""The Forward Brig"" sailed from Liverpool Port with eighteen crew members on board. But neither during the sailing, nor even for a long time after him, none of them knew the purpose of the voyage, nor even the name of the captain. And only having plunged far into the Arctic waters, the sailors learned that the famous navigator John Hatteras, who set the ambitious task of becoming the first person to reach the North Pole, was leading the expedition.