Lost in the land of ice: or, Daring adventures around the South Pole

About this book

"Lost in the land of ice" by Edward Stratemeyer is a boys’ adventure novel written in the early 20th century. It follows Barry Filmore, a wealthy young yachtsman, and Bob Baxter, a cold-hardened boy searching for his missing explorer father and a rumored treasure ship near the South Pole, as they race against unscrupulous rivals. Expect secret maps, kidnappings, and shipboard chases driving the quest toward the Antarctic ice.

The opening of the novel begins in New York with a midnight blaze at a cold‑storage warehouse: Barry rescues Bob from a hidden freezing room while the eccentric inventor-guardian Jasper Powell raves about a “South Pole secret” before perishing in the fire. Bob reveals Powell’s maps and notes on a southern land and a treasure-laden wreck, and Barry refits his fast steam yacht, the Arrow, for a polar expedition. Their plans draw the attention of Captain Fenlick, who steals the red book and, with the help of the traitorous sailor Pat Caven, abducts Bob; Barry gives chase in the Arrow. Bob escapes the tramp steamer Vixen by diving overboard into a thick fog and is later rescued; the Arrow then shadows the Vixen south toward Pernambuco, threading hot latitudes and closing seas as a major storm gathers near Porto Rico.