Ice Blink: The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin's Lost Polar Expedition [Paperback]

"A great Victorian adventure story rediscovered and re–presented for a more enquiring time." (The Scotsman, 26th August 2000) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin’s Lost Polar Expedition What turned the greatest Arctic expedition of the nineteenth century into the worst Arctic tragedy in history? Ice Blink (the name sailors gave the haunting mirages formed by reflections off pack ice) probes one of the most enduring mysteries in the annals of exploration–the baffling disappearance of the largest, best–equipped expedition of its day. Led by veteran Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, two ships and 129 handpicked officers and men sailed from Greenland on July 12, 1845, seeking a navigable shortcut to link the Atlantic and Pacific. It was the most technologically advanced mission of the nineteenth century–the Apollo program of its day. The ships were revolutionary: iron–plated, locomotive–powered, and steam–heated. They were equipped with desalinators, canned food–a recent innovation–the world’s first cameras, and other equally sophisticated gear. On July 26, Franklin’s ships were spotted by two whaling ships in Baffin Bay. They were never seen again. Over the next fourteen years, more than fifty expeditions scoured the Arctic in search of Franklin and his men. In 1859, on desolate King William Island in the heart of the Arctic archipelago, searchers found evidence of catastrophe: a mountain of abandoned equipment, two skeletons, and a chilling message. Signed by the expedition’s second–in–command, it reported that Franklin’s ships, trapped in monstrous ice for nearly two years, had been deserted in April 1848. A total of twenty–four officers and men, including Franklin, were already dead, virtually all of them in the ten months before the vessels were abandoned. The 105 survivors had embarked on a desperate 900–mile march inland in an attempt to reach safety. Maddeningly, the message gave no clue as to what had caused the deaths and prompted the expedition to desert its still–sound ships and take its chances on the ice. In the years that followed, the skeletal remains of twenty or more Franklin crewmen were found scattered along their line of march, with gruesome evidence that they had resorted to wholesale cannibalism in order to survive. The rest of the party had vanished in the Arctic. Whatever–or, more intriguingly, who–ever–was responsible for the Franklin tragedy will always be open to debate. In Ice Blink, Scott Cookman provides an unforgettable account of the ill–fated expedition, vividly reconstructing the lives and events of a voyage that began with the certainty of success and led instead into oblivion. Drawing upon original research, he also suggests a human culprit and reveals a terrifying new explanation for what triggered the expedition’s doom. Ice Blink is a gripping adventure tale of an "infallible" voyage that failed monumetally, illustrating how mankind’s technology is mocked by Nature’s menace–and showing the best and worst in men. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.