The Polar Book created as a facsimile of a now very scarce publication for the British Polar Exhibition of 1930 that celebrated the history of Polar discoveries and expeditions of the day. This is the first edition as a case bound hardback, complete with two coloured maps designed by John Bartholomew. This book celebrates Polar discoveries and expeditions, with chapters on the history of Polar discoveries, geophysics, geology, flora and fauna along with equipment needed and used at the time. Contributors: G T Atkinson and H R Mil. The Foreword is by L.C. Bernacchi.

An expert on perils of the high seas, British native Boxer (1904-2000) translated the Portuguese collection of accounts, originally published as pamphlets, The Tragic History of the Sea 1589-1622 in 1959 and Further Selections from the Tragic History of the Sea 1599-1565 in 1968. They were published

With original primary source documents, this anthology brings readers into the vast unknown 19th-century American West-through the eyes of the explorers who saw it for the first time. This volume brings together book excerpts, maps, and illustrations from 12 explorers from the 19th century, highlighting their lives and contributions. Arranged chronologically, the 10 chapters focus on individual explorers, with biographies and background information about and document excerpts from each person. The chapters offer analyses of each document's relevance to the historical period, geographic knowledge, and cultural perspective. This guide shares the important contributions from explorers like Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Pike, Jedediah Smith, James P. Beckwourth, John C. Fremont, Susan Magoffin, and John Wesley Powell. It also nurtures readers' historical literacy by modeling historians' methods of analyzing primary sources. Readers will see new and familiar events from different perspectives, including that of a woman traveling along the Santa Fe Trail, one of the most famous African American mountain men, and a Civil War veteran, among many others. Collects primary source materials such as journal entries, book excerpts, and maps from various 19th-century American explorers, enabling readers to "discover" the vast unknown American West, as seen for the first time by those of European descent Includes a topical guide to aid readers in cross-referencing entries Presents illustrations and photographs as well as original textual documents and maps

Britain is going to Mars. Beagle 2 - a space lander shaped like a clam and no larger than a portable barbecue - is about to make history. Named after HMS Beagle, the ship in which Charles Darwin travelled around the world, Beagle 2 has hitched a ride aboard the European Space Agency Mars Express. On reaching the red planet, this tiny British space probe is designed to answer one big question: is there, or was there, life on Mars?;In 'Beagle', Colin Pillinger explores the remarkable similarities between these two historic ships, the sailing ship and the spaceship, and their great voyages of exploration. Both were at the forefront of technology for their respective generations. HMS Beagle led to the discovery of the secret of life on Earth - can Beagle 2 possibly do the same for Mars?

The North Face of the Eiger was long notorious as the most dangerous climb in the Swiss Alps, one that had claimed the lives of numerous mountaineers. In February 1966, two teams - one German, the other British-American - aimed to climb it by a new direct route. Astonishingly, the two teams knew almost nothing about each other's attempt until both arrived at the foot of the face. The race was on. John Harlin led the four-man British-American team and intended to make an Alpine-style dash for the summit as soon as weather conditions allowed. The Germans, with an eight-man team, planned a relentless Himalayan-style ascent, whatever the weather. The authors were key participants as the dramatic events unfolded. Award-winning writer Peter Gillman, then twenty-three, was reporting for the Telegraph, talking to the climbers by radio and watching their monumental struggles from telescopes at the Kleine Scheidegg hotel. Renowned Scottish climber Dougal Haston was a member of Harlin's team, forging the way up crucial pitches on the storm-battered mountain. Chris Bonington began as official photographer but then played a vital role in the ascent. Eiger Direct, first published in 1966, is a story of risk and resilience as the climbers face storms, frostbite and tragedy in their quest to reach the summit. This edition features a new introduction by Peter Gillman.

"The best book so far to answer the question 'Who discovered America?'...This important, spell-binding report replaces sugar-coated myths about Columbus's invasion of America with indispensable history." --Publishers Weekly

"A thoughtful and challenging consideration of the many voyagers who might have reached the Americas by sea before the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria...Well informed and well written, always provocative if not conclusive, this is revisionist history with a vengeance --and about time, too." --Kirkus Reviews

"Persuasively and emphatically disputes the fact that Columbus actually discovered America...A long-overdue tribute to a score of forgotten and disregarded explorers, adventurers, and sailors. Highly recommended..." --Booklist

Patrick Huyghe is a writer, editor, and television producer. He spent two decades writing about science for magazines from Omni to Discover; produced television documentaries for WGBH and WNET; and is the author of nine books.

An enthralling biography about one of the most intriguing women of the Victorian age: the first self-invented international social celebrity. Lola Montez was one of the most celebrated and notorious women of the nineteenth century. A raven-haired Andalusian who performed her scandalous "Spider Dance" in the greatest performance halls across Europe, she dazzled and beguiled all who met her with her astonishing beauty, sexuality, and shocking disregard for propriety. But Lola was an impostor, a self-invention. Born Eliza Gilbert, the beautiful Irish wild child escaped a stifling marriage and reimagined herself as Lola the Sevillian flamenco dancer and noblewoman, choosing a life of adventure, fame, sex, and scandal rather than submitting to the strictures of her era. Lola cast her spell on the European aristocracy and the most famous intellectuals and artists of the time, including Alexandre Dumas, Franz Liszt, and George Sand, and became the obsession of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. She then set out for the New World, arriving in San Francisco at the height of the gold rush, where she lived like a pioneer and performed for rowdy miners before making her way to New York. There, her inevitable downfall was every bit as dramatic as her rise. Yet there was one final reinvention to come for the most defiant woman of the Victorian age-a woman known as a "savage beauty" who was idolized, romanticized, vilified, truly known by no one, and a century ahead of her time.

In the first hours there was nothing, no fear or sadness, just a black and perfect silence.
Nando Parrado was unconscious for three days before he woke to discover that the plane carrying his rugby team, as well as their family members and supporters, to an exhibition game in Chile had crashed somewhere deep in the Andes. He soon learned that many were dead or dying--among them his own mother and sister. Those who remained were stranded on a lifeless glacier at nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, with no supplies and no means of summoning help. They struggled to endure freezing temperatures, deadly avalanches, and then the devastating news that the search for them had been called off.
As time passed and Nando's thoughts turned increasingly to his father, who he knew must be consumed with grief, Nando resolved that he must get home or die trying. He would challenge the Andes, even though he was certain the effort would kill him, telling himself that even if he failed he would die that much closer to his father. It was a desperate decision, but it was also his only chance. So Nando, an ordinary young man with no disposition for leadership or heroism, led an expedition up the treacherous slopes of a snow-capped mountain and across forty-five miles of frozen wilderness in an attempt to find help.
Thirty years after the disaster Nando tells his story with remarkable candor and depth of feeling. "Miracle in the Andes"--a first person account of the crash and its aftermath--is more than a riveting tale of true-life adventure: it is a revealing look at life at the edge of death and a meditation on the limitless redemptive power of love.

"From the Hardcover edition."

"FASCINATING . . . Dramatic and timely." -New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice In this grand and thrilling narrative, the author of the 200,000-copy paperback bestseller Over the Edge of the World reveals the singular adventures of Sir Francis Drake, whose mastery of the seas during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I changed the course of history. "Entrancing . . . Very good indeed." -Wall Street Journal Before he was secretly dispatched by Queen Elizabeth to circumnavigate the globe, or was called upon to save England from the Spanish Armada, Francis Drake was perhaps the most wanted-and successful-pirate ever to sail. Nicknamed "El Draque" by the Spaniards who placed a bounty on his head, the notorious red-haired, hot-tempered Drake pillaged galleons laden with New World gold and silver, stealing a vast fortune for his queen-and himself. For Elizabeth, Drake made the impossible real, serving as a crucial and brilliantly adaptable instrument of her ambitions to transform England from a third-rate island kingdom into a global imperial power. In 1580, sailing on Elizabeth's covert orders, Drake became the first captain to circumnavigate the earth successfully. (Ferdinand Magellan had died in his attempt.) Part exploring expedition, part raiding mission, Drake's audacious around-the-world journey in the Golden Hind reached Patagonia, the Pacific Coast of present-day California and Oregon, the Spice Islands, Java, and Africa. Almost a decade later, Elizabeth called upon Drake again. As the devil-may-care vice admiral of the English fleet, Drake dramatically defeated the once-invincible Spanish Armada, spurring the British Empire's ascent and permanently wounding its greatest rival. The relationship between Drake and Elizabeth is the missing link in our understanding of the rise of the British Empire, and its importance has not been fully described or appreciated. Framed around Drake's key voyages as a window into this crucial moment in British history, In Search of a Kingdom is a rousing adventure narrative entwining epic historical themes with intimate passions.

This collection focuses on different expeditions and their role in the process of knowledge acquisition from the eighteenth century onwards. It investigates various forms of scientific practice conducted during, after and before expeditions, and it places this discussion into the scientific context of experiments. In treating expeditions as experiments in a heuristic sense, we also propose that the expedition is a variation on the laboratory in which different practices can be conducted and where the transformation of uncertain into certain knowledge is tested. The experimental positioning of the expedition brings together an ensemble of techniques, strategies, material agents and social actors, and illuminates the steps leading from observation to facts and documentation. The chapters show the variety of scientific interests that motivated expeditions with their focus on natural history, geology, ichthyology, botany, zoology, helminthology, speleology, physical anthropology, oceanography, meteorology and magnetism.

Durante el tiempo que paso en las islas portuguesas de Porto Santo y Madeira, Cristobal Colon, un navegante de Genova, estuvo a cargo de un marinero moribundo, de Castilla, cuya carabela habia sido llevado por la corriente del Golfo de Guinea a un mar remoto, posiblemente el Caribe. En su lecho de muerte, este hombre habia dicho Columbus el secreto de algunas tierras donde habian llegado siberianos durante el Pleistoceno y algunos documentos sobre algunos de los posibles viajes anteriores. Este marinero aseguro que esas tierras que habia logrado llevado por las corrientes eran los mismos que se referia. Cuando Colon llego a Espana, trato de convencer a la Corona de Castilla de sus proyectos, que eran precisamente los mismos que Isaias habia profetizado como destino para obtener los limites de los horizontes. Durante su descripcion, Columbus parecia tan seguro de que tanto la Reina Isabel y el Rey Fernando se preguntaron si el estaba tratando de ocultar una realidad probada, un misterio que llevo a su tumba. Colon les pidio una subvencion, Fernando el Catolico le comento que las arcas estaban vacias en ese momento, ya que solo habia subyugado toda Al-Andalus tras la toma de Granada, por lo que la derrota del rey nazari mas mala suerte, Boabdil, conocido como "el pequeno hombre." Debido a que los exploradores espanoles del siglo 15, Espana se convirtio en la mayor potencia comercial entre los paises europeos. Ellos construyeron asentamientos que duraria hasta tres siglos mas tarde, en un proceso expansivo de colonizacion, hasta la perdida del poder espanol en los territorios de la decada de 1810, cuando comenzo la Independencia. Desde finales del siglo 18, hasta principios del siglo 19, el Oeste fue testigo de una serie de revoluciones en cadena que afecto a Europa occidental y America del espanol al mismo tiempo. La invasion de Napoleon, Francisco de Miranda, Simon Bolivar, logias masonicas, junto con envidias, traiciones o amantes hacen que este libro sea una emocionante aventura basada en la verdadera historia.

Access to new plants and consumer goods such as sugar, tobacco, and chocolate from the beginning of the sixteenth century onwards would massively change the way people lived, especially in how and what they consumed. While global markets were consequently formed and provided access to these new commodities that increasingly became important in the 'Old World', especially with regard to the establishment early modern consumer societies. This book brings together specialists from a range of historical fields to analyse the establishment of these commodity chains from the Americas to Europe as well as their cultural implications.

The Franklin Conspiracy is an absorbing account of the single most enigmatic event in Canadian history. In 1845, two British Royal Navy ships, the Erebus and the Terror, commanded by Sir John Franklin, entered the Canadian Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage. Neither ship returned. A fifteen-year search uncovered evidence of unparalleled disaster, but to this day no one knows exactly how the 129 men of the Franklin Expedition met their deaths.

Although the expedition did not run out of food, there is clear evidence of cannibalism. The ships carried two hundred message cylinders with them, yet failed to leave records. Stranger still, an earlier explorer, Thomas Simpson, was reputedly murdered for the "secret of the Northwest Passage." What was this "secret"?

The Franklin Conspiracy is an exhaustively researched, compellingly reasoned answer to that question. The result is a shocking saga of conspiracy, cover-up, and unbelievable secrets.

Published in 1542 to an astonished and captivated public, Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition tells the unforgettable story of a sixteenth-century soldier turned explorer who, along with three other survivors of a shipwreck, makes his way across an unknown geographic and cultural landscape. This Norton Critical Edition is based on David Frye's new translation. It is accompanied by Ilan Stavan's introduction, the translator's preface, the editor's detailed explanatory annotations, and a map tracing Cabeza de Vaca's journey from Florida to California. "Alternative Narratives and Sequels" enriches the reader's understanding of and appreciation for Cabeza de Vaca's chronicle, which can be read both as historical record and as fiction (Cabeza de Vaca having written his account years after the events took place). Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdez's General and Natural History of the Indies (1535) provides a different account of the same journey, while sequels can be found in a 1539 letter from the Viceroy of New Spain to the Emperor and in Fray Marcos de Niza's Relacion on the Discovery of the Kingdom of Cibola (1539). The Spanish explorers, soldiers, and missionaries of the period saw the New World as a place of enchantment, riches, and opportunity. This spirit is captured in "Contexts" with documents including a 1493 letter from Christopher Columbus to a potential benefactor of his future travels; Hernan Cortes's 1520 letter from Mexico; and an excerpt from Fray Bartolome's Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1542). A selection from Miguel Leon Portilla's Broken Spears provides readers with the viewpoint of the vanquished. "Criticism" includes five major assessments of Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition spanning eighty years. Contributors include Morris Bishop, Rolena Adorno and Patrick Charles Pautz, Paul Schneider, Andres Resendez, and Beatriz Rivera-Barnes. A Chronology, Selected Bibliography, and Index are also included.

In a book that is part memoir and part history, David Roberts looks back at his personal relationship to extreme risk and tries to make sense of why so many have committed their lives to the desperate pursuit of adventure. In the wake of his diagnosis with throat cancer, Roberts seeks the answer with sharp new urgency. He explores his own lifelong commitment to adventuring, as well as the cultural contributions of explorers throughout history. He looks at what it meant in 1911 for Amundsen to reach the South Pole or in 1953 for Hillary and Norgay to summit the highest point on earth. And he asks what the future of adventure is in a world we have mapped and trodden all the way to the most remote corners of the wilderness.

Never tell a woman where she doesn't belong. In 1932, Roy Chapman Andrews, president of the men-only Explorers Club, boldly stated to hundreds of female students at Barnard College that "women are not adapted to exploration," and that women and exploration do not mix. He obviously didn't know a thing about either... The Girl Explorers is the inspirational and untold story of the founding of the Society of Women Geographers-an organization of adventurous female world explorers-and how key members served as early advocates for human rights and paved the way for today's women scientists by scaling mountains, exploring the high seas, flying across the Atlantic, and recording the world through film, sculpture, and literature. Follow in the footsteps of these rebellious women as they travel the globe in search of new species, widen the understanding of hidden cultures, and break records in spades. For these women dared to go where no woman-or man-had gone before, achieving the unthinkable and breaking through barriers to allow future generations to carry on their important and inspiring work. The Girl Explorers is an inspiring examination of forgotten women from history, perfect for fans of bestselling narrative history books like The Radium Girls, The Woman Who Smashed Codes, and Rise of the Rocket Girls.

In 1913, an expedition was sent to the Arctic, funded by the American Museum of Natural History, the American Geographical Society and the University of Illinois. Its purpose was twofold: to discover whether an archipelago called Crocker Land-reportedly spotted by an earlier explorer in 1906-actually existed; and to engage in scientific research in the Arctic. When explorers discovered that Crocker Land did not exist, they instead pursued their research, made a number of important discoveries and documented the region's indigenous inhabitants and natural habitat. Their return to America was delayed by the difficulty of engaging a relief ship, and by the danger of German submarines in Arctic waters during the World War I.

The true story about a shipwreck discovery, exciting explorations, broken alliances, and returning a lost piece of Alaskan history. Since its sinking in 1860 while transporting a valuable cargo of ice, the Kad’yak ship had remained submerged underwater and faded in Alaska’s memory, covered by the legend of an experienced but perhaps rusty sailor and a broken promise to a saint. At the time the ship had been under command of the well-recognized Captain Illarion Arkhimandritov, who had sailed in Alaskan waters for years. It seemed a simple task when he was asked to placate superstitions and honor the late Father Herman, or Saint Herman, on his next visit to Kodiak Island. But Arkhimandritov failed to keep his promise, and shortly thereafter the Kad’yak met its demise in the very waters the captain should have been most familiar with—leaving just the mast above the water in the shape of the cross, right in front of the saint’s grave. Presumed gone or else destroyed, it wasn’t until 143 years later that the Kad’yak was found. In this riveting memoir, scientist Bradley Stevens tells all about the incredible discovery and recovery of the ship—deciphering the sea captain’s muddled journal, digging through libraries and other scientists’ notes, boating over and around the wreck site in circles. Through careful documentation, interviews, underwater photography, and historical research, Stevens recounts the process of finding the Kad’yak, as well as the tumultuous aftermath of bringing the legendary ship’s story to the public—from the formed collaborations to torn partnerships to the legal battles. An important part of Alaska’s history told from Stevens’s modern-day sea expedition, The Ship, the Saint, and the Sailor reveals one of the oldest known shipwreck sites in Alaska discovered and its continuing story today.

This vivid book retells the story of Captain Cook's great voyages in the South Seas, focusing on the encounters between the explorers and the island peoples they "discovered." While Cook and his men were initially confounded by the Polynesians, they were also curious. Cook and his crew soon formed friendships-and often more intimate relationships-with the islanders. The islanders, who initially were not certain if the Englishmen were even human, came to experiment with Western customs and in some cases joined the voyagers on their expeditions. But familiarity quickly bred contempt. Shipboard discipline was threatened by these new relationships, and the culture of the islands was also changed forever. Captain Cook, initially determined to act as an enlightened leader, saw his resolve falter during the third voyage. Amicable relations turned hostile, culminating in Cook's violent death on the shores of Hawaii. In this masterful account of Cook's voyages, Anne Salmond-a preeminent authority on the history of the south seas-reimagines two worlds that collided in the eighteenth century, and the enduring impact of that collision.

A monumental book - I defy anyone to read it and remain unmoved. - Stephen Venables, Alpine Journal. Acclaimed as one of the most powerful accounts of mountain adventure and tragedy ever written, The Endless Knot is a harrowing account of the 1986 K2 disaster. A rare first-hand account from a survivor at the very epicentre of the drama, The Endless Knot describes the disaster in frank detail. Kurt Diemberger's account of the final days of success, accident, storm and escape during which five climbers died, including his partner Julie Tullis and the great British mountaineer Al Rouse, is lacerating in its sense of tragedy, loss and dogged survival. Only Diemberger and Willi Bauer escaped the mountain. K2 had claimed the lives of 13 climbers that summer. Kurt Diemberger is one of only two climbers to have made first ascents of two 8000-metre peaks, Broad Peak and Dhaulagiri. A superb mountaineer, the K2 trauma left him physically and emotionally ravaged, but it also marked him out as an instinctive and tenacious survivor. After a long period of recovery Diemberger published The Endless Knot and resumed life as a mountaineer, filmmaker and international lecturer.