By the mid-19th century, after decades of polar exploration, the fabled Northwest Passage seemed within reach. In 1845 the British Admiralty assembled the largest expedition yet, refitting two ships with steam engines and placing the seasoned if somewhat lackluster Sir John Franklin in command of the 128-man expedition. After sailing into Baffin Bay, they were never heard from again.

Drawing on early accounts from relief expeditions as well as recent archeological evidence, Scott Cookman reconstructs a chronicle of the expedition in Ice Blink. Cookman, a journalist with articles in Field & Stream and other magazines, excels when firmly grounded in the harrowing reality of 19th-century Arctic exploration. When he speculates about what happened to the Franklin expedition, however, he is on less solid ground and his writing suffers.

Particularly overwrought is the promised "frightening new explanation" for the expedition's demise. Cookman suggests that it was caused by the "grotesque handiwork" of an "evil" man, Stephan Goldner, who had supplied its canned foods. This is hardly new. As early as 1852, investigators determined that the expedition's canned goods were probably inferior and canceled provisioning contracts with Goldner. How a hundred men survived for nearly three years despite lead poisoning and botulism remains a mystery. In the end, as Cookman himself acknowledges, the expedition was ultimately doomed by its reliance on untested technology such as the steam engine, armor plating, and canned provisions. These criticisms aside, Ice Blink is an interesting narrative of this enduring symbol of polar exploration and disaster. --Pete Holloran

From Publishers Weekly
In 1845, Captain Sir John Franklin sailed into Arctic waters, the latest of many navigators to seek a "Northwest Passage" from the Atlantic to the Pacific. With him were 128 stalwarts of the Royal Navy; up-to-date maps and sophisticated tools; three years' worth of ample provisions; and two advanced ships, iron-clad, steam-heated and steam-powered. The ships were never seen again. In 1859, Lieutenant William Hobson, sunburnt and frostbitten, trekked across remote King William Island and found the last remains of the expedition: two notes attached to a cairn, a small, stranded boat and human bones, some showing evidence of cannibalism. Freelance writer Cookman's ably researched, sometimes eloquent account follows the doomed voyage, then proposes to solve the enduring mystery. Stuck in the ice, the men of the H.M.S. Terror and Erebus lasted months with barely a look outdoors; when cooking fuel ran short, something sickened the men. Cookman identifies the culprit as botulism, conveyed by the canned goods furnished by contractor Stephan Goldner. "Pinching pennies and cutting corners," Goldner defrauded the Navy by giving Franklin's men canned meats and vegetables "shoddily made and improperly sealed." Cookman drapes his central story with short accounts of the people involved, including Captain Franklin ("plodding, sober," and "fame-hungry" but steadfast) and Goldner, whose record of defaults and frauds (delivering ruptured cans, missing deadlines, packaging bones as meat) led the Navy to cease doing business with him in 1852. Hard-bitten readers who last year clamored over Shackleton's adventures will take to this grimmer tale of unscrupulous contractors, diligent historians and brave British explorers who never made it. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The two ships of the Franklin expedition set out from Greenland on July 12, 1845, to find the Northwest Passage. Two weeks later, they passed through Baffin Bay and were never seen again. "It was as if Apollo 11...had disappeared on the dark side of the moon," writes Cookman (whose "Man & Mission" videos about the Mercury 7 astronauts are a main attraction at the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame at Cape Canaveral). Here he examines the mystery of "the largest and best-equipped" expedition ever mounted, "the greatest Arctic tragedy of the age." Although he notes that what triggered the disaster may always be open to debate, his painstaking search through British Admiralty records reveals a possible cause: botulism, the deadly toxin resulting from improperly canned food, which he blames on the Admiralty's canned food contractor--"a scam artist" who "stalled, obfuscated, lied outright--and got away with it." Recommended for larger public libraries and academic libraries.-Robert C. Jones, Central Missouri State Univ., Warrensburg Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In this absorbing account of the fabled 1845 Franklin expedition in search of the Northwest Passage, Cookman inculpates a novel malefactor in the tragedy: botulism. In the 1980s, three frozen corpses of expedition members were found and exhumed (Frozen in Time, by Owen Beattie and John Geiger, 1987). Autopsies revealed lead, fingering lead-soldered cans from the provisions. Cookman still arraigns the cans, or rather the shady victualler who supplied them, and, through explanation of the then-infant process of canning, opens his botulism possibility. Yet knowing the impossibility, short of the discovery of journals or supplies cached by the expedition, of finding out what exactly happened, Cookman still ably argues for his theory. He does so by artfully narrating a possible course of events in the expedition's demise, based on the one official note and bits of debris (including evidence of cannibalism) found by searchers sent to look for Franklin in the 1850s. Adventure readers will flock to this fine regaling of the enduring mystery surrounding the best-known disaster in Arctic exploration. Gilbert Taylor

From Kirkus Reviews
Journalist Cookman thinks he may have a handle on what ``turned the greatest Arctic exploration of its time into the greatest Arctic tragedy of the age.'' The men of the Franklin Expedition, Cookman alleges, those bright stars in the discovery service of England's Royal Navy, died by the hand of a corrupt victualling contractor. Every man who embarked on the 1845-48 Franklin Expedition, the largest and best-equipped excursion sent in search of the Northwest Passage, died. No one knows why. Scurvy has been marked as the culprit, as has simple starvation, but Admiralty records do not support either contention. And it was in perusing those very records that Cookman, with a sharp eye for hard evidence, smelled a rat: one Stephan Goldner, a shady provisioner whose ludicrously low bid won the contract to supply the expedition. Not only would Goldner have had to cut corners like crazy to meet his bid, perhaps compelling him to employ lethal canning methods; Cookman also makes plain how a cooking process patented by Goldner could easily have allowed a quiet explosion of botulism bacteria in the ships' tinned goods. Cooking the tinned food was a luxury that had to be sacrificed when fuel ran low. The botulism then went to work, and, as Cookman paints it, botulism poisoning is not a happy way to die. A wider story, apart from the possible explanation behind the rapid die-off of the Franklin crew, concerns the notoriously dishonest world of ship provisioning. Cookman explains how seamen were as likely to find iron filings as grounds in their coffee, along with sawdust in their flour, saltpeter in the cheese, and crag-endsmake that pure offalin the canned meat. Certainly a plausible scenario for the Expedition's last days, presented cogently by Cookman, and making readers wince in its cruel irony: The killer thrived on what no human could do withoutfood. (24 b&w photos) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
"A great Victorian adventure story rediscovered and re-presented for a more enquiring time." (The Scotsman, 26th August 2000)

Review
"A great Victorian adventure story rediscovered and re-presented for a more enquiring time." (The Scotsman, 26th August 2000)

Book Description
Two of the most advanced ships of the time. 129 handpicked men. A commander who had survived three previous Arctic trips. Lost without a trace. What happened? For a century and a half, the question of what happened to the Franklin Expedition–the worst disaster in the history of polar exploration–has remained a puzzle. Now, based on original research in British Admiralty records, author Scott Cookman re-creates the full story of the ill-fated expedition and reveals a frightening new explanation for one of the most enduring mysteries in the annals of exploration. Praise for Scott Cookman’sIceblink "Ice Blink is a gripping tale of adventure overlaid with tragedy. Readers will come away from it with a fresh understanding–and a deep compassion–for the men of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated polar expedition."–Nathan Miller, author of War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II

Book Info
Provides a possible explanation for the loss of Sir John Franklin's polar expedition that set off on July 12, 1845 with 129 hand picked officers and men from Greenland never to be seen again. DLC: Franklin, John, Sir 1786-1847.

From the Inside Flap
The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin’s Lost Polar Expedition What turned the greatest Arctic expedition of the nineteenth century into the worst Arctic tragedy in history? Ice Blink (the name sailors gave the haunting mirages formed by reflections off pack ice) probes one of the most enduring mysteries in the annals of exploration–the baffling disappearance of the largest, best-equipped expedition of its day. Led by veteran Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, two ships and 129 handpicked officers and men sailed from Greenland on July 12, 1845, seeking a navigable shortcut to link the Atlantic and Pacific. It was the most technologically advanced mission of the nineteenth century–the Apollo program of its day. The ships were revolutionary: iron-plated, locomotive-powered, and steam-heated. They were equipped with desalinators, canned food–a recent innovation–the world’s first cameras, and other equally sophisticated gear. On July 26, Franklin’s ships were spotted by two whaling ships in Baffin Bay. They were never seen again. Over the next fourteen years, more than fifty expeditions scoured the Arctic in search of Franklin and his men. In 1859, on desolate King William Island in the heart of the Arctic archipelago, searchers found evidence of catastrophe: a mountain of abandoned equipment, two skeletons, and a chilling message. Signed by the expedition’s second-in-command, it reported that Franklin’s ships, trapped in monstrous ice for nearly two years, had been deserted in April 1848. A total of twenty-four officers and men, including Franklin, were already dead, virtually all of them in the ten months before the vessels were abandoned. The 105 survivors had embarked on a desperate 900-mile march inland in an attempt to reach safety. Maddeningly, the message gave no clue as to what had caused the deaths and prompted the expedition to desert its still-sound ships and take its chances on the ice. In the years that followed, the skeletal remains of twenty or more Franklin crewmen were found scattered along their line of march, with gruesome evidence that they had resorted to wholesale cannibalism in order to survive. The rest of the party had vanished in the Arctic. Whatever–or, more intriguingly, who-ever–was responsible for the Franklin tragedy will always be open to debate. In Ice Blink, Scott Cookman provides an unforgettable account of the ill-fated expedition, vividly reconstructing the lives and events of a voyage that began with the certainty of success and led instead into oblivion. Drawing upon original research, he also suggests a human culprit and reveals a terrifying new explanation for what triggered the expedition’s doom. Ice Blink is a gripping adventure tale of an "infallible" voyage that failed monumetally, illustrating how mankind’s technology is mocked by Nature’s menace–and showing the best and worst in men.

From the Back Cover
Two of the most advanced ships of the time. 129 handpicked men. A commander who had survived three previous Arctic trips. Lost without a trace. What happened? For a century and a half, the question of what happened to the Franklin Expedition–the worst disaster in the history of polar exploration–has remained a puzzle. Now, based on original research in British Admiralty records, author Scott Cookman re-creates the full story of the ill-fated expedition and reveals a frightening new explanation for one of the most enduring mysteries in the annals of exploration. Praise for Scott Cookman’sIceblink "Ice Blink is a gripping tale of adventure overlaid with tragedy. Readers will come away from it with a fresh understanding–and a deep compassion–for the men of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated polar expedition."–Nathan Miller, author of War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II

About the Author
SCOTT COOKMAN is a nonfiction writer whose articles have appeared in such magazines as Field & Stream, Army, and America’s Civil War. His "Man and Mission" videos, chronicling America’s Mercury 7 astronauts, are the main attraction at the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame at Cape Canaveral. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

What turned the greatest Arctic expedition of the nineteenth century into the worst Arctic tragedy in history? Ice Blink (the name sailors gave the haunting mirages formed by reflections off pack ice) probes one of the most enduring mysteries in the annals of exploration--the baffling disappearance of the largest, best-equipped expedition of its day.

SYNOPSIS

Two of the most advanced ships of the time. 129 handpicked men. A commander who had survived three previous Arctic trips. Lost without a trace. What happened? For a century and a half, the question of what happened to the Franklin Expedition-the worst disaster in the history of polar exploration-has remained a puzzle. Now, based on original research in British Admiralty records, author Scott Cookman re-creates the full story of the ill-fated expedition and reveals a frightening new explanation for one of the most enduring mysteries in the annals of exploration. Praise for Scott Cookman'sIceblink "Ice Blink is a gripping tale of adventure overlaid with tragedy. Readers will come away from it with a fresh understanding-and a deep compassion-for the men of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated polar expedition."-Nathan Miller, author of War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II

FROM THE CRITICS

Scotsman

A great Victorian adventure story rediscovered and re-presented for a more enquiring time.

Publishers Weekly

In 1845, Captain Sir John Franklin sailed into Arctic waters, the latest of many navigators to seek a "Northwest Passage" from the Atlantic to the Pacific. With him were 128 stalwarts of the Royal Navy; up-to-date maps and sophisticated tools; three years' worth of ample provisions; and two advanced ships, iron-clad, steam-heated and steam-powered. The ships were never seen again. In 1859, Lieutenant William Hobson, sunburnt and frostbitten, trekked across remote King William Island and found the last remains of the expedition: two notes attached to a cairn, a small, stranded boat and human bones, some showing evidence of cannibalism. Freelance writer Cookman's ably researched, sometimes eloquent account follows the doomed voyage, then proposes to solve the enduring mystery. Stuck in the ice, the men of the H.M.S. Terror and Erebus lasted months with barely a look outdoors; when cooking fuel ran short, something sickened the men. Cookman identifies the culprit as botulism, conveyed by the canned goods furnished by contractor Stephan Goldner. "Pinching pennies and cutting corners," Goldner defrauded the Navy by giving Franklin's men canned meats and vegetables "shoddily made and improperly sealed." Cookman drapes his central story with short accounts of the people involved, including Captain Franklin ("plodding, sober," and "fame-hungry" but steadfast) and Goldner, whose record of defaults and frauds (delivering ruptured cans, missing deadlines, packaging bones as meat) led the Navy to cease doing business with him in 1852. Hard-bitten readers who last year clamored over Shackleton's adventures will take to this grimmer tale of unscrupulous contractors, diligent historians and brave British explorers who never made it. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

The two ships of the Franklin expedition set out from Greenland on July 12, 1845, to find the Northwest Passage. Two weeks later, they passed through Baffin Bay and were never seen again. "It was as if Apollo 11...had disappeared on the dark side of the moon," writes Cookman (whose "Man & Mission" videos about the Mercury 7 astronauts are a main attraction at the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame at Cape Canaveral). Here he examines the mystery of "the largest and best-equipped" expedition ever mounted, "the greatest Arctic tragedy of the age." Although he notes that what triggered the disaster may always be open to debate, his painstaking search through British Admiralty records reveals a possible cause: botulism, the deadly toxin resulting from improperly canned food, which he blames on the Admiralty's canned food contractor--"a scam artist" who "stalled, obfuscated, lied outright--and got away with it." Recommended for larger public libraries and academic libraries.--Robert C. Jones, Central Missouri State Univ., Warrensburg Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Science Book & Fiction

The failed Franklin expedition to find the Northwest Passage was the best financed and most technologically sophisticated foray of its kind organized by the British Admiralty during the first half of the 19th century. Yet, all of its 128 members died.

Although author Scott Cookman cannot rely on firsthand accounts, because few notes from the expedition were recovered, he follows a paper trail leading to "smoking guns." Using background documents and written accounts of parallel Arctic expeditions, Cookman pieces together a compelling account of what might lie behind this disaster: overconfidence, penny-pinching, a series of poor decisions and unforeseeable blunders, fraud, botulism, and, finally, the cannibalism of despair.

I recommend this book highly for students of history, science, and public health seeking to learn about what can go wrong on a supposedly well-planned mission of any kind. The volume is well written, although it occasionally gets bogged down in excessive detail. Yet, its clinical description of the preparation of what probably was poisoned food and the subsequent impact of that food on the crew is worth the nightmares the book may generate! Ice Blink is highly instructive as regards the pitfalls that inevitably come to plague the "best laid plans of mice and men." Highly Recommended, Grades 7-College, Teaching Professional, General Audience. REVIEWER: Warren Fish (Paul Revere Middle School)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING