The Last Voyage of the Karluk

The Last Voyage of the Karluk
Author: Bob Bartlett
Publisher:
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2007
Genre: Arctic regions
ISBN: 9781897317181

On January 4, 1914, the Karluk was stuck in ice when the ominous sound of the ship's stern being ripped open by pack ice was heard by all on board. It sounded like the firing of a cannon. Bartlett immediately ordered supplies be unloaded on the ice. The Karluk began to break up on January 10, and all on board were ordered to abandon ship. When everyone was safely on the ice, the captain himself went back to his cabin and, all alone, put Chopin's Funeral March on his Victrola. As the water rose in the cabin, he whispered "Goodbye," left the sinking vessel to the mournful sound of Chopin's music and hurried out on the ice. It was to be the beginning of one of the greatest feats of valour in world history. From the foreword by Paul O'Neill

The Last Voyage of the Karluk

The Last Voyage of the Karluk
Author: William Laird McKinlay
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2015-08-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1250095700

An astonishing narrative of disaster and perseverance, The Last Voyage of the Karluk will thrill readers of adventure classics like Into Thin Air and The Climb. In 1913, explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson hired William McKinlay to join the crew of the Karluk, the leading ship of his new Arctic expedition. Stefansson's mission was to chart the waters north of Alaska; yet the Karluk's crew was untrained, the ship was ill-suited to the icy conditions, and almost at once the Karluk was crushed-at which point Stefansson abandoned his crew to continue his journey on another ship. This is the only firsthand account of what followed: a nightmare struggle in which half the crew perished, one was mysteriously shot, and the rest were near death by the time of their rescue twelve months later. Written some sixty years after the fact, and drawing extensively on his own daily log, McKinlay's narrative of this doomed expedition is rendered with remarkable clarity of recollection, and with a combination of horror and a level of self-possession that, to modern eyes, may seem incredible. Like most of his companions, McKinlay was inexperienced, without a day's training in the skills essential to survival in the Arctic. Yet he and many of his fellow crewmen, with the help of an Eskimo family accustomed to such conditions, survived a year under the harshest of conditions, enduring 80-mile-per-hour gales and temperatures well below zero with only the barest of provisions and almost no hope of contact with civilization. Nearly a century later, this remains one of the most compelling survival stories ever written-an extraordinary testament to man's overpowering will to live.

The Ice Master

The Ice Master
Author: Jennifer Niven
Publisher: MacMillan
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2012-07-05
Genre: Arctic regions
ISBN: 9780230768352

Drawing on previously unpublished letters of journals of crew members, their descendants and, astonishingly, interviews with survivors, Jennifer Niven's book is a riveting account of one of the most ambitious - and disastrous - Arctic expeditions ever mounted. It is a story about unlikely heroes and unexpected villains - humans reduced to their primal needs by the infinite power and mystery of nature... 'For more than 30 years I have been reading polar survival stories, but none so gripping and meticulously based on the written accounts of the survivors as The Ice Master' Ranulph Fiennes, Daily Mail 'A powerful narrative' Independent 'Riveting and meticulously researched' Sunday Telegraph 'Niven's remarkable epic is something special...an astonishing read.' Publishing News 'With so much repetitive polar stuff on the market, it is a relief to come across something fresh' Literary Review

The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish

The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish
Author: Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 52
Release: 2005-11-28
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 054756225X

The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish tells the dramatic story of the Canadian Arctic expedition that set off in 1913 to explore the high north.

Stefansson, Dr. Anderson and the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1918

Stefansson, Dr. Anderson and the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1918
Author: Stuart E. Jenness
Publisher: University of Ottawa Press
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1772824186

The first comprehensive account of one of the great sagas of Arctic exploration and discovery, the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913–1918, led by the ethnologist/explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson and the zoologist Dr. Rudolph M. Anderson. There are details of the Expedition’s successes and tragedies, including the discovery of all but one large island north of the Canadian mainland, the accumulation of considerable scientific information and valuable collections, and the personal feud of the Expedition’s two leaders. Four appendices list Expedition personnel, fifty-three geographical sites in the Arctic named after them, locations of their diaries and collected specimens, and the thirteen government volumes arising from the Expedition.

The Luck of the Karluk

The Luck of the Karluk
Author: L.D. Cross
Publisher: Heritage House Publishing Co
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2015-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1772030228

When the members of Canada’s First Arctic Expedition set out from Victoria aboard HMCS Karluk in the summer of 1913, it was a moment of great optimism. The three-year mission would chart unexplored landmasses of the Western Arctic and secure Canada’s place in the international geographic community. Little did the team of distinguished scholars and scientists realize, however, how their hopes would soon be brought to ruin. Just a few months into the journey, the vessel became lodged in heavy ice, eventually sinking near the coast of Siberia. With little polar experience among them but ample supplies salvaged from the wreck, the group of castaways slowly made their way to solid ground on desolate Wrangel Island. There they would wait while the ship’s captain and an Inuk guide embarked on a heroic 1,100-kilometre trek along the Siberian coast in search of help. By the end of the fifteen-month saga, eleven members of the original expedition would perish from frostbite and sickness, while the remaining twenty would survive to tell the tale. The Luck of the Karluk is a fascinating story about an important episode in Canada’s history and a revealing study of the strengths and weaknesses of human nature under treacherous conditions.

River of Darkness

River of Darkness
Author: Buddy Levy
Publisher: Diversion Books
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2022-04-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1635769205

The acclaimed author of Labyrinth of Ice charts the legendary sixteenth-century adventurer’s death-defying navigation of the Amazon River. In 1541, Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Pizarro and his lieutenant Francisco Orellana searched for La Canela, South America’s rumored Land of Cinnamon, and the fabled El Dorado, “the golden man.” Quickly, the enormous expedition of mercenaries, enslaved natives, horses, and hunting dogs were decimated through disease, starvation, and attacks in the jungle. Hopelessly lost in the swampy labyrinth, Pizarro and Orellana made the fateful decision to separate. While Pizarro eventually returned home in rags, Orellana and fifty-seven men continued into the unknown reaches of the mighty Amazon jungle and river. Theirs would be the greater glory. Interweaving historical accounts with newly uncovered details, Levy reconstructs Orellana’s journey as the first European to navigate the world’s largest river. Every twist and turn of the powerful Amazon holds new wonders and the risk of death. Levy gives a long-overdue account of the Amazon’s people—some offering sustenance and guidance, others hostile, subjecting the invaders to gauntlets of unremitting attacks and signs of terrifying rituals. Violent and beautiful, noble and tragic, River of Darkness is riveting history and breathtaking adventure that will sweep readers on a voyage unlike any other. Praise for Buddy Levy and River of Darkness “In River of Darkness, Buddy Levy recounts Orellana’s headlong dash down the Amazon. Like Mr. Levy’s last book, Conquistador, about the conquest of Mexico, River of Darkness presents a fast-moving tale of triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds. . . . Though impromptu, the expedition was one of the most amazing adventures of all time.” —Wall Street Journal “An exciting, well-plotted excursion down the Amazon River with the early Spanish conquistador. . . . [A] richly textured account of the rogue, rebel and visionary whose discovery still resonates today.” —Kirkus Reviews “A rollicking adventure . . . Levy successfully conveys the Amazon’s power and majesty, while shedding light on the futility of humanity’s attempt to tame it.” —The A.V. Club

American Legend

American Legend
Author: Buddy Levy
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2006-12-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1440684731

David Crockett was an adventurer, a pioneer, and a media-savvy national celebrity. In his short-but-distinguished lifetime, this charismatic frontiersman won three terms as a U.S. congressman and a presidential nomination. His 1834 memoir enjoyed frenzied sales and prompted the first-ever “official” book tour for its enormously popular author. Down-to-earth, heroic and independent to a fault, the real Crockett became lost in his own hype, and he’s been overshadowed by a larger-than-life, pop-culture character in a coonskin cap. Now, American Legend debunks the tall tales to reveal the fascinating truth of Crockett’s hardscrabble childhood, his near-death experiences, his unlikely rise to Congress, and the controversial last stand at the Alamo that mythologized him beyond recognition. In this beautifully written narrative, Crockett emerges as never before: a rugged individual, a true American original, and an enduring symbol of the Western frontier. “A great myth-busting story [that] presents Davy Crockett as a man of genius and folly, which has the unlikely effect of making him all the more heroic.”—Martin Dugard, author of The Last Voyage of Columbus and Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone “As spellbinding and dramatic as any novel and as compelling as any reportage.”—Peter Hoffer, Distinguished Research Professor of History, The University of Georgia

Empire of Ice and Stone

Empire of Ice and Stone
Author: Buddy Levy
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2022-12-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1250274451

National Outdoor Book Awards Winner The true, harrowing story of the ill-fated 1913 Canadian Arctic Expedition and the two men who came to define it. In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame.Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again.Twenty-two men and an Inuit woman with two small daughters now stood on a mile-square ice floe, their ship and their original leader gone. Under Bartlett’s leadership they built make-shift shelters, surviving the freezing darkness of Polar night. Captain Bartlett now made a difficult and courageous decision. He would take one of the young Inuit hunters and attempt a 1000-mile journey to save the shipwrecked survivors. It was their only hope. Set against the backdrop of the Titanic disaster and World War I, filled with heroism, tragedy, and scientific discovery, Buddy Levy's Empire of Ice and Stone tells the story of two men and two distinctively different brands of leadership—one selfless, one self-serving—and how they would forever be bound by one of the most audacious and disastrous expeditions in polar history, considered the last great voyage of the Heroic Age of Discovery.