DEAD RECKONING

To the Antarctic and Beyond

By: BEN KOETHER, Shawn Smucker

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Paperback | 27 January 2026

At a Glance

Paperback
330 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24 x 2.29

Paperback

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A modern-day explorer takes on the Antarctic, the business world, and eventually the U.S. Government.

Ben Koether was born into a boating community on the edge of Long Island Sound, learning to maneuver a small penguin class sailboat on his own through the fog by the time he was eight years old. The water became his playground. He would go on to spend an entire summer on the Atlantic when he was fourteen, helping to sail the famous VEMA, captained by none other than the renowned Lou Kenedy.

But the beginning of his greatest adventures took place in 1959, when he set sail for the uncharted waters of the Antarctic and became the youngest navigator of the then largest Icebreaker in US History. His exploits there earned him a bay named in his honor: Koether Inlet on the north coast of Thurston Island.

This is the story of a modern-day explorer, a throwback to the earliest seafaring adventurers, and how his life's journey led him from Pelham, New York, to the Antarctic, to the edge of the Bay of Pigs invasion, and, later, to a position on President Nixon's inauguration team and a meteoric rise through the business world. In the end, Ben finds himself fighting for the life of the USS GLACIER, the very ship he navigated and fell in love with on the Antarctic Ocean.

Ben Koether is a businessman, a sailor, a husband, and father of three children: Roz, George, and Christian. He founded (FAST.) in his garage in 1969. He now lives in Fort Lauderdale with his wife Joan, where he is never more than a stone's-throw away from the water.

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