Ice Station Zebra

Ice Station Zebra (1963, ISBN 0002433389) is a novel written by Alistair Maclean.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

The fictional nuclear-powered submarine USS Dolphin is dispatched on a rescue mission to Drift Ice Station Zebra, in the Arctic Sea. Accompanying them is the mysterious Dr. Carpenter, an apparent expert in dealing with frostbite and other deep-cold medical conditions. The station has had a fire, and men have died. The rest are holed up in one hut with no food, heat, and little liquid water. If help does not reach them soon, they will die.

At first, Carpenter is treated with suspicion, particularly when Captain Swanson receives an order from the Admiralty instructing him to obey Carpenter's every command, except where crew safety is at stake. Such an order means that Carpenter is no ordinary civilian.

The trip to the Arctic is uneventful, and soon the Dolphin is under the ice, searching for a place to surface and attempt to contact the Ice-Station, whose radio signals are becoming weaker by the hour. During the search, Carpenter reveals to Captain Swanson that this is not just a rescue mission - the station is a highly-equipped listening post, keeping a watch for nuclear missile launches from the Soviet Union. Eventually finding a place to surface, the Dolphin establishes radio contact with Zebra, and gets a bearing on their position. But Zebra is too far away to attempt to reach on foot, so the Submarine submerges and heads in their direction, hoping to get closer.

With time running out, the Dolphin finds open water, and surfaces just 5 miles from the station. Carpenter and three men from the Dolphin make the perilous journey - into an arctic wind - to the station, taking with them food, water, medical supplies, and a small heater. Almost at their target, one of the men breaks his ankle - and the radio the party was using to keep in contact with the Dolphin. Nevertheless, they carry on, and reach Zebra. Devastation awaits them. Three of the eight huts have been utterly destroyed by a widespread oil fire. Eight men are dead - burnt to a crisp. Eleven men are alive, but barely. All have burns from the fire, and all are frostbitten. Carpenter, being more than he seems, does some investigating.

Finally Carpenter and one of the Dolphin crew (Rawlings), unable to make radio-contact, return on foot to the Dolphin. They are able to take news of the location of thin ice near Zebra. The Dolphin submerges, and heads for Zebra. But the ice there is too thick - but maybe it can be opened with a torpedo. Disaster strikes. Sabotage has held open an outer torpedo door, and the safeties disengaged. When the inner door is opened, water rushes in, killing a crewman and sending the Dolphin to the bottom.

The Dolphin is a powerful ship, and by blowing all its tanks and making full reverse, is eventually able to stabilize itself. Cunning ingenuity then sees the water cleared from the torpedo room, and the Dolphin back on an even keel. After successfully cracking the ice, the Dolphin finally emerges just two hundred feet from Zebra. Heaters are bought in, the sick men are brought aboard, and Carpenter does some more investigating. What he finds is that the fire was no accident - it was a cover to hide the fact that three of the burnt men were murdered. Carpenter already knows why - the only question is who?

Finally the Zebra survivors are aboard, Zebra is abandoned, and the Dolphin heads for its base in Scotland. Again disaster strikes - Carpenter is injured in an apparent accident. The ship's doctor is also attacked, and is in a coma. Then a fire breaks out in the engine room. Although the fire is eventually put out - with perhaps an hour before the death of all aboard - Carpenter decides that it, too, was no accident. He goes to the Captain.

Carpenter is revealed to be an MI6 officer. His brother was one of the men killed at Zebra. Carpenter's real mission is to retrieve photographic film - film from a reconnaissance satellite (see Corona) that has photographed every nuclear weapons installation in the U.S. The film, ejected from the satellite, had landed near Zebra. Carpenter's brother had been meant to retrieve it, but Russian agents killed him. The two Russian agents are amongst the survivors from Zebra. Carpenter finally reveals their motives, methods, and the men. The film is now in American hands, and the agents on their way to the gallows.

Movie

Ice Station Zebra was adapted into a movie in 1968, starring Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine and Patrick McGoohan. The character names are changed, and the plot makes considerable departures from the novel, including the resolution. The nuclear-powered Dolphin was portrayed in the movie by the diesel-electric submarine USS Ronquil. It was nominated for an Academy Award in the special effects category. 2001: A Space Odyssey won instead.