Queen Maud Land - Antarctica

Queen Maud Land is a one million square-mile region of Antarctica claimed by Norway as a dependent territory. First explored by Norwegians in 1930, the territory is covered by an ice sheet with inland mountain peaks towering above the ice and a tall ice wall along its coast.

In The Hesperus Prophecy, the Clypeate follows the German commercial vessel, the MS Scwhabenland, to Antarctica. Ostensibly searching for whales, the Clypeate believes something far more valuable has brought the Nazis to the edge of the map.

In The Hesperus Prophecy, map coordinates detail the coastal range of Antarctica searched by the FV Melville while looking for the MS Scwhabenland. If you enter these coordinates into Google Maps, you will get results similar to Map 1, where the coastal area searched by the FV Melville is demarcated with a red line.

Map 2 is the historically documented landing site of the MS Schwabenland on Queen Maud Land. Note the off-shore location, presumably due to changes in the ice shelf over the intervening decades.

Interestingly, the Nazis brought cratefuls of small, metal swastikas to Antarctica, intending to spread them to stake Germany’s territorial claim. While these have never been found, in The Hesperus Prophecy, they somehow make their way into Declan’s lifeboat where they are found by the U.S. Navy.

Map 1 - FV Melville search area

When you enter the map coordinates in the book, the red line marks the coastal range of Antarctica searched by the FV Melville.

Map 2 - Documented landing site of the MS Schwabenland

This is the location where the FV Melville encounters the MS Schwabenland. Note that it is a few miles off the coast, this is to account for some ice sheet melting that has occurred since 1939.