good idea to get to the north pole? MF balloons, yo!" But yeah, this video was so good I had to stop back by to leave a comment. Great story, great narration, excellent use of footage and animation. 10/10

“The 1986 attempt”? The fashion sure looked different than I remember 1986 being.

As a Norwegian, I really appreciate these sort of videos, having heard most of these stories growing up. Very well made 👍

You and your team's style is increasingly unmatched. One of few channels I instantly, reliably click any offering or video put forth from ya'll. thank u Sean and crew. for everything. came for the scary cave horror, stayed for the magic.

If you’re interested in doing more videos on near fatal hot air balloon, look up the Glaisher/Coxwell expedition of 1862. It was made into a movie in 2019.

The name "Svea" is also a old swedish girl's name. I live about 40km from where Andre was born , "Gränna". In Gränna there is a museum about Andre and his expedition. I can recomend it.

This story was the inspiration for the 1982 film Flight of the Eagle by Swedish director Jan Troell, starring Max Von Sydow as Soloman Andre, it's a great film, I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in this story. Great upload!

What a shame about no autopsies! Those were the times. And those poor men. The balloon ride was Hell to begin with. Thanks for a great story, well told.

With all those empty morphine bottles makes me wonder if Andre overdosed himself on purpose.

Bravo, Sean! This is a story that doesn’t get much attention. The hubris of Andree was staggering!

A Swedish author (Per Olov Sundman), wrote a book many years ago, stating that Andrée was clearly aware, that it couldn't be done to cross the Arctic in his, slightly guided balloon, with a drag rope and sails, but he felt it as his obligation to start anyway, because of the many donations, also from the King! He had constructed a folding boat which the crew used trying to cross the ice after they had landed on the ice, and had taken pictures on plates (Those plates became made into pictures, with American help in the seventies, and still exists). Also a burner for their food, to hang below the highly flammable balloon! They had brought a special hunting gun, a combined shotgun and rifle, I think donated by Husqvarna? But shortly after the start they lost the heavy rope hanging to the ground/ice as part of the "Guiding System", but continued as a free balloon. They also had floats to be dropped in the sea with a message. At least one of those became found by ships. It also became a fine film, made mostly on the heavy ice in the Baltic, with Max von Sydow as Andrée. They have a small museum with the remnants and finds from the end found on Hvideøen, in Andrées hometown of Gränna! The found bodies became buried in Stockholm.

The visuals are terrific. They seamlessly stitch this story together.

I appreciate you bringing us material like this. Its fresh... Despite these events being hundreds of years old

The Norwegians wanted one of these nice balloons too - but they couldn’t a-fjord it!

10:14 Man, I can't believe they tried flying that balloon all the way from 1896 to 1987. There's no way a bunch of 110+ year old dudes are gonna make that voyage...

If anyone wants more details on this expedition, Archie's Archives has a 38-minute video. It includes interesting details like the ridiculous items they brought with them (such as fine linen tablecloths) and how the one guy's fiancée never really got over him.

The intro, the narration, the research and details you share, plus the visuals 🤌🤌🤌 we can really appreciate the quality of this content.

Love to see the even MORE insane Arctic attempts by Umberto Nobile's Italia airship in the late 1920s. Powered dirigible holding several people. That ended up crashing, dumping most on the ice but the image that haunts is that half of it--with a few crew trapped aboard as it impacted, split then the big piece began lifting out of control. Realizing their fate, the trapped men used what time was left to throw as many supplies out for those on the ice and were never seen again.

No survival training because he'd envisaged a relatively smooth and uneventful voyage?? Reminds me of when Hitler sent out his troops wearing summer gear because he was sure that Russia would be taken before winter set in.

There's also the possibility they ate polar bear liver, which is poisonous, just an ounce can be fatal. But its strange that the ones who survived a day or two longer didn't record anything about the first deaths

There is a reason why people like comfy chairs and warm living rooms.

According to the swedish physician and journalist Bea Uusma, who has studied this case for 20 years, the cause of death was a polar bear attack of the two younger guys. One died right away and the other got severely hurt. Being left alone with the LONG and dark winter before him and the guilt of being responsible for their death, André commited suicide with morphine.

Was Andre a forefather of the recent submarine inventor who killed people looking for the titanic?

This is the closest thing to a documentary about this expedition I can find on RU-vid thank you!

Make a video about the Terra Nova Expedition, the journey through the antaractic to the south pole. It was described famously in the book "The Worst Journey In the World". Truly one of the most insane stories I think i've ever read.

Tremendous courage these men had.

Got himself and his buddies turned into popsicles with a balloon because deep sea submersibles hadn't been invented yet. No autopsies necessary. All three died of stupidity.

According to my grandpa, this was his everyday commute to grade school.

When I heard "hot air balloon" and "Arctic" I immediately assumed this would be about the Nobile/Italia disaster from 1928, but I had never heard of Andree so thanks for bringing this story to light. I wonder if any of the men's physical deterioration could be due to Vitamin A toxicity from eating so much polar bear and seal offal? Not sure it was well understood back then and it could account for the diarrhoea, sickness, neuropathy etc.

Death by polar bear seems somehow merciful given nobody was coming to their rescue.

How is this not a movie or TV show, it is immensely more interesting and complex than anything Hollywood is putting out and it’s a true story!

How did the pigeon make it back?!? That’s incredible

The decisions made in this story stressed me out more than the outcomes.

Thirty seconds in and this already sounds like such a bad idea.

How Not to do an expedition

This story was told in the movie "The Flight of the Eagle," which was Sweden's nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1982. It was memorably reviewed by Siskel & Ebert; Roger thought it was one of the worst movies he'd ever seen, while Gene called it "shockingly bad."

I live about as close to Antarctica as it's possible to be without giving up necessities like supermarkets and Starbucks. The cold winds that blow up from the South Pole are so brutal that the trees along the coastline grow sideways. The idea that anybody would attempt to fly a balloon into a similarly hostile environment is, to use the technical term, BATSHIT CRAZY!

They did not have parasites. They had acute vitamin A poisoning from eating the liver of the polar bears. The same thing happened to Mawson's antarctic expedition from eating their sled dogs' liver. But other than those problems, it went pretty well then?

These are great men who endured many insurmountable conditions in the pursuit of exploration

You should do a video on the 1928 failed arctic airship " Italia " it's flight, crash, & rescue. There was a 1969 movie " The Red Tent " starring Sean Connery that told the story, just thought might be a good video for your viewers.

This guy was willing to risk the life of his two other mates and his own just so he didn’t look dumb. Relatable.

I've always been curious how it would fare if you would sometimes make longer, 1 hr + videos of disasters and unfortunate events. I love watching theses videos on a binge, I'd love detailed events on occasion.

Imagine the kind of camaraderie they formed they formed going through all of these things, in a way it's inspiring to contemplate how those hardships gave them a meaningful bond that kept their optimism apparently intact, despite the dark end...

I can't remember what story it was, but there was a team who ate polar bear liver, and it has a toxic amount of vitamin A, producing similar symptoms to the ones described here. Along with the trichinosis, I imagine that's probably what contributed to the illness. The polar bear attack isn't completely out of the question either, it's absolutely possible both things happened.

Great video Sean! Your channel is the best :)

You have to think that explorers of this era were either extremely brave or utterly insane.

You said and wrote 1986 and 1987 a few times 😊 Great video as always. Love the channel

This and Mr. Ballen have been my fav and go to channels for a hot minute now. Great work Sean! I'm always checking for when you drop new material. Amazing job as always! Appreciate it!

No matter how many different times I hear this story, it never gets old. Absolutely fascinating.

We went from 1886 to 1987 even on the screen. Lol

What surprises me is that they didn't bring any communication equipment, such as radio, which was invented couple of years earlier.

What a great story. Man, those polar explorers were incredibly brave. These days they would be called foolhardy, but it takes incredible courage to attempt something like this.

So, something important that was omitted was a diary entry from Andree or Strindberg saying they didn't really fear the polar bears, and would go outside without their rifles. Not only that, Strindberg's clothes were ripped, and there was a hole in his forehead, indicating he had probably been attacked and killed by a polar bear. This really was a blow to the other two, and, whether Fraenkel was attacked by a polar bear or not, his general condition seemed to be worsening rapidly anyway. He also died in his tent, with no boots or mittens on (the only time they would've taken them off was to sleep), so, it's possible he died from an intentional morphine overdose after what happened to Strindberg. Another important omission was just how dangerous it was for them to be eating that much seal and polar bear meat. Particularly dangerous is the liver of the animals, which can cause Vitamin A poisoning if too much is consumed. Also, when they would kill one of these animals, they would carry the meat on their bodies, so it wouldn't freeze. This would raise the temperature of the meat, allowing harmful bacteria to grow. Lastly, we knew from their diaries they ate the meat raw, so botulism was a real possibility. Either way, it's a miracle they survived as long as they did, considering they were feeling the effects of snowblindness, trench foot and some type of illness two months before they died.

this has submarine vibes..

I love how the Norwegians unintentionally feature in all this. They're just background characters who unknowingly played key roles in both triggering Andree to risk the expedition, and discovering his fate.

*raises glass. Those Who never wander; ARE the Lost.

Blows my mind how incompetent Andree was

I'm guessing it was vitamin A toxicity caused by eating bear, seal, etc liver. This would explain the blurred vision and it can kill quickly.

I’m going to say this is the most interesting story I have heard so far. Great job!

Dropout's WTF 101 covered this. Favorite quote from that segment: "Morale remains good. With such comrades one should be able to manage under, I may say, any circumstances." "See, he and his friends looked out for each other." "They were dead within days!"

One word...EGO...Get you every time He knew he balloon wouldn't work, but risked other peoples lives anyway, so he didn't loose face.

Before the Internet, people had very insane and dangerous ideas for killing boredom.

Hi Sean, fantastic vid as always 👍 I love the stories of explorers. Could you please cover the last expedition of Burke and Wills from Australia 🇦🇺

*Slaps roof of balloon” This bad boy can leak so much air

I love these old expedition/survival stories. Anyone know any other channels that have these types of videos?

These guys are about bad ass as you can get doing what they did and surviving that long. God Bless them.

Vitamin A poisoning after eating a polar bears liver?

Such a fascinating case, thanks for covering it!

So, can anyone fly over the arctic in even the most outfitted balloon today? It's an interesting technical challenge that would explain a great deal about what the challenges of that environment are and the limits of travel in these kinds of places.

Id heard this story before, but not in this level of detail. Kudos to you and your editor. Pretty good.

I love this story so much. There's a Swedish Andre expedition expert named Bea Uusma, she wrote a huge book with loads of interesting bits about the case. Along with coroner notes and diary entries. If it exists in English I do recommend a read :D Or just to flip though the pages.

Great video. Watched this the same day they discovered the titanic sub. Over a hundred years later and there are shocking similarities concerning ignoring warning signs and red flags.

At around 10:15 there is a mistake. The year says 1987 rather than 1897. Just FYI

The one dude who opted out forever thinking to himself, “Dude, I got excellent instincts!”.

"Undeterred by this criticism..." ;D Yep, This ain't gonna be good.