Synopsis
Recounts the search for a Northwest Passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and looks at the major expeditions, including Frobisher, Franklin, and Amundsen
Reviews
YA-For centuries, explorers and business interests attempted to locate and map a northern route from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Arctic's icy waters. Delgado provides a look at dozens of these efforts. He begins by showing the Arctic, "an archipelago of ice," as it exists today and then details the trials and tribulations of the hundreds of men who have, over time, sought passage across this fearfully forbidding wilderness. Among those included are Elizabethan Martin Frobisher, Victorian Sir John Franklin, and the final victor, Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Stories of piracy, lost ships and crews, fateful failures, and cannibalism unfold with the style and excitement of adventure fiction. Yet, the narrative is historically correct and accompanied by hundreds of illustrations. Astounding period drawings and paintings, dramatic photographs, journal entries, and songs and legends from the native Inuit culture add to the excitement of this quest. Documentation includes period maps and photos of artifacts and ship plans. Delgado completes the story of this centuries-old search with a chapter about current scientific research and recreational activity in this region. An impressive bibliography and an extensive index complement the thorough text. Young adults will find that the experiences related here are stranger than most fiction and equally satisfying.
Becky Ferrall, Stonewall Jackson High School, Manassas, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Like George Mallory, Sir John Franklin died at an icy extreme of the globe. The cumulative efforts of those who followed Franklin (1786-1847) into the Arctic in order to discover what became of him eventually led to the charting of the Northwest Passage, a sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the coast of North America. The history of the European quest for the Passage is full of dramatic stories of men at their best and worst in harsh conditions. Delgado's workmanlike history stretches from Martin Frobisher's voyages (1576-1578) through the doomed expedition of Franklin (1845-1847) to Norwegian Roald Amundsen's successful voyage through the Passage in 1906. The saga is filled with cannibalism, lack of foresight, heroism, resourcefulness, greed and the stiff upper lips of 19th-century British naval officers weathering the rigors of Arctic winters. Delgado, executive director of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, gives blow-by-blow accounts of all the major voyages, noting those commanders, such as William Parry (1790-1855), who exhibited good judgment and a respect for the Arctic natives and those who, like Frobisher, confronted both the landscape and its inhabitants with imperial contempt. Delgado clearly did thorough research in an effort to place as many pertinent facts as possible between two covers. The result is an account of the European encounter with the Arctic that is stronger on detail than on drama. But the book is a spectacular reference. Readers who wish to read further about the Arctic would do well to have Delgado's book handy as they read Parry's journals or Barry Lopez's beautiful Arctic Dreams. 80 full-color photos; 100 b&w illus.; 6 maps; bibliography; index. BOMC and History Book Club alternates. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
One of the (literally) most chilling stories of exploration is the search for the Northwest Passage. Explorers sought it for several centuries, often getting no further than northern Canada or Greenland. But for those who made it to the Arctic Circle, any triumphs were severely tempered by the cold and the danger, and any thrill of discovery was leavened by death. W. Edward Parry and Lt. John Franklin of the British Navy are the two figures most closely identified with successful quests for the route; in fact, author Delgado eloquently describes the desperation and hardships suffered by Franklin's crew as they sail to, but not through, the passage. Ironically, by the time it was proven that there was such a route, air travel had lessened significantly the impact of the discovery. Like the great explorer-authors, Delgado draws the reader into the frozen world of discovery, and even the casual exploration buff will be mesmerized by his accounts of the triumphs and tragedies of these brave sailors. Joe Collins
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