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Ice Blink: The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin’s Lost Polar Expedition

Amazon.com Price:  $24.59 (as of 05/05/2019 20:50 PST- Details)

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“Absorbing.artfully narrat[es] a conceivable course of events in the expedition’s demise, based on the one official note and bits of debris (including evidence of cannibalism) found by searchers sent to look for Franklin in the 1850s. Adventure readers will flock to this fine regaling of the enduring mystery surrounding the best-known disaster in Arctic exploration.”–Booklist

“A great Victorian adventure story rediscovered and re-presented for a more enquiring time.”–The Scotsman

“A vivid, from time to time harrowing chronicle of miscalculation and overweening Victorian pride in untried technology.a work of great compassion.”–The Australian

It has been called the greatest disaster in the history of polar exploration. Led by Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, two cutting-edge ships and 128 hand-picked men—-the best and the brightest of the British empire—-sailed from Greenland on July 12, 1845 on the lookout for the elusive Northwest Passage. Fourteen days later, they were spotted for the last time by two whalers in Baffin Bay. What happened to these ships—-and to the 129 men on board—-has remained some of the enduring mysteries in the annals of exploration. Drawing upon original research, Scott Cookman provides an unforgettable account of the ill-fated Franklin expedition, vividly reconstructing the lives of those touched by the voyage and its disaster. But, more importantly, he suggests a human culprit and presents a terrifying new explanation for what triggered the deaths of Franklin and all 128 of his men. It is a remarkable and shocking historical account of true-life suspense and intrigue.
By the mid-19th century, after decades of polar exploration, the fabled Northwest Passage seemed within reach. In 1845 the British Admiralty assembled the largest expedition yet, refitting two ships with steam engines and placing the seasoned if moderately lackluster Sir John Franklin in command of the 128-man expedition. After sailing into Baffin Bay, they were never heard from again.

Drawing on early accounts from relief expeditions as well as recent archeological evidence, Scott Cookman reconstructs a chronicle of the expedition in Ice Blink. Cookman, a journalist with articles in Field & Stream and other magazines, excels when firmly grounded in the harrowing reality of 19th-century Arctic exploration. When he speculates about what happened to the Franklin expedition, alternatively, he is on less solid ground and his writing suffers.

Particularly overwrought is the promised “frightening new explanation” for the expedition’s demise. Cookman suggests that it was caused by the “grotesque handiwork” of an “evil” man, Stephan Goldner, who had supplied its canned foods. This is hardly new. As early as 1852, investigators decided that the expedition’s canned goods were probably inferior and canceled provisioning contracts with Goldner. How a hundred men survived for nearly three years despite lead poisoning and botulism remains a mystery. In any case, as Cookman himself acknowledges, the expedition was ultimately doomed by its reliance on untested technology such as the steam engine, armor plating, and canned provisions. These criticisms aside, Ice Blink is an interesting narrative of this enduring symbol of polar exploration and disaster. –Pete Holloran

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