Erebus: The Story of a Ship

Product Information

I wouldn't have picked this book up if it wasn't written by Michael Palin, and this book felt like it wasn't written by Michael Palin. His books include accounts of his journeys, novels (Hemingway’s Chair and The Truth) and several volumes of diaries. Although a longtime Monty Python fan, I had never read one of Michael Palin's travel books before, so I looked forward to starting with his Erebus; a biography of sorts on the ship that Sir John Franklin captained off to its final, frigid resting place. In the early years of Queen Victoria's reign, HMS Erebus undertook two of the most ambitious naval expeditions of all time. Initially, she explored the North Pole and allowed James Clark Ross to claim British discovery of the North Magnetic Pole to the disgust of his uncle, her captain.

I don’t know if you are the same but when you meet the author and have the physical book signed it does make it very special and I seem to enjoy the book even more. Palin appeared in some of the most famous Python sketches, including "The Dead Parrot", "The Lumberjack Song", "The Spanish Inquisition" and "Spam". Instead, there is an anthology of references utilised at the end of the book to address the sources of gleaned information but it is not always easy to ascertain where he has sourced particular facts. You can unsubscribe from our list at any point by changing your preferences, or contacting us directly. The book covers not only its loss in the Arctic, but its Antarctic exploration, and its construction in Milford Haven.And they have one of the finest memorials to the great tragedy that was the Franklin expedition, where HMS Erebus and all her crew perished. If you're looking for Franklin information, I recommend Russell Potter's Finding Franklin; Palin's Erebus is a thorough account of Erebus, and I was excited to read this to learn of her lesser-known voyage with James Clark Ross.

Especially the last portion of the book; I am riding a motorbike around Colombia at the moment and I actually stayed an extra night here just to finish Erebus off. Overall, a fine read; one that made me glad to be indoors as the snow falls and the wind howls outside my walls. There are plenty of quotes from those on-board at the time providing a very real sense of the journey and what they got up to. Of course, it's not possible to know the whole truth, as no one survived (I'm pretty sure that's not a spoiler! Many thanks to LibraryThing First Reviewers and Greystone Books for this advance copy in exchange for my review.Già avevo letto il bellissimissimo I ragazzi di Barrow di Fergus Fleming, che racconta dei tempi d'oro (e dell'isteria britannica) dell'esplorazione polare e della ricerca del passaggio a nord ovest. Das Buch enthält natürlich auch einige Karten und Bilder – die Bilder der im Eis perfekt konservierten Leichen einiger Besatzungsmitglieder, die unterwegs starben, fand ich ziemlich verstörend.