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Arctic labyrinth : the quest for the Northwest Passage

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.

Record details

ISBN: 9780520269958 : PAP
ISBN: 0520269950 : PAP
ISBN: 0520266277 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN: 9780520266278 (cloth : alk. paper)
Physical Description: xix, 439 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.) ; 24 cm
print
Edition: 1st University of California Press ed.
Publisher: Berkeley : University of California Press, 2010.

Content descriptions

General Note:	Originally published: London : Allen Lane, 2009.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-413) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Prologue : 'There is no land unhabitable nor sea innavigable' -- 'All is not golde that glistereth' : the expeditions of Martin Frobisher -- 'The passage is most probable'; 'there is no passage nor hope of passage' : the views of John Davis and William Baffin -- 'A sea to the westward' : the discovery of Hudson Bay -- 'To seek a needle in a bottle of hay' : the rival voyages of Luke Foxe and Thomas James -- 'Northward to find out the Straits of Anian' : the tragic voyage of James Knight -- 'The maritime philosophers stone' : the vision of Arthur Dobbs -- 'I left the print of my feet in blood' : Samuel Hearne and the speculative geographers -- 'No information could be had from maps' : James Cook's final voyage -- 'Insults in the name of science to modern navigation' : fantasy voyages through the Northwest Passage -- 'Our prospects were truly exhilarating' : the gateway of Lancaster Sound -- 'The man who ate his boots' : John Franklin goes overland -- 'This set us all castle-building' : the later voyages of Edward Parry -- 'The very borders of the grave' : the ordeal of the Rosses -- 'To fill up the small blank on the northern charts' : the explorations of Back, Dease and Simpson -- 'So little now remains to be done' : the last voyage of John Franklin -- 'Franklin's winter quarters!' : clues in the ice -- 'The Northwest Passage discovered!' : the Pacific approach of McClure and Collinson -- 'A thorough downright catastrophe' : the search expedition of Edward Belcher -- 'They fell down and died as they walked' : the fate of Franklin's crews -- 'My dream since childhood' : Roald Amundsen and the passage -- 'I felt that I was on hallowed ground' : the voyages of Henry Larsen -- Epilogue : the Northwest Passage and climate change.