by David C. Woodman (1991)
This examination of the accounts given by Inuit who met or saw survivors of the Franklin expedition concludes that most of the anecdotal evidence can be substantiated or adequately explained in relation to other evidence, and adds to understanding of the disappearance of the ships' crews.
Emile Frederic de Bray
Text of the journal kept by Emile de Bray, a French naval officer who participated in the 1852 search for the Franklin Expedition in the eastern Arctic, on board the 'Resolute'in the Arctic Squadron under Sir Edward Belcher. Previously unpublished.
Lynne Cox
A powerfully built man more than six feet tall, Amundsen's career of adventure began at the age of fifteen (he was born in Norway in 1872 to a family of merchant sea captains and rich ship owners). Twenty-five years later he was the first man to reach both the North and South Poles. The author, an adventurer and swimmer, author of Swimming to Antarctica, gives us in this new work a full-scale account of Amundsen's life and expeditions. We see Amundsen, in 1903-06, the first to travel the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in his small ship Gjoa, a seventy-foot refitted former herring boat powered by sails and a thirteen-horsepower engine, making his way through the entire length of the treacherous ice bound route, between the northern Canadian mainland and Canada's Arctic islands, from Greenland across Baffin Bay, between the Canadian islands, across the top of Alaska into the Bering Strait. The dangerous journey took three years to complete, as Amundsen, his crew, and six sled dogs waited while the frozen sea around them thawed sufficiently to allow for navigation. We see him journey toward the North Pole in Fridtjof Nansen's famous Fram, until word reached his expedition party of Robert Peary's successful arrival at the North Pole. Amundsen then set out on a secret expedition to the Antarctic, and we follow him through his heroic capture of the South Pole. The author makes clear why Amundsen succeeded in his quests where other adventurer-explorers failed, and how his methodical preparation and willingness to take calculated risks revealed both the spirit of the man and the way to complete one triumphant journey after another. She also describes reading about Amundsen as a young girl and how his exploits inspired her to follow her dreams. We see how she unwittingly set out in Amundsen's path, swimming in open waters off Antarctica, then Greenland (always without a wetsuit), first as a challenge to her own abilities and then later as a way to understand Amundsen's life and the lessons learned from his vision, imagination, and daring.
Robin S. Doak
A biography of John Cabot, one of history's most mysterious explorers, and his travels to "New Founde Land" or today's Newfoundland.
Jay Milbrandt
David Livingstone's complete story: the story of a man of great faith, fallen in his humanity but driven by his belief in the sanctity of God's creation. The quest for the source of the Nile will forever be associated with Livingstone, along with his adventures in the name of scientific ambition, but not to be overlooked is the Christian faith that drove his efforts to abolish the slave trade in Africa.