Finding Franklin : the untold story of a 165-year search / Russell A. Potter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Potter, Russell A., 1960- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Franklin, John, 1786-1847.

Franklin, John.

Erebus (Ship).

Shipwrecks--Canada, Northern.

Shipwrecks.

Arctic regions--Discovery and exploration--British.

Arctic regions.

Arctic Regions.

Discoveries in geography.

British.

Northwest Passage--Discovery and exploration--British.

Northwest Passage.

Arctic Ocean--Northwest Passage.

Northern Canada.

Physical Description:

xvi, 262 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2016]

Summary:

In 2014 media around the world buzzed with news that an archaeological team from Parks Canada had located and identified the wreck of HMS Erebus, the flagship of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition to find the Northwest Passage. Finding Franklin outlines the larger story and the cast of detectives from every walk of life that led to the discovery, solving of one of the Arctic's greatest mysteries. In compelling and accessible prose, Russell Potter details his decades of work alongside key figures in the era of modern searches for the expedition and elucidates how shared research and ideas have led to a fuller understanding of the Franklin crew's final months. Illustrated with numerous images and maps from the last two centuries, Finding Franklin recounts the more than fifty modern searches for traces of his ships and crew, and the dedicated, often obsessive, men and women who embarked on them. Potter discusses the crucial role that Inuit oral accounts, often cited but rarely understood, played in all of these searches, and continue to play to this day, and offers historical and cultural context to the contemporary debates over the significance of Franklin's achievement. While examination of HMS Erebus will undoubtedly reveal further details of this mystery, Finding Franklin assembles the stories behind the myth and illuminates what is ultimately a remarkable decades-long discovery. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Man Who Ate His Boots 3

2 Bones 21

3 Papers 35

4 Provisions 53

5 Maps 65

6 Rae 83

7 Hall 99

8 Schwatka 117

9 The Search Renewed 137

10 Ranford 155

11 Woodman 171

12 Ice 189

13 Inuit 201.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780773547841

0773547843

OCLC:

946215391

Publisher Number:

99968461901