Rating: 
Summary: Spielberg should make it a movie!
Review: Years ago I had read a National Geographic article about the discovery of the frozen bodies of three seamen from an ill fated expedition to explore the Arctic for the fabled Northwest Passage. The modern discoverers of the remains were scientists who performed an onsite autopsy to determine the cause of death, as the scope of the disaster had left many unanswered questions since it's occurrence in the mid-19th Century. The amount of knowledge that was gained after more than a century post mortem was impressive, and left a lasting memory of the unfortunate expedition: The Franklin Polar Expedition. When I saw the summary for the book The Ice Blink, I was immediately captured by the Franklin subject, and got the book. The volume reads like a novel, written as it is by a well researched journalist rather than an historian. I read it in a single day, almost in a single sitting, so riveting is its human detail. The author covers the topic lengthily, including other equally unfortunate attempts to search for the passage to the Pacific by way of the northern most reaches of North America. He details the careers of the various officers as well as that of the Second Secretary of the British Admiralty, Sir John Barrow, who was as much a part of the events as any of the actual participants. He outlines the background of many of the enlisted men, and points out the financial incentives that encouraged them to go on the discovery voyage. He also points out that few who had been on one before, were actually willing to go for any amount of money! Cookman's biography of the titular leader of the expedition, Sir John Franklin is illuminating, but that of the captain of the Terror is by far the most interesting. Francis Croiser was passed over as leader of the expedition on the basis of his social and ethnic status (Irish middle class) but was the most experienced of the officers with the rigors of polar exploration. It was ultimately on his shoulders that command fell after the early death of Franklin, and under the worst of all possible conditions. From physical remains found at the site of the abandoned ships and strewn across the landscape following the doomed men's path, it would appear that the flight from the pack ice in which both ships had been imprisoned for almost 18 months had been well and carefully planned by Croiser, and except for the desperation and hopelessness of their situation might well have brought a few home. He certainly seems to have given them the only real hope they had of survival. The author paints a vivid picture of the retreat of the men, using the 19th Century reports of efforts to find survivors, those of modern investigators of known sites (like that mentioned above) and of reports by other explorers and natives who accidentally discovered remains. Putting the story together with what is known of other polar expeditions, what is known of the 19th Century naval organization, and the society of the time, and the information about the Arctic that 20th Century polar expeditions have given us, Cookman provides the reader with a thoroughly convincing tale of the early conditions of exploration. What makes the story most intriguing, though, is the probable cause of the disaster itself, which turns out to have been staggering greed, incredible double dealing and total indifference to the fate and well being of others. There is definitely a message to the modern world in the tale of the "lowest bidder!" Steven Spielberg should make a movie of the entire affair! Read it, and see if you don't agree!
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