Arctic Labyrinth

The elusive dream of locating the Northwest Passage--an ocean route over the top of North America that promised a shortcut to the fabulous wealth of Asia--obsessed explorers for centuries. Until recently these channels were hopelessly choked by impassible ice. Voyagers faced unimaginable horrors--entire ships crushed, mass starvation, disabling frostbite, even cannibalism--in pursuit of a futile goal. Glyn Williams charts the entire sweep of this extraordinary history, from the tiny, woefully equipped vessels of the first Tudor expeditions to the twentieth-century ventures that finally opened the Passage.

As a result of global warming and the subsequent shrinking of Arctic ice, for the first time in seafaring history a navigable Northwest Passage, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, will open up. The possibility of seasonal shipping lanes has renewed the world's interest, and there are lessons to be learned for the next explorers striving to be the first to finally realize a sustainable and practical Northwest Passage. The history of the passage is rich with adventure, courage, and endurance against overwhelming odds, cannibalism, national pride, and the growing evidence of the tyrannical behaviour of some of the navy's leading Arctic commanders. Arctic Labyrinth tells more than just the stories surrounding the Northwest Passage—it is a look at how history is formed, the hoaxes and lies as well as the heroes and bravery. Nothing escapes the scrutiny of Glyn Williams in his attempt to understand why the Northwest Passage caught the imagination of generations of explorers, and continues to do so today.

National Outdoor Book Awards Winner Winner of the BANFF Adventure Travel Award “A thrilling and harrowing story. If it’s a cliche to say I couldn’t put this book down, well, too bad: I couldn’t put this book down.” —Jess Walter, bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins “Polar exploration is utter madness. It is the insistence of life where life shouldn’t exist. And so, Labyrinth of Ice shows you exactly what happens when the unstoppable meets the unmovable. Buddy Levy outdoes himself here. The details and story are magnificent.” —Brad Meltzer, bestselling author of The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington Based on the author's exhaustive research, the incredible true story of the Greely Expedition, one of the most harrowing adventures in the annals of polar exploration. In July 1881, Lt. A.W. Greely and his crew of 24 scientists and explorers were bound for the last region unmarked on global maps. Their goal: Farthest North. What would follow was one of the most extraordinary and terrible voyages ever made. Greely and his men confronted every possible challenge—vicious wolves, sub-zero temperatures, and months of total darkness—as they set about exploring one of the most remote, unrelenting environments on the planet. In May 1882, they broke the 300-year-old record, and returned to camp to eagerly await the resupply ship scheduled to return at the end of the year. Only nothing came. 250 miles south, a wall of ice prevented any rescue from reaching them. Provisions thinned and a second winter descended. Back home, Greely’s wife worked tirelessly against government resistance to rally a rescue mission. Months passed, and Greely made a drastic choice: he and his men loaded the remaining provisions and tools onto their five small boats, and pushed off into the treacherous waters. After just two weeks, dangerous floes surrounded them. Now new dangers awaited: insanity, threats of mutiny, and cannibalism. As food dwindled and the men weakened, Greely's expedition clung desperately to life. Labyrinth of Ice tells the true story of the heroic lives and deaths of these voyagers hell-bent on fame and fortune—at any cost—and how their journey changed the world.

"David Abulafia's new book guides readers along the world's greatest bodies of water to reveal their primary role in human history. The main protagonists are the three major oceans-the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian-which together comprise the majority of the earth's water and cover over half of its surface. Over time, as passage through them gradually extended and expanded, linking first islands and then continents, maritime networks developed, evolving from local exploration to lines of regional communication and commerce and eventually to major arteries. These waterways carried goods, plants, livestock, and of course people-free and enslaved-across vast expanses, transforming and ultimately linking irrevocably the economies and cultures of Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas"--

While dreams of a passage proved illusory, Captain James Cook's journey produced some of the finest charts, collections, and anthropological observations of his career. It also helped establish British relations with Russia and opened the door to the hugely influential maritime fur trade. This collection of essays from an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars - including former Vancouver Maritime Museum executive director James P. Delgado and University of Alberta historian I.S. MacLaren - uses artifacts, charts, and records of the encounters between Native peoples and explorers to tell the story of this remarkable voyage.

As the Far North assumes an increasingly important role in international politics, so too does Canada’s role in its governance. In 1991, eight countries signed the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy: Canada, the United States, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland. This was the first step in the formation of the Arctic Council, which was formally established in 1996 to act as a high-level intergovernmental body to address social, political, and environmental issues in the Arctic. Indigenous peoples, who form a significant population in seven of the eight countries’ Arctic regions, are involved in the council as permanent participants if they represent a single indigenous people across borders. Acclaimed biographer John English explores the history and growing relevancy of the council as Canada becomes the chair of that body in 2013. English chronicles a remarkable shift in Canada’s stance. The Canadian embrace of co-operative multilateralism in the nineties and the jealous protection of sovereignty in 2010 reveal a difference in approach, interest, and values. Both approaches had antecedents in Canada’s past—there has been Liberal unilateralism and nationalist rhetoric too—but there are fundamental differences between Canadian policies in the 1990s and those adopted in the following decade. Ice and Water explores the origins, creation, and development of the Arctic Council as a means of understanding those differences.

Describes the expeditions embarked upon by sailors and speculators to navigate the Northwest Passage during the Age of Reason in the eighteenth century.