northwest passage

"In 1845, Sir John Franklin commanded two ships on an expedition to find a Northwest Passage from England through the Arctic and over to Asia. If successful, the route would be a faster way to get goods from Asia to Europe and back. But success was not in the cards for Franklin's expedition. Only recently, the sunken ships were discovered in the icy Arctic waters. What happened to Franklin and his men, and what messages did they leave behind?"--Provided by publisher.

Looks at the disappearance of the John Franklin Arctic Expedition, in which two ships searching for the Northwest Passage in the Arctic vanished.

The men on board the HMS Terror have every expectation of triumph. As part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage, they are as scientifically supported an enterprise as has ever set forth. As they enter a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, though, they are stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, with diminishing rations, 126 men fight to survive with poisonous food, a dwindling supply of coal, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is far more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror constantly clawing to get in. When the expedition's leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes comman and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice.

"The Northwest Passage has captured the imagination of nations and explorers for hundreds of years. And today, as global warming reshapes geography, trade along the passage is becoming a reality for the first time. The Northwest Passage provides a sweeping history of the route from the earliest attempts to navigate through its punishing landscape to breaking news about its economic viability in modern day."--Amazon.

Summary: Examines the French, Dutch, and English search for a northern sea-route to Asia around Northern Europe and into the Arctic. Includes a discussion of early European settlements in North America.

Probes the tragic and mysterious fate of Sir John Franklin's failed expedition to find the Northwest Passage in 1845.

An obsession for hundreds of years, the search for the fabled Northwest Passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific is a tale of ambition, fear, folktales, courage, and controversy. This engaging title reveals the motivations of the many countries and explorers who played a part in the almost 500-year search for a commercial sea route to India across the arctic. Primary and secondary source materials, such as oral histories of the Indigenous people and recorded accounts, are examined, as well as fictional accounts from popular culture of the many failed expeditions. Readers will gain an understanding of how important this quest was, as well as how it remains relevant today.

"Follows the travels of British explorer Sir John Franklin on his doomed expedition to the Arctic ... Topics include: the search for a Northwest Passage through the Arctic, life stuck in the ice, contact with the native Inuit, Franklin's disappearance, and the long quest to discover the expedition's fate."--Provided by publisher.

"Explore the life and voyages of Henry Hudson, the English navigator who searched across the Northeastern United States and Canada for a northwest passage to China"--Provided by the publisher.

Discusses some unusual creatures and events that have been seen or taken place in cold climates including sightings of the mysterious Yeti, and the discovery of the remains of a nineteenth-century polar expedition.