Brandt tells the fascinating whole story of the search for the Northwest Passage, from its beginnings early in the age of exploration through its development into a British national obsession to the final sordid, terrible descent into scurvy, starvation, and cannibalism.
Documents the experiences of nineteenth-century adventurers who searched for the Northwest Passage, describing the sixteenth-century myths that inspired their pursuits and the ways in which many met tragic ends when confronting the harsh Arctic elements.
Brandt tells the fascinating whole story of the search for the Northwest Passage, from its beginnings early in the age of exploration through its development into a British national obsession to the final sordid, terrible descent into scurvy, starvation, and cannibalism.
After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying to do since the sixteenth century: find the fabled Northwest Passage. For the next thirty-five years the British Admiralty sent out expedition …
Documents the experiences of nineteenth-century adventurers who searched for the Northwest Passage, describing the sixteenth-century myths that inspired their pursuits and the ways in which many met tragic ends when confronting the harsh Arctic elements.