3. Presumed Dead

"I doubt whether one in a hundred people will have heard of the central character who strides through the pages of this book. Yet he was once the most famous explorer of his age — a celebrity of such renown that he was courted by presidents, prime ministers and journalists."

So begins Giles Milton's Empire at the Edge of the World. But what happened to Vilhjalmur Stefansson? How did one of the most celebrated explorers of the early twentieth century go from international hero to outcast?

This is the extraordinary story of his rise — and his spectacular fall.

In 1913, Stefansson was at the height of his fame - charismatic, ambitious, and convinced of his own vision. He believed the Arctic held the key to the future — not an empty frozen wilderness, but a region rich in resources and strategic importance — and he was determined to put himself at its centre.

Then came the expedition to the Siberian Arctic, and the attempt to establish a colony on Wrangel Island. What followed would transform his reputation forever.

Drawing on diaries and journals written under extreme duress, Empire at the Edge of the World is a story of ambition, rivalry, survival and hubris — and of the human cost of one man's obsession. It is also a story about the power of celebrity, the danger of charisma, and what happens when ambition outruns reality.

Yet more than a century later, some of Stefansson's ideas seem remarkably prescient. As the Arctic once again becomes a focus of international competition — over territory, resources, new routes and strategic power — his vision of the polar north has acquired an unexpected contemporary resonance.

Episode Three
Believing he can hunt his way to survival, Stefansson sets off across the treacherous polar ice with just two companions and 30 days' rations.

Written by Giles Milton
Read by Edmund Kingsley
Abridged and produced by Karen Rose
A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4