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Barrow's Boys: A Stirring Story of Daring, Fortitude, and Outright Lunacy

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Barrow's Boys is an account of the British exploring efforts of the known (and unknown) world of the first half of the 19th Century. Spearheaded by Sir John Barrow, Second Secretary of the Admiralty, the British Navy sent out a number of ships to diverse areas of the globe. Notably Fleming does not focus solely on the Arctic explorative efforts for which Barrow is most well known. Fleming argues that Barrow could well be considered the father of Global exploration. British explorers penetrated the frozen wastes of the Arctic, and Antarctic, as well as the African interior, all in the name of Science and Knowledge.

Fergus Fleming is a particular favorite of mine, since I picked up his book "90 degrees North" a couple of years ago. He has a particular knack for drawing fine textual character sketches of the individuals whose tales he tells. Barrow's Boys is no exception. Fleming relates with ease the characters and adventures (and tragedies) of John and James Ross, of Parry, Back, Richardson, and the doomed Sir John Franklin.

Lesser known names in the annals of British exploration are not neglected: Lyon and Ritchie's mission to find the source of the Congo via the Sahara is discussed, as is James Tuckey, on which the book first begins it's exploration narrative after having introduced Sir John Barrow in the first chapter. The stubborness and arrogance often found in Victorian Englishmen that often rendered them inflexible to changes in their environment- for example the wearing a heavy woollen navy uniform in the suffocating heat of Africa- is well portrayed by Fleming.

Barrow's Boys covers the period between 1816 (Tuckey sails to the Congo) to 1859 (the efforts to locate the missing Franklin exidition). A neat touch is the epilogue, in which Fleming relates briefly the lives of the British explorers after they had their moment in the sun. Barrow's Boys is authorative, but by no means academic, as it is a very easy read. Recommended for those with an interest in exploration, particularly from the viewpoint of the British.

If you are a lover of adventure and exploration you'll love this book. Fergus Fleming has done a marvelous job of relating tales of British explorers of the early 1800's. Fleming has a knack for telling the story with great wit and you'll often smile as he brings these characters to life. From the Sahara to the Arctic and to the Antarctic and Australia Barrow (Second Secretary of the Admiralty) sends his "boys" in search of glory for the British. Many of these stories have been written about before but bringing them together as Fleming has done, puts this period of exploration in prospective. It was a great time for England even though most of these epics ended in disaster and failed to prove much of what Barrow was looking for.

Simply put it's a great book. "Barrow's Boys" is filled with amazing stories of exploration and consequent adventure in the first half of the 19th century. The title figure of Barrow is himself a rather uninteresting and, at least to me, disagreeable chap who takes a rightful place in the far background of this book. Barrow's importance is as the man who green-lighted the numerous British explorations detailed in Fleming's book.
Most were in search of the elusive Northwest Passage, which took many a ship into the harrowing Arctic environs. This provides many of "Barrow's Boys" most captivating stories as ships, captains and crews battle the elements. The effect of extreme cold, severe Arctic storms and seemingly endless dark winters are hard to imagine. Fleming, to his credit, helps nudge the reader's imagination. One of his primary tools, and indeed a key to the success of the book, are the copious logs left behind by ship captains. What a treasure chest of primary documents that Fleming takes full advantage of.
In addition to fighting the bitter cold, explorers challenged opposite elements in Africa in search of rivers and cities. Besides having to negotiate extreme dessert or jungle heat, explorers had to ward off myriad diseases and pass though the lands of hostile natives, often while seeking their help.
It's all compelling stuff and Fleming has a writing style that never imposes itself on the stories but helps highlight elements of them.
One of the highest praises of a history book is that it inspires the reader to want to read and know more. Well, through "Barrow's Boys" Fergus Fleming has done precisely that.

Sir John Barrow, Second Secretary to the Admiralty from 1816 to 1848, launched the most ambitious programme of global exploration that the world has ever seen. When he started, atlases were still pocked with blanks, virtually marked here be dragons. Was the North Pole water, a rock or a continent? Was there a North-West Passage? Did Antarctica exist? Where did the Niger go? Where on earth was Timbuctoo?

The Royal Navy, the worlds largest navy, had little to do after the Battle of Trafalgar. The sailors were laid off, dumped on the streets whence they had been press-ganged. Barrow found the officers an outlet for their aspirations to heroism: exploration became their system of outdoor relief.

Barrows first venture, in 1816, to find the Niger, ended in disaster, as yellow fever killed nearly all the crew. In 1818, he sent the first of his many doomed expeditions to find the fabled North-West Passage between Canada and Greenland. (He hoped that a link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would ease British access to the treasures of the East.) In 1819, so badly organised was John Franklins overland expedition through Canada that he ended up literally eating his boots. In 1826, Gordon Laing became the first white man ever to reach Timbuctoo, but was killed weeks later. In 1830, the Lander brothers travelled down the Niger to the sea. The 1848 Antarctica expedition discovered the volcanic Mount Erebus; it also discovered that Antarctica was cold, useless and there. Barrow ended with yet another disaster, the deaths in the Arctic of all Franklins team.

Fleming uses their diaries, journals, letters and memoirs to depict these obsessive, ludicrous, heroic explorers, to tell their tales of courage, endurance and devotion to duty. Barrow was indeed the father of world exploration, yet his every goal proved practically useless, from Timbuctoo to the North-West Passage that could not be passed. But his boys had ridden and mapped the world, filling in all those mysterious blanks.

Fleming is an excellent writer, period. The pages just fly by. One could almost place this book in the Humor section. Unlike most historians, he is quick to judge (and smear) a protagonist. John Barrow, the backbone of these stories, is continually chided. He makes great use of journal entries, many of which were written under great stress--could many write in that wordy, superfluous 19th-century prose while holed up in Saharan Africa? Not likely.

That line from a Kipling poem kept coming to mind as I read this book. The 30 major explorations that are chronicled here beginning in 1816 and ending with Leopold McClintock's expedetion of 1857, all however pre-date Kipling. Nevertheless the sentiment remains and it is very clear that BARROW'S BOYS - mostly Royal Navy officers who were "mothballed on half-pay" and "yearned for something" [to do] - were both some of the best in 19th century England and were indeed the right people to send forth. As the book's subtitle says they were sufficiently daring and had ample fortitude and there was the odd element of outright lunacy. The latter is best illustrated by Gordon Laing (the madman of Timbuctoo) and the hero John Franklin - better known as the man who ate his boots! Both men are subjects of appropriately titled chapters in this book.

The man behind these adventures, "the father of exloration" as Fleming calls him, was John Barrow, 2nd Secretary to the Admiralty from 1804 to 1845. He was the guiding force for the expeditions; organizing, equiping, and generally administering their every detail. Where the voyages went, who led them, what crew and supplies were needed, these were all Barrow's decisions. Fleming is quite plain in stating that although "Barrow inevitably plays second fiddle to his explorers" both in history and in his book, he nevertheless "remains the driving force behind his minions' more thrilling exploits."

Barrow's character is summed up as one of "ambition, intellect and remorseless application." Fleming highlights the many explorations Barrow sent out as part of his personal quests which he vicariously satisfied through his men. In pursuit of the source of the Niger River in West Africa and the Northwest Passage through the Arctic, Barrow spent money and material and sent men with not-quite reckless abandon but with a definite unwillingness to accept defeat. The remorselessness is shown in that failure and loss were simply reasons to sweep aside the unsuccessful leaders (if they returned alive) and equip another expedition to try again.

As the book goes on we see the seemier side of Barrow's ambition. The man was "determined to make his name somehow." After the multiple unsuccessful attempts for the Northwest Passage between 1818 and 1827, by John Ross, William Edward Parry, and John Franklin (who died trying), Fleming is at his most critical when he says the following about Barrow: "Perhaps no man in the history of exploration has expended so much money and so many lives in pursuit of so desperately pointless a dream."

Britain's long tradition of celebrating it's failures and making heroes out of victims dates from before these events right up to Dunkirk in WWII. This is strengthened by the idea of noble sacrifice for God, King, and country. The first man to go down with his ship was undoubtedly an Englishman. This goes a long way to explain why, even after so many failures and stories of pitiless deaths in the deserts of West Africa and the icy North of the Arctic, Barrow was allowed to continue sending men forth. Even more significantly there were always volunteers ready to test their mettle as the best of England's breed.

I bought this book almost by accident, but I'm darned pleased that I did. Fleming recaps a period of manic exploration mania in British history, starting with the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and extending into the 1840s, with the Franklin expedition and its various would-be rescuers. Some of these stories -- those about the Back, Parry, Ross, Franklin et al. Arctic voyages -- have been told many times before. Others, like Laing's journey to Timbuktu, or James Ross's discovery of the Antarctic mainland, have not. Don't let familiarity with the period, or with some parts of the story, keep you away from this book.

One of the main reasons to buy "Barrow's Boys" is Fleming's dry humor, and ability to deflate the Dudley Do-Right pretense of some of the key players. Barrow himself emerges as a rather dull bureaucratic non-entity, but the frenzy of exploration he unleashed is anything but dull.

This is a fascinating story of an ambitious program of exploration launched by John Barrow, Second Secretary to the Admiralty in 1816.

Between 1816 and 1845 `Barrow's Boys' worked - sometimes with each other and sometimes against each other - to fill in some of the blank spaces around the globe. Some of the questions they set out to answer:

What was at the North Pole?

Was there a North-West Passage?

Where did the Niger go, and what was at the heart of Africa?

Did Antarctica exist?

To a large extent, John Barrow's ambitious program was only possible because of the oversupply of officers and ships as the Royal Navy reduced in size following the Napoleonic Wars. The politics of the bureaucracy, the unfettered ambition of some of the key players, the bravery of many, and the stupidity of others makes for intriguing reading.

Were these expeditions successful? The answer to that depends on how success is measured and who is applying the measure. It is indeed true that most (if not all) of Barrow's goals were of dubious value once found. However, the heroic activities of men, however badly directed, should not be dismissed so simply. We know far more about the geography of the world in which we live as a consequence of these expeditions and that knowledge is invaluable.

I invite you to read the book and decide for yourself.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Fergus Fleming does another great job at painting a picture of heroic adventure and daring discoveries that filled in some bland spots on the map in the early eighteenght century but achieved little of scientific or economic valure at the cost of a great many lives. Barrow's Boys is not truly a biography of Sir John Barrow but a look at all the explorations he launched during his tenure as Second Secretary to the British Admiralty. All the greats are here from William Edward Parry to James and John Ross, from John Rae to Lady Jane Franlin and John Franklin. The destinations range from Africa to the Arctic with shorter excursions to the Antarctic and Australia. It is a thrilling ride with much foolhardiness, some bravery, and a spot of cannibalism or two. A wonderful read.

I recently enjoyed 'Blue Latitudes', the story of Captain Cook's three great voyages of discovery. 'Barrow's Boys' is a wonderful companion piece, carrying on the incredible story of British exploration following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The author presents these interwoven stories in a well researched, breezy narrative and with a dash of humour that keeps the pages turning and the reader wishing for more. Highly recommended.