Leonard F. Guttridge is drawn to exciting events. Too bad they aren't drawn to him.

Guttridge has written books about two sad events of nineteenth century Arctic exploration, the Greeley expedition (The Ghosts of Cape Sabine) and the Jeannette expedition. Both were attempts to reach the North Pole, or at least explore northern latitudes; both involved problems with ships; both resulted in losses of many of the men on the expedition.

Of his two books, this strikes me as the better one, perhaps because the story of the Jeannette is more coherent: The expedition was organized, it set out, the ship got trapped, the crew abandoned ship and split up, and some survived and others perished. There is more action, and the action has a direction. But I still found myself slightly lost as the narrative proceeded. The characters seemed ever so slightly unreal.

This isn't really a complaint. This is a useful book showing the difficulties which nineteenth century explorers faced -- and the consequences of biting off more than they could chew. But I feel as if there is a truly great book about the Jeannette waiting to be written, and this isn't it. ( )