Product Description

'That Sir John Franklin, now nearly six years absent, is alive, we dare not affirm; but that his ships should be so utterly annihilated that no trace of them can be discovered ...is a most extraordinary circumstance.' On 18 May 1845 Sir John Franklin set sail with a crew of 134 men on two ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage. The ships were last seen on 26 July by an Arctic whaler off the entrance to Lancaster Sound and from there they vanished, never to be seen again. A series of rescue expeditions discovered that disaster had overtaken the expedition and none of the crew made it out of the Arctic region alive. Sir John Franklin and the Arctic Regions, written six years after his disappearance, but before the final fate of him and his crew had been determined, sheds light on Arctic exploration in the nineteenth century and Franklin's successful earlier expeditions in particular, as well as providing a gripping account of the growing unease as nothing further is heard from them. By using letters and logs from the actual expeditions sent to discover the fate of the doomed voyage, Simmonds vividly brings to life the dangers explorers faced in the hostile conditions of the Arctic and the drive and courage of the men who were determined to expose its secrets.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #466333 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Peter L. Simmonds (1814-1897), was a journalist and founder of Simmonds' Colonial Magazine and Foreign Miscellany, a magazine specifically focusing on the issues of British colonial matters and commercial affairs. As well as editing this magazine for many years, Simmonds produced a number of books on a variety of subjects including food, agriculture, international trade and polar exploration. Curiosities of Food: Or the Dainties and Delicacies of Different Nations Obtained from the Animal Kingdom is his most famous work and has remained in print until the present day.