Northern Lights
A History of the Arctic Scots
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
In the tradition of Arthur Herman’s How the Scots Invented the Modern World comes a narrative that charts the remarkable—yet often overlooked or misidentified—Scottish contribution to Arctic exploration
The search for the Northwest Passage is filled with stories of tragedy, adventure, courage, and endurance. It was one of the great maritime challenges of the era. It was not until the 1850’s that the first one-way partial transit of the passage was made. Previous attempts had all failed, and some, like the ill-fated attempted by Sir John Franklin in 1845 ended in tragedy with the loss of the entire expedition, which was comprised of two ships and 129 men.
Northern Lights reveals Scotland’s previously unsung role in the remarkable history of Arctic exploration. There was the intrepid John Ross, an eccentric hell-raiser from Stranraer and a veteran of three Arctic expeditions; his nephew, James Clark Ross, the most experienced explorer of his generation and discoverer of the Magnetic North Pole; Dr. John Richardson of Dumfries, who became an accidental cannibal and deliberate executionaer of a murderer as well as an engaging natural historian; and Orcadian John Rae, the man who first discovered evidence of Sir John Franklin and his crew’s demise.
Northern Lights also pays tribute and reveals other overlooked stories in this fascinating era of history: the Scotch Irish, the whalers, and especially the Inuit, whose unparalleled knowledge of the Arctic environment was often indispensible.
For anyone fascinated by Scottish history or hungry for tales of Arctic adventure, Northern Lights is a vivid new addition to the rich tradition of polar narratives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Cowan (The Declaration of Arbroath) offers a meticulous if meandering chronicle of arctic exploration by Scots. Contending that Scottish explorers have conventionally been rendered "invisible" by histories "representing them as English," Cowan attempts "to properly return" to his subjects "their nationality and their achievements." Noting that "three of the four greatest British Arctic explorers of the nineteenth century came from Dumfries and Galloway region in the south-west of Scotland," Cowan spotlights John Ross, who, during his 1818 expedition in search of the Northwest Passage, sighted and named a mountain range that turned out to be a mirage; John Richardson, whose 1819 Coppermine Expedition, an overland arctic survey in Canada, may have descended into cannibalism; and James Clark Ross, John Ross's nephew, who discovered the Magnetic North Pole in 1831. Elsewhere, Cowan details the many Scots who set out to discover the fate of England's Sir John Franklin and his lost crew. Among the searchers was John Rae, the first person to learn from a group of Inuit people in the Canadian arctic that Franklin's expedition had resorted to cannibalism before they perished. Though Cowan relates these adventures in charming and authoritative prose, his account too often circles back to cover the same material. This is best suited for completists.
