The Search for the North West Passage - Hardcover

Savours, Ann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312223722 ISBN 13: 9780312223724

Publisher: St Martins, 1999

Synopsis

A comprehensive chronicle of the various arctic expeditions, lasting from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, that searched for a Northern route by sea to China, includes accounts of the ill-fated John Franklin effort and Amundsen's eventual success.

About this title

Review:

After Columbus sailed the ocean blue in search of a trading route to China but found his way blocked by North and South America, Britain and Europe's other colonial powers scrambled to find alternate paths to the Far East. Avoiding the south, dominated by Spain and Portugal after the Pope's 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, the English and the Dutch searched for both a North East Passage, north of Eurasia, and a North West Passage, through the Arctic ice of what is now North America.

Although such a passage was to become commercially unimportant (and unviable, thanks to climate), the successful transit of the North West Passage became a Holy Grail and deadly siren for countless exploration teams, and it eluded explorers for nearly 400 years. Ann Savours, one of Britain's leading authorities on this tenacious pursuit, describes in a lively and sprawling account the extraordinary adventures of these courageous expeditions. Drawing heavily on primary sources, including diaries, letters to home, and sketches, Savours's Search makes for engrossing reading: from the Frobisher team's 1570s descriptions of the "countrey people" (later the "Esquimaux") "clad in coates made of the skinnes of beastes" and "sharp-witted, readie to conceive our meaning by signes, and to make answere" to accounts of Sir John Franklin's ultimately successful but completely decimated mission, Savours puts you on the heaving decks of the icebreakers and in the minds of these brave explorers. Excellent illustrations, end notes, and appendices round out the work. --Paul Hughes

About the Author:

Ann Savours is the author of The Voyages of Discovery, winner of the "Best Book of the Sea" award. She lives in England.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0312223722
• ISBN 13: 9780312223724
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320