North Pole A Narrative History

by BRANDT, ANTHONY

• ISBN13: 9780792274117
• ISBN10: 0792274113
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-03-01
• Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE

Summary

"A few toes aren't much to give to achieve the Pole," observed Robert Peary, but as Anthony Brandt's gripping new anthology shows, much more was at risk for the men who tested the limits of endurance to reach the top of the world. Drawing on the extensive archives of the National Geographic Society, The North Pole tells the story of race to the Pole through the memoirs, letters, ship's logs, and diary entries of the great Arctic explorers. Beginning with the disappearance of Sir John Franklin in 1845, The North Pole documents the international efforts made to find the true Northernmost point of the globe. Anthony Brandt weaves together vivid accounts of the disasters that ensued. The explorers included men like Elisha Kane, a sickly man and useless commander, who led his team close to death in 1854, and Charles Hall, a printer from Ohio who made the mistake of taking an experienced crew who refused to commit suicide for him. Their mutiny so enraged Hall that he died of a stroke, and some of his crew escaped,south on an ice-floe. Later explorers included daring Norwegians on skis, expeditions organized by the American tabloid press, Swedish balloonists, aristocratic Italians and finally the obsessive Robert Peary, who on one trip took his pregnant wife with him in order to set a record for the most northerly birth in history. Peary finally achieved the pole in 1909. In addition to Peary's triumphant account of his achievement, The North Pole includes the tale of a fourteen-year-old Horatio Nelson battling polar bears, the sinking of the Jeannette on De Long's push farthest north, Fridtjof Nansen's astonishing survival for two years in the Arctic, and the ill-fated dirigible expedition ofthe Italia. These stories and others are told in the explorers' own words, in all their direct and moving plainness, as they endure extremes of physical hardship and contend with each other in grim competition to reach the

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION BY ANTHONY BRANDT	ix
PART ONE LOOKING NORTH	1	(55)
DIONYSE SETTLE	10	(10)
A True Report of Captain Frobisher, His Last Voyage into the West and Northwest Regions, 1577
JOHN DAVIS	20	(8)
The Second Voyage Attempted by Master John Davis, 1586
GERRIT DE VEER	28	(13)
The True and Perfect Description of Three Voyages, So Strange and Wonderful, etc., 1609
ABACUK PRICKETT	41	(15)
A Larger Discourse of the Same Voyage 1610
PART TWO SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST ORTHWEST PASSAGE REVIVED	56	(170)
WILLIAM SCORESBY	64	(14)
A Voyage to the Whale Fishery, 1822
JOHN ROSS	78	(9)
A Voyage of Discovery Made Under the Orders of the Admiralty, 1819
WILLIAM EDWARD PARRY	87	(19)
Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific 1819-20
JOHN FRANKLIN	106	(15)
Narrative of a journey to Shores of the Polar Sea
JOHN RICHARDSON	121	(13)
Arctic Ordeal: The Journal ofJohn Richardson
GEORGE F. LYON	134	(23)
The Private Journal of George F. Lyon of the H.M.S. Hecla, 1824
ROBERT HUISH	157	(11)
The Last Voyage of Capt. Sir John Ross to the Arctic Regions, for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage, 1829-1833
ROBERT R. CARTER	168	(20)
Private Journal of a Cruise in the Brig Rescue in Search of John Franklin
JOHN RAE	188	(13)
Correspondence with the Hudson's hay Company on Arctic Exploration, 1844-1855
LEOPOLD MCCLINTOCK	201	(25)
The Voyage of the Fox in the Arctic Seas
PART THREE TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD	226	(183)
ELISHA KENT KANE	229	(22)
Arctic Explorations: The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin
CHARLES FRANCIS HALL	251	(17)
Life with the Esquimaux
EUPHEMIA VALE BLAKE	268	(10)
Arctic Experiences: Containing Capt. George E. Tyson's Wonderful Drift on the Ice-Floe
GEORGE STRONG NARES	278	(15)
Narrative of a Voyage to the Polar Sea
GEORGE W. DE LONG	293	(11)
The Voyage of the Jeannette
JOHN MUIR	304	(8)
The Cruise of the Corwin
ADOLPHUS GREELY	312	(12)
Three Years ofArctic Service, 1881-1884
BESSIE ROWLAND JAMES, ED.,	324	(12)
Six Came Back: The Arctic Adventure of David L. Brainard
FRIDTJOF NANSEN	336	(19)
Farthest North: The Exploration of the Frain
SALOMAN ANDREE	355	(17)
Andree's Story: The Complete Record of his Polar Flight
FREDERICK COOK	372	(22)
My Attainment of the Pole
MATTHEW HENSON	394	(5)
A Black Explorer at the North Pole
ROBERT PEARY	399	(10)
The North Pole
EPILOGUE	409	(3)
SUGGESTED READINGS	412