Brings energy, wit and humanity to a story that has never ceased to tantalise people since the 1840s. Told in a very relaxed and sometimes - as you might expect - very funny Palin style.' David Baddiel, Daily Mail Carefully researched and well-crafted, it brings the story of a ship vividly to life.' Sunday Times The Erebus story is the Arctic epic we've all been waiting for.' Nicholas Crane It's a fascinating story that brings full-bloodedly to life.' Guardian Now available: Michael Palin's North Korea Journals On the second, she vanished with her 129-strong crew in the wastes of the Canadian Arctic. On the first, she ventured further south than any human had ever been. Her fate remained a mystery for over 160 years. 4.30 7,727 ratings889 reviews In the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign, HMS Erebus undertook two of the most ambitious naval expeditions of all time. On the second, she vanished with her 129-strong crew in the wastes of the Canadian Arctic, along with the HMS Terror. In the early years of Queen Victoria's reign, HMS Erebus undertook two of the most ambitious naval expeditions of all time. fell overboard into the sea.THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER: the remarkable true story of the exploration ship featured in The Terror I succeeded in adding two more of the elegant white petrel to my collection, one falling dead on the quarter-deck and the other on the gun-room skylight. I never do so without a sharp sting of pain and qualm of conscience, so fond am I of all the feathered race.’ So fond, indeed, that on the same night he recorded that ‘Between midnight and one a.m. McCormick, unusually, felt compelled to justify himself: ‘For notwithstanding that my duties as ornithologist compel me to take the lives of these most beautiful and interesting creatures. His shot failed to despatch the bird cleanly and, after descending near the deck, it recovered and flew away with one leg broken. On seeing hovering over the ship what he believed to be a new species of Lestris, or Arctic Yager, described by Audubon, the great American bird illustrator, as an ‘indefatigable teaser of the smaller gulls’, he took a pot-shot at it. “The bird life, was, as ever, of great interest to ship’s surgeon McCormick. ‘We have now but Weddell’s track to get beyond,’ wrote Captain Ross, referring to the whaling captain’s 74☁5'S, a record that had stood since 1823.”Įrebus: One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time Measurements showed that Erebus and Terror had reached latitude 71☁4'S, passing Captain Cook’s furthest south. And there was another cause for celebration. all that could be desired for giving effect to such a magnificent panorama.’ For Joseph Hooker, it was simply ‘one of the most gorgeous sights I have ever witnessed’. The sky was a clear azure blue, with the most brilliant sunshine. The glaciers that filled their intervening valleys, and which descended from near the mountain summits, projected in many places several miles into the sea. Nevertheless he was, like everyone else, humbled and overawed by what he saw as they drew closer to land. All he could see was that this ‘coastline’ had effectively blocked the way to his most coveted goal, the South Magnetic Pole.

Surprisingly, Ross’s first reaction was less than ecstatic. “With a cry of ‘Land Ahoy!’, Lieutenant Wood confirmed that not only had Erebus and Terror become the first sailing ships to break through the ice-pack, but they were now the first ships to come face-to-face with irrefutable proof that an Antarctic continent existed.

Erebus michael palin book pdf