American Experience (1988)

Episode Overview

Title: The Greely Expedition Plot: In 1881, a team of 25 men, guided by Adolphus Greely, embarked on a journey from Newfoundland to Lady Franklin Bay in the Arctic, aiming to gather extensive scientific knowledge from a largely unexplored region. However, three years later, only six men returned, bearing harrowing accounts of shipwrecks, starvation, rebellion, and cannibalism. This film uncovers how inadequate preparation, interpersonal conflicts, misguided choices, and sheer misfortune transformed an ambitious scientific endeavor into a devastating human ordeal.