Where Ice Comes To Die
Sailing east off the north coast of Spitsbergen in fairly bad weather and rough sea. Heading towards White Island (Kvitoya). Watched the movie Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Ship pitching and rolling as we sailed through the night. Secured ourselves in our seats and watched, and endured, the film with an eye always on the dramatically shifting horizon occasionally visible through the portholes.
Diary entry 16 September 2011.
The story of Frankenstein begins with the British explorer Captain Robert Walton sailing to the North Pole when his boat gets stuck in the ice and an air of despair descends over him and his crew. The despair is interrupted by the sight of a man riding a dog sledge across the ice coming towards the boat. The man turns out to be Victor Frankenstein, the creator of the Frankenstein Monster. Victor tells Walton his life story and soon after he falls ill and dies.