Unknown Shore: The Lost History of England's Arctic Colony |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > England History > Item 333
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Unknown Shore: The Lost History of England's Arctic Colony
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by Robert Ruby
Sales Rank: 2091744
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$5.35
At Amazon
on 8-1-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 320 pages
Published by: Amazon Remainders Account; 2nd Rep edition June 1, 2002
ISBN 10 Number: 0805052143
ASIN: B000H2MJZ0
From Publishers Weekly
During the years 1576 to 1578, Queen Elizabeth I of England sent three expeditions under Martin Frobisher to find the fabled Northwest Passage that led to China. Ruby (Jericho), an editor with the Baltimore Sun, chronicles in lively prose an incredible saga of man against nature in the failed quest to place a colony in the far north. On the first expeditions, encouraged by assayists in England who were either incompetent or dishonest, former-pirate Frobisher believed he had found gold-bearing rock. Dreaming of magnificent wealth, he hoped the third expedition would establish a colony to mine gold. They failed badly (a few men were accidentally left behind when a sudden gale forced a hurried return to England), having brought back tons of useless rock and kidnapped a few Inuits. The story, buried in documents and technical archeological data, has remained unknown to most history buffs. Ruby's great popularized tale of Frobisher and his men draws on the 1860s expedition of American Charles Francis Hall (recounted in Bruce B. Henderson's Fatal North; see Forecasts, Jan. 1), who recorded oral histories from Inuit people about Frobisher, as well as on more recent archeological findings. The interweaving of these threads into a single narrative makes exciting reading and fills a gap in the early colonization efforts of the New World. Illus., with maps not seen by PW.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Drawing on original documents, public records, and previous research, Ruby (editor, the Baltimore Sun; Jericho: Dreams, Ruins, Phantoms) meticulously chronicles the voyages of Martin Frobisher and the anthropological travels of Charles Francis Hall, who journeyed to the Canadian Arctic for vastly different reasons. This fascinating history seamlessly moves from Elizabeth I's court to 19th-century whaling boats to the modern descendants of the Inuit whom both Frobisher and Hall encountered. Frobisher was originally looking for a navigable route to China (1576), but later voyages (1577 and 1578) were strictly for the procurement of gold and the establishment of a British colony, "Meta Incognita." Hall was "called" north in 1860 to rescue the imagined survivors of Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845 expedition. Hall was unsuccessful in reaching the deserted ships but spent three years living with the Inuit of Baffin Island, who eventually led him to the remnants of Frobisher's voyages. He returned in 1864, enduring incredible hardships only to learn of the horrific fate of Franklin's men (starvation, exposure, and cannibalism), thus eliminating the need for Hall to be anyone's "savior." Recommended for public and academic libraries. Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville, IN
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Unknown Shore: The Lost History of England's Arctic Colony (Hardcover)
Robert Ruby's Unknown Shore is a little misleading in its subtitle (The Lost History of England's Arctic Colony) in as much as the history was not quite lost nor was there actually a colony, only the briefest of attempts at a colony in a farcical plan to mine the soil for gold. That said, the book is quite entertaining as it pieces together the story of Martin Frobisher and his ill-fated Elizabethean Arctic adventures and the always fascinating Charles Francis Hall's discovery of the location of Frobisher's Meta Incognita in the nineteenth century. (For a wonderful and full account of Hall, see the very fine Weird and Tragic Shores by C. Chauncey Loomis). The two stories blend fairly well and the author keeps the narrative sparkling along at an entertaining clip. This was a good Arctic read for those addicted to these books and a good place to begin for someone who wants to learn what the addiction to these Arctic books is all about from a book that shows men whose addiction to that cold world ran so much deeper than merely reading about it.
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Unknown Shore: The Lost History of England's Arctic Colony
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Price: $5.35
Updated on 8-1-2008.
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