Sir John Franklin and the Arctic Regions

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. Simmonds’ book, written six years after Franklin’s disappearance, but before the final fate of him and his crew had been determined, sheds light on 19th century Arctic exploration in general and Franklin's earlier, successful 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 discover its secrets. This new printing also includes an account of the Grinnell expedition.