BOOK REVIEW | The Magnetism of Antarctica: The Ross Expedition 1839–1843

Why anyone wants to visit or explore the earth’s polar regions is completely beyond this reviewer who hates the cold. Going there in comfortable, warm, modern diesel ships seems mad enough, but heading there in small, slow wooden sailing tubs seems insane.

Fortunately, however, 180 years ago, there were braver, if not madder, men than me who fulfilled a desire to explore the poles. This is the well-told story of one British group that did so very successfully.

With two, for the time, very sound sailing ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, later and better known for their role in the ill-fated Sir John Franklin North-West Passage catastrophe, the four-year expedition successfully achieved nearly all its objectives and much more besides. Well planned, well led, and well crewed, it provided an excellent model for succeeding maritime expeditions.

Commanded by Captain James Clark Ross and Commander Francis Crozier, two outstanding Royal Navy officers with extensive polar experience, the expedition was primed for success. Despite the many privations and dramas that are so well described in this book, their objective was achieved.

The expedition certainly did its job thoroughly, circumnavigating the Antarctic continent and reaching further south than anyone before. Theirs was a very valuable and extensive survey of a remote, inhospitable, and little-known land. Despite being away in such difficult conditions for so long, the expedition lost very few men. That is a tribute to the aforementioned planning, leadership, and crewing.

Interestingly presented and very well illustrated, this book has brilliantly brought the important but relatively little-known expedition and its participants to life.

Author: John Knight

Available from Whittles Publishing, Caithness, Scotland

Web: www.whittlespublishing.com

An excerpt of the book can be read here. It is posted here on Baird Maritime with the publisher’s permission.