Overview
"Andrew Lambert, a leading authority on naval history, reexamines the life of Sir John Franklin and his final, doomed Arctic voyage. Franklin was a man of his time, fascinated, even obsessed with, the need to explore the world; he had already mapped nearly two-thirds of the northern coastline of North America when he undertook his third Arctic voyage in 1845, at the age of fifty-nine. His two ships were fitted with the latest equipment; steam engines enabled them to navigate the pack ice, and he and his crew had a three-year supply of preserved and tinned food and more than one thousand books. Despite these preparations, the voyage ended in catastrophe: the ships became imprisoned in the ice, and the men were wracked by disease and ultimately wiped out by hypothermia, scurvy, and cannibalism. Franklin s mission was ostensibly to find the elusive North West Passage, a viable sea route between Europe and Asia reputed to lie north of the American continent. Lambert shows for the first time that there were other scientific goals for the voyage and that the disaster can only be understood by reconsidering the original objectives of the mission. Franklin, commonly dismissed as a bumbling fool, emerges as a more important and impressive figure, in fact, a hero of navigational science."""
Full Product Details
Author: Prof Andrew Lambert
Publisher: Yale University Press
Imprint: Yale University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 16.30cm
, Height: 3.30cm
, Length: 23.60cm
Weight: 0.771kg
ISBN: 9780300154856
ISBN 10: 0300154852
Pages: 428
Publication Date: 01 September 2009
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print
Availability: In Print
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.
Reviews
The extensively researched Gates of Hell is nonetheless valuable for its many provocative connections between Franklin, his circle, the scientific quest for data on magnetism, British imperial aspirations, and Artic voyages. . . . [A] vivid picture of the intertwined personal, political, and scientific ambitions of the men involved. Jen Hill, Victorian Studies --Jen Hill Victorian Studies
. . .an insightful, provocative, and very stimulating work. --Gary Weir, Chief Historian, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency--Gary Weir
. . .an insightful, provocative, and very stimulating work. Gary Weir, Chief Historian, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency -- Gary Weir
Author Information
"Andrew Lambert, Ph.D., is Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies at King s College, London, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He wrote and presented the 2004 BBC television series ""War at Sea."""""
