Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North PoleThe author of Barrow’s Boys offers a fascinating look at the exploration of the Arctic in the nineteenth century. Named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review, the Seattle Times, Publishers Weekly, and Time In the nineteenth century, theories about the North Pole ran rampant. Was it an open sea? Was it a portal to new worlds within the globe? Or was it just a wilderness of ice? When Sir John Franklin disappeared in the Arctic in 1845, explorers decided it was time to find out. In scintillating detail, Ninety Degrees North tells of the vying governments (including the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Austria-Hungary) and fantastic eccentrics (from Swedish balloonists to Italian aristocrats) who, despite their heroic failures, often achieved massive celebrity as they battled shipwreck, starvation, and sickness to reach the top of the world. Drawing on unpublished archives and long-forgotten journals, Fergus Fleming recounts this riveting saga of humankind’s search for the ultimate goal with consummate craftsmanship and wit. “Barely a page goes by without the loss of a crew member or a body part . . . Fleming [is] a marvelous teller of tales—and a superb thumbnail biographer.” —The Observer “A fable of men driven to extremes by the lust for knowledge as epic as a Greek myth.” —Time |
Contents
| 10 | |
| 13 | |
HIS WORD IS | |
IN THE LENA DELTA | |
FRAM | |
MIRACLE AT CAPE FLORA | |
THE FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE | |
EPILOGUE | |
APPENDIX PAPER ON SCURVY BY DR DONNET AND DR FRASER | |
THE GATEWAY | |
THE BOAT JOURNEY | |
THE BLOWING PLACE | |
AMERICANS CAN DO | |
THE OPEN POLAR | |
POLAR CRUSADER | |
I MUST HAVE FAME | |
A FEW TOES ARENT MUCH | |
THE POLAR DUKE | |
FARTHEST NORTH | |
1909 | |
PRINCE OF IMPOSTORS | |
THE LAST HEROES | |
THE SAGE OF GOTHA | |
A LAND UNKNOWN BEFORE | |
THE VOYAGE OF THE POLARIS | |
OSBORNS LEGACY | |
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Common terms and phrases
aboard Abruzzi airship American Amundsen Andrée Andrée's April Arctic expedition Arctic exploration Axel Heiberg Island balloon Bartlett Bennett Berton boat Budington Byrd Cagni Cape Alexander Cape Flora Captain carried coast command Cook Cook's crew Danenhower diary dogs drift Ellesmere Island Eskimos Etah farthest north feet floe Franklin Franz Josef Land Greenland Hall Hall's Hayes Hayes's Hegemann Henson hope Ibid Jackson Jeannette Johanssen journal journey Kane Kane's kayaks knew later London Long Long's Markham Melville miles named Nansen Nares Nares's Navy never Nobile North Pole Norwegian Novaya Zemlya Open Polar Sea pack party Payer Peary wrote Peary’s Petermann reached the Pole rescue Robert Edwin Peary Roosevelt Royal Geographical Society Rudolf Island sailed scurvy Sedov ship skis sledge Smith Sound snow Spitsbergen Sverdrup tent took travelled Tyson voyage wanted Weyprecht winter York