Erebus: The Story of a Ship
My goal this year is to read 52 books, or one book per year. I am quite behind at the moment, but as I am currently on pregancy leave I hope to have some time to catch up! Here is my review of book number 14: Erebus- The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin.
The History
Palin writes his book about the Erebus and its history, making this book historical non-fiction. Although the adventures of the ship and its crew read like an adventure novel, so even people who are not usually fans of non-fiction should really give this book a try.
Palin transports us in this book to the 19th century, the time of arctic exploration. After the Napoleontic wars the Royal Navy becomes more and more interested in exploring the few places on earth that have not yet been mapped and explored: the North and South pole. The Erebus, a former Royal Navy battleship will be transformed for this reason into a vassal with research capabilities and will see the extremes of the earth.
The book focusses on two seperate journeys of the ship and its crew: a travel to the south pool, looking for the magnetic pole under the leadership of captain James Clark Ross and the journey that would make it famous: the ill-famed journey of John Franklin to the north pole, looking for a northern passage to the pacific.
The Last Journey
That second trip by Franklin to the north pole will turn out to be the last voyage of the ship and its crew and it is here that Palin's research really pays off for this book. He manages to describe everything so precisely you feel like you are on the voyage with the crew. After Franklin and his crew leave England with three years worth of supplies, no one is expecting tragedy. People think this heroic ship and crew will be the firsts to find a way through the ice.
The ship gets stuck in the ice during its first winter, and though no one dispairs that first winter and the crew seems to have survived well. However, after 2 years no one has received any more news from the ship and its crew England decides to send multiple rescue crews, without any results or even any idea of what had happened. It would take years to find out that all the crew had perished from a mix of starvation, the cold and lead poisoning. Currently the Erebus lies on the bottom of the arctic ocean, where it lies beautifully preserved in the ice cold waters. But for those of us who are not willing or able to dive into arctic waters I would recommend reading the book by Palin as it really brings you aboard this adventure.
Looks interesting. I haven't been reading much books for years. Don't think I can do the 52 books yet. haha.