Searching for the Franklin Expedition: The Arctic Journal of Robert Randolph Carter [Hardcover]

Robert Randolph Carter (Author), Harold B. Gill (Editor), Joanne Young (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1998

The diary of a young member of the rescue party sent to find British explorer Sir John Franklin in 1850 describes their hardships and frustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Winner of the 1998 John Lyman Book Award for a Referenced Work amd Published Primary Source, sponsored by the North American Society for Oceanic History.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press; annotated edition edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557503214
• ISBN-13: 978-1557503213
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,566,143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Gill's Book More Sterile Than Arctic in Winter, May 3, 1999

By 

Gerald Samchuck - See all my reviews

This review is from: Searching for the Franklin Expedition: The Arctic Journal of Robert Randolph Carter (Hardcover)

This could have been a great book. The story of a daring attempt to find polar explorer Sir John Franklin (analogous in importance today to finding lost astronauts) based on the personal journal of an officer in the rescue expedition's company, Randolph Carter. So many interesting aspects could have been explored: the collegial but competitive feeling between the ill-equipped US expedition and the advanced Royal Navy counterpart; the escapist focus polar exploration enjoyed on the eve of the Civil War; Carter's personal evolution. Instead, the author merely wraps Carter's Spartan journal in a perfunctory introduction & summary. Drama aside, this is no scholarly reference either. Not one map to help the poor reader trace the expedition's progress; no helpful amplifying commentary that could have helped the reader put Carter's often esoteric colloquial references into context. A work of FICTION (Yoyage of the Narwhal, Barrett) is a more interesting and scholarly work about this subject.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This Book is More Sterile than the Arctic in Winter, May 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Searching for the Franklin Expedition: The Arctic Journal of Robert Randolph Carter (Hardcover)

This could have been a great book. The story of a daring attempt to find polar explorer Sir John Franklin (analogous in importance today to finding lost astronauts) based on the personal journal of an officer in the rescue expedition's company, R. R. Carter. So many interesting aspects could have been explored: the collegial but competitive feeling between the ill-equipped US expedition and the advanced Royal Navy counterpart; the escapist focus polar exploration enjoyed on the eve of the Civil War; Carter's personal evolution. Instead, the author merely wraps Carter's Spartan journal in a perfunctory introduction & summary. Drama aside, this is no scholarly reference either. Not one map to help the poor reader trace the expedition's progress; no helpful amplifying commentary that could have helped the reader put Carter's often esoteric colloquial references into context. A work of FICTION (Yoyage of the Narwhal, Barrett) is a more interesting and scholarly work about this subject.