A biography of George Peabody

In 1845 Captain Sir John Franklin led a large, well equipped expedition to complete the conquest of the Canadian Arctic, to find the fabled North West Passage connecting the North Atlantic to the North Pacific. Yet Franklin, his ships and his men were fated never to return. The cause of their loss remains a mystery. In Franklin, Andrew Lambert presents a gripping account of the worst catastrophe in the history of British exploration, and the dark tales of cannibalism that surround the fate of those involved. Shocked by the disappearance of all 129 officers and men, and sickened by reports of cannibalism, the Victorians re-created Franklin as the brave Christian hero who laid down his life, and those of his men. Later generations have been more sceptical about Franklin and his supposed selfless devotion to duty. But does either view really explain why this outstanding scientific navigator found his ships trapped in pack ice seventy miles from magnetic north? In 2014 Canadian explorers discovered the remains of Franklin's ship. His story is now being brought to a whole new generation, and Andrew Lambert's book gives the best analysis of what really happened to the crew. In its incredible detail and its arresting narrative, Franklin re-examines the life and the evidence with Lambert's customary brilliance and authority. In this riveting story of the Arctic, he discovers a new Franklin: a character far more complex, and more truly heroic, than previous histories have allowed. '[A]nother brilliant piece of research combined with old-fashioned detective work . . . utterly compelling.' Dr Amanda Foreman

“While floating down on the ice-floe, in the midst of dirt and darkness, hungry and cold… I wondered at myself that I could have learned, in a few short months, to have eaten such things, and submitted to such practices, as but few civilized persons have ever been called to endure.” In June of 1871, navigator George E. Tyson and the Polaris sailed forth from New York to pursue an American dream—to be the first expedition to explore the icy waters of the North Pole. Led by Captain Hall, veteran Arctic explorer, and funded with a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Congress, it seemed the Polaris would not fail. But the voyage was doomed from the start: impassable ice-floes, a crew that couldn’t get along, and eventually the poisoning and untimely death of Captain Hall. Finally, as winter approached, Tyson and half the crew found themselves stranded on the Arctic ice, incapable of reconnecting with their ship. They would not be rescued for six months. Through Tyson’s detailed notes and a journal written upon the ice, Journey to the Arctic tells the harrowing tale of survival, slow starvation, and of men turned wild in frigid climes. This definitive edition includes original engravings of the explorers and their findings, charts and maps of their journey, and a new introduction by famed adventure essayist and Arctic exploration expert Peter Stark.

Dodging between the Arctic floes, almost crushed several times, the little RCMP vessel St. Rochwas the first ship to conquer the hazardous Northwest Passage from west to east. Two years later, in 1944, she did it from east to west. Arctic Workhorseis a biography of St. Roch, from her construction in Vancouver in 1928, through her working life and famous voyages, to her resting place at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

The Franklin Conspiracy is an absorbing account of the single most enigmatic event in Canadian history. In 1845, two British Royal Navy ships, the Erebus and the Terror, commanded by Sir John Franklin, entered the Canadian Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage. Neither ship returned. A fifteen-year search uncovered evidence of unparalleled disaster, but to this day no one knows exactly how the 129 men of the Franklin Expedition met their deaths. Although the expedition did not run out of food, there is clear evidence of cannibalism. The ships carried two hundred message cylinders with them, yet failed to leave records. Stranger still, an earlier explorer, Thomas Simpson, was reputedly murdered for the "secret of the Northwest Passage." What was this "secret"? The Franklin Conspiracy is an exhaustively researched, compellingly reasoned answer to that question. The result is a shocking saga of conspiracy, cover-up, and unbelievable secrets.

Leadership is a curious topic. It is most noted in its absence and most measured by its need. Leadership requires opportunity. Leadership is driven by the situation; what worked in one situation may be disastrous in another. It requires skills to be able to direct the challenge at hand. Leadership is both an art and a science. It is theoretical and applied, cultural and contextual. Most importantly, leadership is about accomplishment and results. Let's face it; talking about leadership is tough and, in many ways, counter-intuitive. Many people want to be leaders and some people prefer to follow a leader; but followers want to follow not just any leader, they want to follow a great leader. Business leadership textbooks often focus on the process and theory of leadership. Not what it is but what it looks like or what it has accomplished. Terms like "neo-charismatic" and "non-hierarchical cross-culture participator" are used. Pictures are drawn showing pyramids and "leadership process flows" with colored boxes containing "value-risk qualifiers." I have even read in textbooks that leadership is a dated concept, and today, it is the social environment and individual "zones of comfort" that produce accomplishments. Mumbo-jumbo! I believe if you want to have the things that great people have, you have to do the things great people do. The single most identifiable characteristic of successful people is that they are successful leaders. This is why Mr. Patton developed the term Extreme Leadership for this book and why the book focuses more on extreme examples than process flows and models. Charles' writing style is straight-ahead, and his content lays it out as it is. This book is designed as a supplement to graduate-level leadership courses. However, it is also very readable and interesting, and applicable to all aspects of life. This book sends the important message that It is okay to lead; it is okay to be a leader. It is also okay to follow. And that anyone who wants to lead can learn to lead. Hopefully, after reading this book and thinking about the case studies, you will have a rounded view of leadership, start to see when opportunities are presented, and be able to leverage them for your own leadership successes. Dr. D. E. Lady

This fascinating study examines how Victorian fixation on disastrous Northwest Passage expeditions has conditioned our understanding of the Arctic and Polar exploration.

From the first people to leave Africa to the first to leave the planet, the urge to explore the unknown has driven human progress. Explorers tells the story of humanity's explorations, taking the reader into the lives of some of the most intrepid people ever known. Throughout history, exploration has arisen from a wide range of impulses, from trade and the search for lands to colonize, to scientific curiosity and missionary zeal. This book tells the story of explorers of every type, from those chasing glory to those seeking enlightenment. In its pages, readers will meet some of history's most famous trail blazers-people whose courage opened frontiers, turned voids into maps, forged nations, connected cultures, and added to humankind's knowledge of the world by leaps and bounds. Each life is captured in context, by considering the knowledge of the world in which the explorers lived, the factors that gave rise to their expeditions, and the technology available to them at the time. Their discoveries, and the consequences, are also considered in depth, and highlighted with beautiful maps, photographs, and illustrations. The tales of the explorers' assistants and companions are woven into the overall story, along with an examination of the qualities that made the them drop everything in pursuit of discovery.