Product Description

In the mid-19th century the North Pole was a mystery. Some believed that it was an island of basalt in a warm crystal sea. Explorers who tried to penetrate the real icy wastes failed or died. But after Sir John Franklin disappeared with all his men in 1845, serious efforts began to be made to find the true Northernmost point of the globe. Fergus Fleming's book is a vivid, witty history of the disasters that ensued. The new explorers included Elisha Kane, a sickly man and useless commander, who led his team close to death in 1854, and Charles Hall, a printer from Ohio. Hall 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. They were followed by the Germans, newly united and eager for their place in the ice, the Austro-Hungarians and the British, who in 1876 managed to get further than any other expedition, travelling over terrain later explorers considered impassable. They left the field to the Norwegians, to expeditions organized by the American tabloid press, Swedish baloonists, aristocratic Italians and finally to 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. He finally made it in 1909.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96688 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The 19th-century equivalent of the race to land man on the Moon was the search for the Arctic pole, a story recounted in Fergus Fleming's Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole. The contest began with efforts to find Sir John Franklin, who had been lost searching for the Northwest passage, but soon became a hunt for the legendary "open polar sea" in which earnest Americans, methodical Brits, strong and silent Scandinavians and even a dashing Italian prince endured the ice for months (years in some cases) in the name of patriotism. In the end, as Fleming shows, there were no real winners, but merely disputes over whose navigational geometry was most authentic; the race became instead a competition for who could get there in the most original manner--be it with ironclad ships, balloons, skis, airships or motorbikes. Only in the last 40 years did it occur to the intrepid that two feet might be best. But unlike the with Antarctica, the real epic here was not the discovery of the North Pole, but outlasting the snows, floes and Eskimoes and returning with crew intact. This book isn't a patch on Francis Spufford's stylish and prizewinning I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination, but for bringing together the accounts of the best known of the Arctic adventurers, especially the Americans and the Swedes, Fleming is to be praised.--Miles Taylor

Review
'Barrow's Boys, Fergus Fleming's history of British exploration in the first half of the 19th century was an excellent book. Ninety Degrees North...is an even better one' Sunday Telegraph 'This is the sort of book you want to read in front of a blazing fire. It is immensely enjoyable' Daily Telegraph 'Fleming gives us a wonderful story, and tells it exceptionally well' Guardian 'Fleming's is among the best of the [ice] books.... All the great stories are here!' Robert Macfarlane, The Observer 'Travel history at its brilliant best. Best-selling author Fergus Fleming has produced a masterly tale of the race to reach the northern most point of the globe' Irish Independent 'A vividly frostbitten account. The reading, in a warm room, is great fun' The Independent

In his much acclaimed Barrow Boys, Fergus Fleming charted the course of British travels to the remotest regions of the globe during the pioneering days of the early 19th century, as commissioned by John Barrow, the exploration-obsessed Second Secretary to the Admiralty. In 1845 Barrow had sent Sir John Franklin off with enough food for seven years to search for the North Pole. Neither he nor his 136 officers and crew ever returned and the subsequent missions to find them ushered in a new era of Arctic exploration. At this time very little was known about the ice-capped summit of the world: an American called Symmes was famous in his day for the theory that it was the gateway to seven subterranean worlds in the earth's core. The stories of the adventurers who over the following century sought to find out the real truth provide the substance of Fleming's excellent new book. Much of it makes harrowing reading, such as the fortunes of Elisha Kent Kane who in 1853-5 endured mutiny and made it home by the skin of his teeth; and the dreadful scurvy which afflicted the great British assault of 1875-6. There are tales here of self-delusion, including the fraudulent boasts of Frederick Cook who claimed to have reached the Pole in 1909 and subsequently went to jail, as well as moments of great triumph, such as the airship flight led by Roald Amundsen in 1926 which was the first to see the North Pole. Finally, in 1969 the British explorer Wally Herbert became the first man to reach it on foot as well as to traverse the whole polar pack. In addition there are some less familiar accounts here of Austro-Hungarian, Italian and German expeditions during the 19th century and the little discussed Russian effort of 1913-14 which claimed the life of its leader Georgi Sedov. Fleming skilfully draws on the mass of secondary literature together with the diaries and memoirs of many explorers to provide a compelling narrative which carries the reader along with its brave and pioneering subjects. (Kirkus UK)

Daily Telegraph
‘This is the sort of book you want to read in front of a blazing fire. It is immensely enjoyable'

Customer Reviews

Historical adventure has never been so good.
If you're interested in historical adventure, they doesn't some any better than Fergus Fleming. Polar exploration isn't really my thing, but "Ninety Degrees North" is an absolute triumph. Fleming has a wonderful eye for an anecdote and uses them to really bring his characters to life. And let's not forget, the characters are real people. Are they really all as eccentric, weird or simply barking mad as Fleming portrays them. Such is the magnitude of their exertions in the Artic regions; one is tempted to conclude yes!

This is a really smooth piece of work. For such a project that requires a monumental amount of research, Fleming pieces it together and tells it in a fashion that is more akin to a thriller than a historical narrative. It's the perfect book for a winter's night - for us, the modern armchair explorers to read while in front of the fire, malt scotch in hand.

If you're new to Fleming, I'd recommend you start with "Barrow's Boys", which is both the story of the search for the North West Passage and the search for the source of the Niger river and/or Timbucktu. Fleming necessarily refers in NDN to various expeditions covered in BsB (eg Franklin expedition, John Ross etc), so that may be a better starting point than NDN. However, it's not essential and wherever you start, Fleming's dark humour, pace, adventure and insights make any of his work a real pleasure. Five stars not enough!

fantastic
a a reader of barrows boys i was already a fan of mr flemming
and he didn't disapoint
the rivalry between cook and peary read great as this was all new to me

it even had the odd moment of humour,
when asked how some one had known they had reach the pole they had replied how did the questioner know he had crossed the equator
did they feel the keel bump?

i will buy anything this guy writes

it would be great to read a book based on one story like the ice master (niven) from fergus

Nutters or Pioneers, read this and make your own mind up
The other reviews of this excellent book have laid its premise very well. A sequel of sorts to the superb "Barrows Boys" I too would recommend that you read that first as that way much of what is described in this book makes more sense. That's if you can make sense of men amputating their own toes or being so desperate for food that they are reduced to eating their own footwear or being reduced to cannibalism.
Fleming is a very engaging writer with a dry wit and he manages to convey the lunatic passion that drove these men into territory they had no real understanding of. It's also very informative without being too judgemental though he finds difficult to keep the tone of jaundiced disbelief out of his narrative at some of the shenanigans carried out in order to reach The North Pole. The attempt by the balloon The Eagle in particular is couched in terms of particular incredulity. Doubt is cast on some of the claims made by these explorers. Cook and Peary are both examined and found wanting.
This book unlike Barrows Boys centres more on attempts by the Americans and North European Countries because they were the nations primarily concerned in these adventures. It skirts over one resounding episode, namely that of The Karluck, but there is a book dedicated to that episode alone so in a way that's understandable.
Anyone with an interest in Polar exploration will love this. So will any one with a passion for adventure or the unquenchable desire of the human spirit to discover, to conquer and most importantly to survive. That's just about everyone then.