In Victorian England, the exploration of the Arctic was somewhat akin to modern dayefforts to explore the moon and space.
Distant, barren, and sometimes deadly, it presented a challenge that Britons were eager to take up and to overcome.
There were of course other benefits Britain was eager to obtain by finding a shorter route to the Pacific; the potential for riches in the Asian market, and strategic economic and military advantage over rival countries.
This could all be achieved if they were the first to discover the fabled North-West Passage.
When Sir John Franklin’s mission “disappeared” in the Arctic, several search efforts were made, including sending the ship HMS Investigator. It’s own multi-year journey ended with the starving crew luckily rescued from the ship stuck in multi-year ice and abandoned.
Royal Geographical Society Fellow, Glenn M Stein’s latest book is called Discovering the North-West Passage: The Four-Year Arctic Odyssey of H.M.S. Investigator and the McClure Expedition.
A fascinating story of adventure, challenge, hardship, and of life and death on one hand, but on the other it is also a factual look at a fascinating period in Canadian Arctic history on the other
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