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Bezig met laden... Safe return doubtful: The heroic age of polar exploration (1988)door John Maxtone-Graham
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Farthest north, farthest south - in the heroic age of polar exploration at the beginning of the twentieth century, the race was ferociously contested. British, American, Swedish and Norwegian expeditions all vied for the greatest prize of all - the poles - knowing that they might forfeit their lives in the attempt. On the way they faced horrific conditions, frostbite and starvation rations, exhaustion and too often also the bitter clashes of personality that beset men under extreme stress. In these days of modern technology, it is almost impossible for us to imagine the hardship these explorers endured. Sledgers camped overnight in subzero agony, their sweat-soaked furs frozen into icy suits of armour as soon as they stopped moving. With no vitamins and no easily preserved food they faced scurvy and worse. This hair-raising account covers every aspect of the polar great game, the renowned names such as Robert Peary, Roald Amundsen, Salomon Andree, Fridtjof Nansen, Ernest Shackleton, and Robert Scott are all here, their ponies, dogs and sledges, their daily experiences, and always, the addictive quest for polar immortality. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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 Google Books — Bezig met laden...GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)910.09163History and Geography Geography and Travel Geography and Travel Geography and Travel History, geographic treatment, biography Areas, regions, places in generalLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde: (3.5)
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The opening tragedy is the loss of John Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition -- or, more specifically, the events which followed as people tried to learn its fate. It ends with Robert Scott's death on his way back from the South Pole. It is a vivid exposition of all the dangers and horrors that awaited polar explorers.
With more than half a century to cover between those events, and three major regions (North Pole, South Pole, Northwest Passage), the accounts of each particular event are necessarily brief. But this is in many ways a benefit: instead of getting deeply bogged down in the details of a particular expedition, it's possible to see what they have in common -- the problems, the tricks they used, the way the high latitudes affect people. I can't recall a polar book that does a better job of giving a sense of what actually happened.
If I have one gripe, it's that the author has a pro-American bias. He downplays Charles Francis Hall's obsessions, he largely ignores Elisha Kent Kane's goofiness -- and he would have us believe that Robert Peary reached the North Pole. He admits that there is controversy, but he treats it as a simple two-way possibility: If Frederick Cook made the Pole, then Peary didn't, and if Peary made the Pole, then Cook didn't, and Cook didn't, so Peary must have. But this ignores the possibility that neither one of them made it -- and so leaves aside the exceptionally strong indications that Peary lied about his last arctic expedition, and went to great lengths to cover it up.
Leave that aside and it's a great book. I know enough about polar exploration that I learned very little from the volume (and nothing at all about the North Pole and Northwest Passage expeditions), but I enjoyed it anyway, for its sheer verve. (