Ice Ghosts

February 13, 2017
Watson (Where War Lives), a Pulitzer Prize–winning Canadian photojournalist, recounts a failed 19th-century attempt to find the fabled Northwest Passage and the 21st-century search that succeeded in locating vessels that had been missing for 168 years. On May 19, 1845, John Franklin began his fourth and final journey in search of the Northwest Passage. Despite his soiled reputation and advancing age, Franklin was made commander of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror and their combined crew of 128 men. Fitted with the latest technology, Erebus and Terror set sail from England to the Arctic Ocean. During the winter of 1845–1846, three men died, the ships were twice trapped in sea ice, and Franklin’s health declined precipitously. Franklin died on June 11, 1847, and Watson reveals that during the subsequent winter the ships were once again trapped, forcing the remaining crew to relinquish the ships in search of safety. Numerous attempts were made to find the ships as well as the burial sites of crew and commander. Through the diligence of self-trained Inuit historian Louie Kamookak and an array of researchers, scientists, and divers, the sunken ships were found in pristine condition. Watson’s meticulously researched tale finely weaves together the many voices and experiences of those who sought Franklin’s long-missing ships.

Starred review from February 1, 2017
Intriguing narrative of English explorer Sir John Franklin's fatal fourth expedition to the Arctic in 1845, emphasizing the ongoing drive to uncover the mystery of the icy unknown.Obsessed with the discovery of a Northwest Passage since the 16th century, British explorers weren't going to give up simply because it hadn't been found yet. In this engaging work by Vancouver-based journalist and photographer Watson (Where War Lives, 2007, etc.), a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the George Polk Award, among other honors, the expedition by Franklin, an aging explorer hoping to reclaim lost glory, becomes less visceral and significant than the myriad attempts to find his body and the two lost ships, the Erebus and the Terror. In 2014, Watson accompanied the Canadian Coast Guard Victoria Strait Expedition, which ultimately found the Erebus some 168 years after the initial sinking and broke the news in the Guardian. The disappearance of Franklin and his 129-member crew on the Royal Navy-sponsored expedition of 1845 was full of mysteries, and it constituted the worst disaster in the Admiralty's polar exploration history. After getting stuck in the ice, the ships were eventually abandoned just north of King William Island. A few groups set out across the ice, some men already dead perhaps by botulism from tainted tin cans of food (rather than by lead poisoning, a theory discounted) and others disoriented by starvation and cold. Watson offers a sympathetic account of the Inuit who encountered some of the shipwrecked men and offered them food and supplies, as well as the native shamans who later were able to locate the wrecks (the Terror was discovered in 2016) with remarkable accuracy--if the English had only listened. Watson's narrative also closely involves the dogged attempts by Franklin's widow, Jane, who never gave up trying to fund and launch recovery expeditions during her lifetime. A keen, entertaining chronicle of the various attempts to locate a sensationally doomed expedition.

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February 1, 2017
Canadian photojournalist Watson was on board the Coast Guard icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 2014 when the Erebus, one of two vessels of the lost 1845 Franklin Expedition to conquer the Northwest Passage, was found underwater, remarkably intact, off Victoria Island in the territory of Nunavut. The other vessel, the Terror, was found in 2016, not too far south, in Terror Bay. This riveting book traces the history of the Franklin Expedition and the various attempts to locate the missing ships and their crews (rescue operations began in earnest about a year and a half after the two ships set sail from England, and quickly switched from rescue to recovery). The author, a graceful writer, does a fine job of turning the historical record into compelling drama, and, when he writes about the modern-day quests to find the wreckage of the Terror and the Erebus, he manages to keep us in a constant state of suspense and hopeful anticipation. An engrossing chronicle of a legendary doomed naval voyage and the nearly 200-year effort to bring the Franklin Expedition to a close.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

October 15, 2016

Pulitzer Prize winner Watson can be trusted to deliver a well-researched account of the lost Franklin Expedition of 1845 and the discovery of the flagship's wreck in 2014. In fact, he was on the icebreaker that led the discovery expedition, so this is truly eyewitness news.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2017

Pulitzer Prize winner Watson (Where War Lives) scores again with this vibrant and thorough history of Sir John Franklin's (1786-1847) doomed 1845 expedition to discover the Northwest Passage. The author delves into Franklin's background and life to explain how he came to captain this voyage, also shedding light on Jane Franklin's relentless badgering of the Royal Navy to send rescue missions to aid her husband. Jane welcomed any and all ideas about where to search, with some of the most accurate locations coming from contacts with the "spirit" world. Also detailed is Inuit Louis Kamookak's attempts to preserve his people's oral history and traditional knowledge, which proved vital in locating Franklin's ships, and Parks Canada's expeditions that found the HMS Erebus and Terror in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Watson was aboard the vessels that discovered Franklin's ships, which makes this reporting especially crisp. There are still plenty of mysteries surrounding the expedition, such as did the sailors abandon their ships, only to later return to them and sail on? VERDICT Watson is an excellent writer with a dry wit and concise style that makes this a must-read for Franklin aficionados as well as for researchers and readers of Polar history and exploration.--Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville Lib., IN

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.