Learn more about CCRLS
Reading recommendations from Novelist
Cover image for Arctic labyrinth : the quest for the Northwest Passage
Format:
Book
Title:
Arctic labyrinth : the quest for the Northwest Passage
Other title(s):
Quest for the Northwest Passage
ISBN:
9780520266278

9780520269958
Edition:
1st University of California Press ed.
Publication Information:
Berkeley : University of California Press, 2010.
Physical Description:
xix, 439 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 24 cm
General Note:
Originally published: London : Allen Lane, 2009.
Contents:
List of ilustrations -- List of maps -- Preface. -- Prologue: 'There is no land unhabitable nor sea innavigable.' -- Part I. 1. 'All is not golde that glistereth' : the expeditions of Martin Frobisher -- 2. 'The passage is most probable' ; 'there is no passage nor hope of passage' : the views of John Davis and William Baffin -- 3. 'A sea to the westward' : the discovery of Hudson Bay -- 4. 'To seek a needle in a bottle of hay' : the rival voyages of Luke Foxe and Thomas James. -- Part II. The quest renewed: 5. 'Northward to find out the Straits of Anian' : the tragic voyage of James Knight -- 6. 'The maritime philosophers stone' : the vision of Arthur Dobbs -- 7. 'I left the print of my feet in blood' : Samuel Hearne and the speculative geographers -- 8. 'No information could be had from maps' : James Cook's final voyage -- 9. 'Insults in the name of science to modern navigation' : fantasy voyages through the Northwest Passage. --

Part III. An object peculiarly British: 10. 'Our prospects were truly exhilarating' : the gateway of Lancaster Sound -- 11. 'The man who ate his boots' : John Franklin goes overland -- 12. 'This set us all castle-building' : the later voyages of Edward Parry -- 13. 'The very borders of the grave' : the ordeal of the Rosses -- 14. 'To fill up the small blank on the northern charts' : the explorations of Back, Dease and Simpson. -- Part IV. The Franklin expedition: 15. 'So little now remains to be done' : the last voyage of John Franklin -- 16. 'Franklin's winter quarters!' : clues in the ice -- 17. 'The Northwest Passage discovered!' : the Pacific approach of McClure and Collinson -- 18. 'A thorough downright catastrophe' : the search expedition of Edward Belcher -- 19. 'They fell down and died as they walked' : the fate of Franklin's crews. -- Part V. First transits of the Northwest Passage: 20. 'My dream since childhood' : Roald Amundsen and the passage -- 21. 'I felt that I was on hallowed ground' : the voyages of Henry Larsen. -- Epilogue: The Northwest Passage and climate change. -- Sources and further reading (pages 387-413) -- Index.
Summary:
The elusive dream of locating the Northwest Passage--an ocean route over the top of North America that promised a shortcut to the fabulous wealth of Asia--obsessed explorers for centuries. Until recently these channels were hopelessly choked by impassible ice. Voyagers faced unimaginable horrors--entire ships crushed, mass starvation, disabling frostbite, even cannibalism--in pursuit of a futile goal. Glyn Williams charts the entire sweep of this extraordinary history, from the tiny, woefully equipped vessels of the first Tudor expeditions to the twentieth-century ventures that finally opened the Passage.
Holds: