0:06

Six years ago, Caitlin

0:09

Statz and Travis Vengroff launched The White Vault, a

0:12

psychological horror story set in the frozen

0:14

archipelago of Svalbard.

0:17

Today, The White Vault has accrued a cult

0:19

following, and fans wait expectantly

0:22

for what might happen next with the franchise. It's

0:25

here we join Travis and Caitlin, Fool

0:28

and Scholar, as they explore the land,

0:30

air, and sea of Svalbard.

1:00

North

1:03

of Europe and the Arctic Sea, Svalbard

1:05

marks the midway point between the northern coast

1:07

of Norway and the North Pole. And

1:10

so it's become a hub of sorts for expeditionists,

1:13

from survivalists to researchers to

1:15

people who had to physically carve their way through the ice

1:17

in order to build a base of operations. One

1:20

such person is Jad Davenport.

1:23

I'm Jad Davenport,

1:25

I'm a National Geographic photographer. My

1:27

name is Travis Vengroff, I'm the sound designer for The White

1:30

Vault. And where are we? We

1:32

are on the far northern coast, northwest

1:34

coast of Spitsberg Island

1:37

in the Svalbard archipelago. And

1:40

if you look out, what you're seeing right now is the

1:43

cliffs of Spergen. And to

1:45

our, off to our left is nothing

1:47

but sea ice. You could head up to the North Pole about 600

1:49

miles away. This is amazing,

1:52

by the way.

1:53

We're kind of floating right here in the

1:55

pack ice. And we're not far

1:57

away from Dane Island.

1:59

which I want

2:02

to say was back in the 1800s there

2:04

was a guy named Solomon Andre who was

2:06

a balloon aviation expert

2:09

and he wanted to fly a balloon

2:11

over to the North Pole no one had flown up the North

2:14

Pole no one had been to the North

2:15

Pole.

2:19

What Jad won't tell you is that he's

2:21

also a filmmaker, a writer, a

2:24

rescue diver, he was a war photographer

2:26

where his work contributed to real-life war crimes

2:28

investigations. It was

2:30

after this he migrated to National Geographic where

2:33

he took his photography skills underwater to

2:35

study the most isolated islands on earth. So

2:38

yeah that's Jad.

2:41

So let's start again.

2:44

What is the century we're in? I'm trying to just catch

2:46

up. We would have been in the

2:48

19th century. So the

2:51

intent was to go over the Arctic or to land?

2:53

To go over the North Pole or fly over the

2:55

North Pole. This is back in a time

2:58

when balloons were really popular you know and you

3:00

could fly so Solomon

3:03

Andre was a Swedish adventurer

3:06

and he had a crew of three. There was

3:08

a young man named Neil Strinberg,

3:11

madly in love with

3:14

his fiancee and of course this was

3:16

a celebrated journey they were going to fly

3:18

over the North Pole so not far from here. Danes

3:21

Island they set up a base. And

3:23

it clarifies that on Schritzbergen on the west side? Yes

3:26

it would be on the west side of the far western

3:28

so they set up they tried it once

3:31

one summer and they couldn't go the winds weren't favorable

3:34

so they came back the following summer with a

3:36

lot of fanfare you know everyone and everyone

3:39

in Sweden wanted to claim kind of the North

3:41

Pole and so these three guys they got

3:43

their balloon and they had perfected a technique where

3:45

they would trail ropes below

3:48

the balloon in order to steer it and

3:50

also to adjust their altitude so

3:53

if you can imagine they'd have heavy heavy ropes that

3:55

would keep them fairly low and

3:57

they could kind of steer with sails. And

4:00

they got some good winds. And

4:02

they all hopped in. They had provisions for, I want to say, 48 days.

4:06

They had sledges in case they landed on the

4:08

ice, and huge fanfare reporters.

4:10

And they lifted off from

4:12

Danes Island. And they flew out over

4:15

the water. And then they came down. And they dipped

4:17

once in the water. And everyone kind of held

4:19

their breath. And then they rose up again. And

4:21

they were bringing carrier pigeons with them to send

4:24

messages back. And they had buoys. And

4:27

everyone waved. And they sailed off.

4:29

And they vanished. These

4:33

guys sailed off into nothingness.

4:40

One of many to meet a similar fate, the

4:42

Arctic wastelands give another stark reminder as

4:44

to why in certain places, travel

4:47

is not advised. But the spirit

4:49

of adventure never stops calling. Some

4:52

things are with braving the odds to protect. And

4:55

there are certain people willing to chance the elements to

4:57

protect them.

4:58

I'm Caitlin Statz. And we are here with? My

5:01

name is Madalena Fatascu. And I'm

5:03

a naturalist, an expedition naturalist.

5:05

OK. And

5:07

where are you from? I am from Portugal,

5:10

Lisbon. When Madalena

5:12

is not exploring the globe, she spends her time

5:14

and effort educating those trying to better care for our ocean's

5:16

ecosystem. And her lectures

5:18

on ecotourism have brought her to universities across

5:21

the globe. For those listening, what

5:23

is a naturalist?

5:24

So a naturalist, when

5:26

we travel on expeditions, we have

5:29

a team of experts that come on board

5:31

our ships, which are

5:33

the naturalists. And these are people

5:35

who studied natural history. So

5:37

they can be marine biologists. They can

5:40

be ornithologists. They can be geologists,

5:43

historians, archaeologists.

5:46

And we travel with our guests around

5:48

the world. And we talk to them

5:50

about the places where we go. So they can

5:52

learn in a totally different level and experience

5:54

the places we go in

5:57

a completely different way.

5:59

we are exploring around. So

6:03

if a naturalist can start with any

6:05

subject of their choosing, what was your chosen

6:07

subject? Mine is marine

6:09

biology. I studied marine biology and

6:11

I've worked in the last 15 years or so as

6:15

a marine educator. So I

6:17

work with what we call ocean

6:19

literacy. So the idea

6:22

is that you can communicate

6:24

and transmit science connected to the ocean

6:27

to anyone of any age and

6:29

anywhere.

6:29

So in Portugal we have this big

6:32

project from an ocean foundation

6:34

which is called Blue Generation. And

6:36

our idea is to raise a generation that

6:38

is very self-aware of the ocean and

6:41

that we can take care of it at the

6:43

same time as we use it sustainably, right? So

6:46

the whole concept is that we are training our

6:48

teachers on how to teach about the ocean

6:51

and use the ocean on any subject. So from

6:53

math to science to literature

6:55

to art you can use the

6:58

ocean as a subject and teach

7:00

your students with all of those

7:02

subjects, right? And so that's our idea

7:04

is to create a generation that will

7:06

take care of the ocean.

7:07

So for those

7:10

who can't see what we're doing, what are you

7:12

currently doing right now?

7:14

So right now we are at the bridge

7:17

of our ship, the National Geographic

7:19

Resolution and I'm on a telescope

7:22

scouting the ice. We have different

7:24

kinds of ice here. It's

7:26

sea ice and we are trying to find polar

7:28

bears. Outnumbering the population

7:30

of humans, Svalbard and its surrounding seas

7:33

is home to an estimated 3,000 polar bears.

7:36

Classified as a marine mammal, polar bears

7:38

spend the majority of their lives drifting on sea ice, waiting

7:41

for the odd prey to float within reach.

7:43

A good example of one of our world's natural

7:46

terrors. Which brings us to a pertinent

7:48

question. Our podcasts

7:50

are generally very spooky. They

7:54

try to entertain people by

7:56

giving them something else to focus on, which is usually

7:58

something a little bit scary.

7:59

Have you had any experiences

8:02

in the Arctic or Antarctic that you consider

8:04

to be spooky or personally frightening

8:07

that you would be comfortable sharing?

8:09

Well, let me think of it. Scary,

8:11

scary, scary. So one of the things we

8:13

try here is to make

8:15

things, you know, totally

8:17

safe, right? So we avoid

8:19

any kind of risks. That being said,

8:21

we always know, like you always have to be on the

8:24

lookout. You always have to, you know, you always

8:26

have to be aware of everything and

8:28

everybody has to be with your eyes on everywhere

8:31

to make sure that all goes well. I

8:33

wouldn't say scary, but last year we did a pretty cool

8:36

expedition, which was the Nautres Passage. And

8:38

we went pretty early in the season, so

8:41

it has too much ice. And

8:43

it was very likely that we wouldn't make it through. Right.

8:46

So many

8:47

days throughout the expedition was always the expectation

8:50

of are we making it? Are we not? Are

8:52

we going to be able to cross? Are we not? You

8:54

know, the ice shift and changes with winds

8:56

and currents and things like that. So for

8:59

this expedition

9:01

you had through the Nautres Passage that you

9:03

weren't able to get through, what

9:06

kind of? You were. You were able to get through. We ended

9:08

up, but there was that there was a

9:10

point where it was very tricky.

9:12

OK. And we yeah. But

9:15

what kind of precautions are taken

9:17

for if that happens

9:20

and you have to turn around? Well, it

9:23

has happened and it happened a lot. It's insane

9:25

because everybody tried for centuries and everybody

9:28

failed. It's full of like awful

9:30

ending stories. Most of it ended very, very

9:32

badly, which is incredible,

9:34

isn't it? And so for us is the

9:37

big thrill. A lot of people

9:39

haven't heard of it. Right. We've sailed around

9:41

the world. We went around America.

9:43

We went around Africa. We covered everything.

9:45

We circumnavigated the world. Right. But

9:47

the last big, big chunk of crossing

9:50

the world was the Nautres Passage. It was the hardest.

9:52

It was very difficult. And many people

9:55

failed. And when we say failed, a

9:57

lot of people lost their lives.

10:00

And it

10:00

all dates back to that story Jad was telling

10:03

us about. That team of 19th century

10:05

expeditionists attempting to fly to the North Pole

10:07

with an air balloon. Last we

10:09

heard, the team had just vanished.

10:12

But there's more to it than that.

10:15

So 30 years later, and of course

10:17

this fiancé was devastated, she

10:19

went on to marry another man, a wealthy man, but she

10:21

always said that her heart was with Nils. And 30

10:25

years later, a sealing

10:27

boat,

10:29

a vessel that was after seals

10:31

and walrus, was going in

10:34

the far northeast side of Svalbard,

10:36

a little island called Kidfoya. And

10:39

they happened to land on a beach. There's only

10:42

one or two beaches on this entire island. It's just

10:44

an ice cap. And the sailors

10:46

were hiking on the beach and they found a skeleton.

10:49

And then they found another skeleton. And

10:52

they found the tattered remains of

10:54

the balloon crew. And the most

10:56

incredible part was they found journals

10:59

tucked in the bodies. And so of

11:01

course they went back and told Stockholm,

11:04

they sent a ship back, guys came up

11:06

to investigate. And what had

11:09

happened is they were able to piece it together

11:11

from their journals. They had taken off and they had flown

11:13

for just a couple of days. And

11:15

then the balloon needs good weather

11:17

to kind of lift off. But it was covered with dew

11:20

and snow. And

11:22

the weight was bringing it down. So they crashed

11:24

on the ice. But they were prepared. They

11:26

had sledges. So they loaded up the sledges.

11:29

And their plan was

11:29

to head to Franz Josefland, another area,

11:32

and seek help. They

11:34

weren't quite sure where they were. So they were

11:36

on the sea ice, the huge

11:39

pan. It would have looked like this out here, just flat

11:42

with some pressure ridges. And

11:44

so they hauled these sleds with the hope of getting

11:46

to help. And this is all written down in their

11:49

journals. And they were in fairly good spirits. Nils was the

11:51

young guy. I want to say he was in his 20s. And

11:53

he would take measurements.

11:55

They were still doing science. And then he would write short

11:57

little notes to his fiancée, saying...

11:59

how he missed her. And

12:02

they were pretty optimistic.

12:04

And then eventually the ice started breaking

12:06

up and they were able to make it to this island. And

12:09

they got to the island and they

12:11

had their sledges. They didn't have any tents

12:13

that could really keep them warm. So

12:16

they pieced together what they believed happened. They

12:18

only lasted a few weeks on

12:20

this island, even though despite having food and you

12:22

had polar bears around. One of the

12:24

suspicions is that Nils was killed

12:26

by a polar bear. That he

12:29

was injured. They found some of his clothing.

12:31

His underwear had rips in it that

12:33

matched the tears on the outside of the

12:35

pants as well. And so they believed

12:38

that what happened was Nils died first. And they

12:40

buried him. They covered him with rocks and

12:42

a cleft in this little cliff. And

12:45

then I believe the engineer died next.

12:47

And then they think that Andre, the head of the expedition,

12:50

may have committed suicide with morphine.

12:52

He was stuck there. No hope. So

12:56

they brought these bodies back to Stockholm.

12:58

They were bringing them back. So they did recover

13:01

the bodies. They recovered the bodies. They recovered items

13:03

from the campsite

13:05

itself. It was a huge parade in Stockholm.

13:08

I mean, basically a funerary

13:12

procession. Thank you. They

13:14

brought them home. They brought them home.

13:16

And then his fiancé,

13:18

who had remarried at the time, said, when

13:21

I die, I would like them to cut my heart out,

13:24

cremate it, and bury my ashes with

13:26

Nils where he's buried. And so when

13:28

she passed away, her husband

13:32

granted her wish and had her heart

13:34

cut out of her body, cremate

13:36

it, and her ashes were sent back to rest with Nils

13:38

Strindberg. Wow.

13:41

I've never heard it. It's very intense

13:43

love. It's intense,

13:45

and they have his love letters to her from

13:48

his journal. I want to say it was

13:50

the 1890s,

13:52

and I think they discovered them 30 years later

13:54

in the 1920s. Bears

13:57

had gotten to them and moved so they could see

13:59

them.

13:59

They found vertebrae here and a pelvic bone

14:02

there. Oh my. But

14:05

yeah, it was just, and the tragedy

14:07

was, they

14:10

had supplies, but they weren't prepared

14:12

for the cold.

14:17

A tragedy akin to an FNS tail

14:19

and the perfect end to our first look into

14:21

the mysterious and brutal world of Svalbard.

14:24

We have a couple of new people for you to meet before long,

14:27

but we'll leave it here for now. These

14:29

interviews were recorded using a prototype of the Nomino

14:32

sound capsule. Special thanks to Stein, Bagustal

14:34

and the Nomino team for sponsoring these recordings

14:36

and letting us play with their amazing technology. Allowing

14:39

these interviews to take place outside in 20

14:41

kilometer per hour winds during a zodiac

14:43

landing and while breaking through pack ice. Edited

14:47

and produced by Dane Leonardson. Music by

14:49

Brandon Boone and Dane Leonardson. A

14:51

special thanks to Madelena Patasho and Jad

14:53

Davenport. Thank you for listening

14:56

and try to keep warm. Music

14:58

by Brandon Boone and Dane Leonardson.

15:30

America's real history is

15:33

one of giants who overcame all

15:35

odds, overcame slavers

15:37

and robber barons. And what did we

15:39

do? Well, everyone knows we invented

15:41

the internet, but we also invented

15:43

the middle class, the five day work

15:46

week, the teenager, the automobile

15:48

and the space race, and we're just getting started.

15:52

We've been through far more chaotic times

15:55

than this one

15:56

with some of the most incredible leaders

15:58

on the planet and they're ready.

16:00

for us to pick up where they left off. Our

16:02

real origins connect us back to reality,

16:05

each other, and a whole new cinematic

16:07

universe to empower and inspire.

16:11

My name is Matthew Cook, and I'm the host

16:13

of American Origin Stories, now

16:15

playing wherever you get your podcasts.

16:18

Or you can learn more at realm.fm.