Discovering the North-West Passage: The Four-Year Arctic Odyssey of H.M.S. Investigator and the McClure Expedition

From 1850 to 1854, the ambitious Commander Robert McClure captained the HMS Investigator on a voyage in search of the missing Franklin Expedition, which sailed from England into the Arctic in 1845 to map the last uncharted section of the North-West Passage. The Investigator and her consort the Enterprise were to pass through the Bering Strait from the west but a Pacific storm separated them, never to meet again. Obsessed with traversing the passage, McClure pressed on and HMS Investigator spent three years trapped in pack ice in Mercy Bay before the crew abandoned ship on foot. This book chronicles the voyage in detail. McClure and his relationships with his officers are at the heart of the story of the arduous journey, vividly illustrated by the paintings of Lt. Samuel Cresswell.;The frozen grail, up to 1845 -- Into the fray, 1846/50 -- The Pacific, 1850 -- Western Arctic gateway, 1850 -- The wily Arctic, 1850 -- The coldest crucible, 1850 -- Decisions, 1850 -- Jack Frost, 1850/51 -- The grand sledding chorus, 1851 -- The trap is sprung! 1851 -- "The fatal error of our voyage," 1851/52 -- Starvation, madness; and mutiny, 1852 -- Infinity's brink, 1853/54 -- Scattered bones and frozen memories, 1853 onward -- Epilogue: found beneath the ice, 2010/11.