Amazon.com Review
After Columbus sailed the ocean blue in search of a trading route to China but found his way blocked by North and South America, Britain and Europe's other colonial powers scrambled to find alternate paths to the Far East. Avoiding the south, dominated by Spain and Portugal after the Pope's 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, the English and the Dutch searched for both a North East Passage, north of Eurasia, and a North West Passage, through the Arctic ice of what is now North America.
Although such a passage was to become commercially unimportant (and unviable, thanks to climate), the successful transit of the North West Passage became a Holy Grail and deadly siren for countless exploration teams, and it eluded explorers for nearly 400 years. Ann Savours, one of Britain's leading authorities on this tenacious pursuit, describes in a lively and sprawling account the extraordinary adventures of these courageous expeditions. Drawing heavily on primary sources, including diaries, letters to home, and sketches, Savours's Search makes for engrossing reading: from the Frobisher team's 1570s descriptions of the "countrey people" (later the "Esquimaux") "clad in coates made of the skinnes of beastes" and "sharp-witted, readie to conceive our meaning by signes, and to make answere" to accounts of Sir John Franklin's ultimately successful but completely decimated mission, Savours puts you on the heaving decks of the icebreakers and in the minds of these brave explorers. Excellent illustrations, end notes, and appendices round out the work. --Paul Hughes
Once sixteenth-century geographers realized the Americas were a New World, the undying hope for a short water route to the riches of Asia fostered the search for a Northwest passage through the North American land-mass and into the Pacific. Savours is one of Britain's leading experts on the history of polar explorations. In this engrossing and often exciting narrative, she provides in-depth examinations of most of the prominent expeditions that sought the elusive passage. With the skill of a novelist, Savours portrays the steely courage and determination of men who frequently endured great suffering in a frozen, unforgiving environment. She makes effective use of firsthand accounts by the explorers, and the striking illustrations enrich the text. This is a superb rendering of a series of real-life adventures.
Jay Freeman
