Ice Station Zebra (novel)

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**Title** **Ice Station Zebra**
1965 UK paperback cover
Author	Alistair MacLean
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Thriller Novel
Publisher	Collins
Released	1963
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	276 pp.
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	The Satan Bug
Followed by	When Eight Bells Toll

Ice Station Zebra is a 1963 thriller novel written by Scottish author Alistair MacLean.

This was the last of MacLean's classic sequence of first person narratives that had begun with Night Without End, and represented a return to that earlier novel's Arctic setting. After this MacLean retired from writing for three years. This was later very loosely adapted into the 1968 John Sturges film Ice Station Zebra starring Rock Hudson.

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Drift Ice Station Zebra, a British meteorological station built on an ice floe in the Arctic Sea, is in trouble. The station has had a fire, and men have died. The rest are holed up in one hut with no food or heat, and little liquid water. If help does not reach them soon, they will die.

The (fictional) American nuclear-powered submarine USS Dolphin is dispatched on a rescue mission. Just before it departs, the mysterious Dr. Carpenter, an apparent expert in dealing with frostbite and other deep-cold medical conditions (and the narrator of the story), is sent to accompany it.

At first, the submarine's Captain Swanson is suspicious of Carpenter; even though he receives an order from Chief of Naval Operations of the US Navy instructing him to obey Carpenter's every command, except where crew safety is at stake. Swanson tells Carpenter he is still inclined to refuse. Carpenter reveals that this is not simply a rescue mission - the station is actually a highly equipped listening post, keeping watch for nuclear missile launches from the Soviet Union. Swanson then allows Carpenter to come along.

Soon the Dolphin is under the Arctic ice pack, searching for a place to surface and attempt to contact Zebra, whose radio signals are becoming weaker by the hour. Eventually finding a place where the ice is thin enough to break through, the Dolphin establishes radio contact, and gets a bearing on their position. But Zebra is too far away to attempt to reach on foot, so the submarine re-submerges, hoping to get closer. Carpenter confides to the Captain that the commander of the station is his brother.

With time running out, the Dolphin finds open water, and surfaces just five miles from the station. Carpenter and three crewmen make the perilous journey through an arctic storm on foot, taking with them as many supplies as they can. After a harrowing trek they reach Zebra. Devastation awaits them. Three of the eight huts and almost all supplies have been destroyed by a widespread oil fire. Eight men are dead - burnt to a crisp. Eleven men are alive, but barely. While the victims are being tended to, Carpenter does some investigating.

Unable to make radio contact, Carpenter and one of the crew return to the sub. They are able to take news of the location of thin ice near Zebra. Dolphin submerges, and heads for Zebra. The ice there is still too thick to punch through with the sub's sail — but maybe it can be opened with a torpedo. Disaster strikes. The crew attempts to load a torpedo into one of the tubes, but when the inner door is opened, a torrent of water rushes in, killing a crewman and sending Dolphin into a nearly catastrophic dive. Only by heroic measures is Dolphin able to save herself. After successfully cracking the ice, the sub finally emerges just two hundred feet from Zebra. The sick men are treated, but some of them are still too ill to be carried to the sub. 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, one of whom was his brother. Carpenter already knows why - the only question is who? Swanson also has a look around, and finds no trace of the sophisticated listening equipment — Carpenter lied to him.

Finally, the survivors are aboard, Zebra is abandoned, and Dolphin heads back, but not without several further incidents. The ship's doctor is knocked into a coma. Carpenter himself is severely hurt in another apparent accident. Then, a fire breaks out in the engine room and the sub is forced to shut down its nuclear power plant. Without power for heating or air purification, Dolphin looks set to become a frozen tomb trapped under the ice pack. Only the ingenuity of the captain and dedication of the crew saves the ship.

Carpenter announces that the fire was no accident. He reveals to the Captain that he is an MI6 officer. Carpenter's real mission is to retrieve photographic 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.