In the spring of 1880, 21-year-old medical student Arthur Conan Doyle received an unexpected offer - to go on a six-month polar voyage on a whaling ship, which, in the words of the great writer, became a strange and delightful chapter of his biography. The choice between preparing for another exam and a polar adventure was short-lived. From the Arctic, the future great writer brought a notebook with notes and drawings made with his own hands, which formed the basis of this book. In addition to the Arctic diaries, the book includes articles by Conan Doyle on swimming, written by him for British and American magazines, and works of art based on the author's polar experience - the mystical novella The Captain of the North Star and the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventures of Black Peter.