American Experience: The Greely Expedition is an acclaimed PBS documentary series that aired in 2011. The series chronicles the heroic and tragic scientific expedition of 25 men into the vast nothingness of the arctic. Led by Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, the crew sailed deep into the northern arctic with the Lady Franklin Bay as their target destination. Their hopes were to collect never before collected scientific data on a landscape that had never really been studied. After three years of no communication with the outside world, only six of the men returned home. Their haunting tails of survival, mutiny, starvation, and cannibalism were all that they could salvage from the failed mission. Now, producer Rob Rapley tells this great scientific adventure turned tragedy. The film draws from scientific accounts, diaries, photographs and letters. Ultimately, the film shows how ill planning, bad tempers, lack of judgment, and just plane bad luck can lead to a horrific end.moreless
