Arctic Rescue

Originally Aired: December 22, 1952

Suspense #492, "Arctic Rescue," stars Joseph Cotten as Gerald Stewart, first mate of the Jessica, a ship embarked on a perilous Arctic expedition. The story begins with a stark contrast: Stewart and Captain Jonathan Blake lie stranded on a desolate ice flow in the Arctic night, waiting helplessly for death. Flashing back to June 1852, we learn how they arrived at this desperate situation. Lady Franklin has commissioned Captain Blake and his crew to search for her missing husband, Sir John Franklin, and his two ships, the Erebus and Terra, which vanished somewhere in the uncharted frozen wilderness while seeking the Northwest Passage. Despite Lady Franklin's warning to prioritize their own survival above all else, the men set sail from New York with promises to return by Christmas.

The Jessica ventures into increasingly dangerous Arctic waters, picking up ice pilot Patrick Hansen in Godham before entering the treacherous regions beyond the Arctic Circle. As the crew searches for clues about Franklin's fate among Eskimo settlements, they face the constant threat of being frozen in by winter ice flows, the same deadly trap that likely claimed Franklin's expedition.