Fury Beach [Hardcover]

Ray Edinger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2003

In May 1829, after eleven years of being denied command of a ship, Captain John Ross set sail on Victory, the first steamer to brave the Arctic waters. His goal: to prove that the Northwest Passage did indeed exist.

Thus began four years spent ice-bound in the Canadian Arctic. Trapped by the shifting floes, brutal storms, and extreme temperatures, the expeditioners changed their goal to mere survival. With the help of the Inuits of Boothia Peninsula, Ross and his crew would attempt to conquer this hostile, barren environment-and make it home to tell the tale.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First-timer Edinger has rediscovered and skillfully retold a forgotten but absorbing epic of early Arctic exploration. In 1829, Captain John Ross of the British Royal Navy set out for the Arctic in a converted Channel steamer, the Victory, the first steam vessel to travel in those waters. He was trying to save his reputation, which was under venomous attack by the Admiralty bureaucrat Sir John Barrow, who accused Ross of possessing an "impenetrably dull or intentionally perverse" mind. Ross succeeded in refuting Barrow's accusations, but only after a four-year ordeal in which his ship was icebound in Arctic waters and survival depended on aid from a friendly Inuit and supplies left from the wreck of an earlier exploration ship, Fury. In the course of those four years, Ross and crew maintained their health and morale-with no help from a steam engine quickly discarded as dead weight-managing to stave off scurvy until near the end of their expedition. Most of the crew survived, a party under the captain's nephew John Clark Ross (later a famous Antarctic explorer) reached the North Magnetic Pole, and altogether Ross and his Victory expedition lost less and achieved more than most of the better-known expeditions that sailed in search of the Northwest Passage. An engaging narrative for most any reader, Edinger's account will be especially gripping for maritime or Arctic exploration fans. One map.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Edinger chronicles a feat of polar exploration and survival to rank with Shackleton's storied Endurance expedition of 1914-16. In 1829, while under a professional cloud, Captain John Ross of the Royal Navy launched a privately financed expedition to discover the Northwest Passage. He took north the first steamship ever seen in the Arctic, the converted packet Victory, and ended up spending four winters there. Despite a useless engine, Ross' good crew, ample supplies, and the help of friendly Inuit, whose friendship Ross and crew quite remarkably returned, helped make the first three years relatively easy as well as productive; in fact, a foot party led by Ross' nephew, James Clark Ross, who developed into a notable polar explorer himself, even reached the North Magnetic Pole. The fourth year was a grim ordeal, but most of the party survived to return safely to England. Captain Ross emerges as an irresistibly likeable as well as gallant figure in these pages of a book that is definitely a labor of love. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1 edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425188450
• ISBN-13: 978-0425188453
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,481,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating account of survival in the arctic., November 11, 2003

By 

Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fury Beach (Hardcover)

John Ross, who had earlier failed to find the Northwest passage and had created a mirage of `Lancaster sound' in 1818 returned in 1828 to lead an expedition by steam to seek out the Northwest passage and map the arctic. He ended up stranded for almost four years. His men survived on meager rations while learning from the natives. A small party led by his Nephew James Ross also discovered the Magnetic North Pole.

This is an amazing account of the ordeal of this harrowing journey into the arctic wasteland. Well written, its greatest downfall is that it includes only one map. This book will be enjoyed by anyone interested in the arctic, seafaring, adventure or survival stories. For further reading `Barrows Boys' by Fleming, `Into Thin Air, and `Sea of Glory' by Philbrick will be of great interest.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hip, Hip, Hurray or Fury Beach, June 6, 2003

By 

Barbara Moss (Westport, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fury Beach (Hardcover)

Fury Beach by Ray Edinger combines thorough research with a rousing good story. The lengthy bibliography and index suggest the extensive research that went into producing this book. Well written, it is actually two stories for the price of one: a tale of an Arctic voyage of discovery and scientific research and the heart-warming story of the interaction of two cultures, an Inuit tribe and Englishmen, meeting for the first time and things actually go right. People treat each other with kindness and respect. Friendships result. I particularly liked the short snippets of biographies at the close of the book that explained what happened to the participants after the adventure ended. There are many illustrations, all charming.