From the era of wooden sailing ships and Europe's golden age of exploration, the story of famed British navigator Henry Hudson tells a classic tale of courage, ambition, and treachery on the high seas. As the leader of four Arctic voyages in 1607, 1608, 1609, and 1610, Hudson searched in vain for a navigable route through the polar ice that would open the way to the riches of Asia. In his obsession to succeed, he made reckless decisions that pushed his crew to the brink, with disastrous results. Hudson did not achieve his goal, but as a result of his skillful mapping of Hudson Bay and the Hudson River area, his name would live on as a prominent landmark in the geography and imagination of North America. In 1874, he was appointed assistant commissioner of the newly formed North West Mounted Police and led his troops west to smash the whisky trade and bring law and order to the vast North-West Territories. Macleod smoked the peace pipe with prominent chiefs like Crowfoot and Red Crow, earning their trust as a man who kept his promises. As a policeman and judge, Macleod showed a strong sense of justice, sympathizing with the plight of First Nations peoples and challenging the government when it failed to fulfill treaty obligations.This exciting new biography is a vivid account of the larger-than-life Canadian hero who played a major role in the peaceful development of western Canada.

On January 22, 1906, the passenger ship "Valencia" lost her way in heavy fog and rain and rammed into the deadly rocks at Pachena Point on the west coast of Vancouver Island. As the wreck was shattered by the pounding waves, the survivors clung desperately to the rigging. Few made it the short distance to shore through the frigid and turbulent waves--117 of the 164 souls aboard perished. A year earlier, the "King David" had been wrecked on Bajo Reef near Nootka Sound. The fate of her sailors was much more mysterious. Today, the magnificent Pacific coastline of Vancouver Island draws hikers, surfers and storm-watchers to marvel at its natural splendour. But the ghosts of the "Valencia," "King David," "Janet Cowan," "Pacific," "Soquel" and dozens of other lost ships still haunt the rugged shores of the Graveyard of the Pacific. Anthony Dalton tells the incredible stories of many of these ships and their courageous crews, who often discovered that their nightmares had only begun once they made it ashore. These true tales of disaster and daring rescues are a fascinating adventure into British Columbia maritime history.

After Royal Navy captain Sir John Franklin disappeared in the Arctic in 1846 while seeking the Northwest Passage, the search for his two ships, "Erebus" and "Terror," and survivors of his expedition became one of the most exhaustive quests of the 19th century. Despite tantalizing clues, the ships were never found, and the fate of Franklin's expedition passed into legend as one of the North's great and enduring mysteries. Anthony Dalton explores the eventful and fascinating life of this complex and intelligent man, beginning with his early sea voyages and arduous overland explorations in the Arctic. After years in Malta and Tasmania, Franklin realized his dream of returning to the Far North; it would be his last expedition. Drawing from evidence found by 19th-century Arctic explorers following in Franklin's footsteps and investigations by 20th-century historians and archaeologists, Dalton retraces the route of the lost ships and recounts the sad tale of Franklin, his officers and men in their final agonizing months.

Anson Northup, the first steamboat on the Canadian prairies, arrived in Fort Garry in 1859. Belching hot sparks and growling in fury, it was called "fire canoe" by the local Cree. The first steam-powered passenger vessel in Canada had begun service on the St. Lawrence River in 1809, and for the next 150 years, steamboats carried passengers and freight on great Canadian rivers, among them the treacherous Stikine and Fraser in British Columbia; the Peace, Athabasca and Red Rivers on the prairies; and the mighty St. Lawrence and Saguenay in Ontario and Quebec. Travel back in time aboard makeshift gold-rush riverboats in the Yukon, sternwheelers on the Saskatchewan and luxurious liners in the St. Lawrence to the decades when steamboats sent the echoes of whistles across a vast land of powerful rivers.

In September 1923, 14 US Navy destroyers raced into a channel off California's coast in darkness and thick fog. Minutes later seven of the ships crashed into jagged rocks, and 23 sailors died that night. Only five years before, a Canadian passenger ship steamed blind down Alaska's Lynn Canal in a late-night snowstorm, en route from Skagway to Vancouver. She ran up on Vanderbilt Reef, slid off the reef and sank, taking more than 350 people to their deaths. The west coast of North America has some of the world's most beautiful scenery along its thousands of miles of bays, coves and forbidding cliffs, but it's often subjected to ferocious storms. Here are stories of ships that met tragic ends - including Brother Jonathan, Princess Sophia, Benevolence, Star of Bengal, City of Rio de Janeiro and Columbia - and the passengers and crews who found themselves in extreme danger on this coastline.

Around the Arctic Circle, polar bears are at the top of the food chain. They have no natural enemies and are fearless, living on the ice and hunting seals - their favourite food - with matchless cunning and ability. They roam far and wide, often far south of their Arctic habitat: they are seen regularly in Churchill, Manitoba, and in James Bay. They rarely attack humans, but when they do, they win. Considered wise and powerful by Aboriginal cultures, they have become a symbol of animals threatened by climate change in the Arctic ecosystem. Anthony Dalton has gathered stories of 'Ursus maritimus' from Canada, Greenland, Norway, Siberia and Alaska. Learn about the bears' single-minded approach to life and acquiring food, share hair-raising encounters between polar bears and humans, and marvel at the majesty of this mighty animal.

In mid-July 1925, the SS Bayeskimo ran into heavy drift ice at the entrance to Hudson Strait. The ice carried her north, squeezing the steamer and testing the strength of her rivets. Helpless until the tide changed and the ice moved, the officers and crew could only watch and listen to the ship's tormented groans. Slowly at first, trickles of freezing water seeped through the steel plates on her bow. The trickles became a flood, and Bayeskimo began to sink. Bayeskimo was one of hundreds of ships in the Hudson's Bay Company's fur-trade fleet. For much of the company's history, they roamed Hudson Bay, the sub-arctic and beyond the Arctic Circle, servicing far-flung posts. Some even battled their way around the tip of South America to open up trade on the west coast of North America. During these arduous voyages, many of them came to grief under conditions that would test the mettle of any ship. Here are some of their dramatic stories.