The Man Who Mapped the Arctic – The Intrepid Life of George Back, Franklin’s Lieutenant

The Man Who Mapped the Arctic – The Intrepid Life of George Back, Franklin’s Lieutenant; Peter Steele; Raincoat Books, Vancouver, 2003. First printing. From the blurb – George Back went on three Arctic expeditions under Sir John Franklin, searching for the mythical Northwest Passage while opening up the vast barren lands of the Canadian north. But unlike Franklin, Back lived to tell his tales and left behind an inspirational legacy of journals, drawings, watercolours and maps. From these sources emerges a story of remarkable endurance and resilience in the face of appalling odds. Back was one on nature’s survivors. Just after he joined the British navy at the tender age of 11. He was taken prisoner by the French and spent five years in a Napoleonic citadel. Here he learnt how to speak French, a skill that later helped smooth his passage with the hardy Canadian voyageurs. Exploration of the frozen north was then beset by appalling difficulties. There were rows with the Hudson’s Bay Company, rations that failed to get through and, in extremis, cannibalism. But Back came through such trials with a joyous satisfaction. His crowning achievement was the discovery and descent of Canada’s Great Fish River, now named the Back River. Not only did he shoot its 83 sets of rapids in a boat built on the spot, but on reaching the Arctic Ocean, he dragged the vessel back upstream as winter closed in. His final expedition almost led him to a watery grave off Southampton Island at the top of Hudson Bay, where his ship drifted for ten months in pack ice; the leaking wreck just made it back ti Ireland, where Back ran it onto a beach and collapsed. Five Arctic adventures had destroyed his health. Now an admiral, he retired, was knighted and died at the ripe old age of 82. A gifted artist and mapmaker, Back was a brave and extremely successful explorer who has long been denied the limelight he deserved. Peter Steele does him belated justice with this fascinating account. This book, 307 pages, is in fine condition in a fine dust jacket, that is enclosed in a protective mylar wrap.…