You don’t have to be a historian or a marine archaeologist, a sailor or traveller to marvel at the story of HMS Erebus and her crews. Certainly, the pace of the early chapters appear relatively slow when compared to the final crescendo – but they provide an invaluable background to an understanding of the unfolding drama. It’s tempting to describe the book as a slow burn that builds into an inferno – but words like ‘burn’ and ‘inferno’ are at odds with Palin’s descriptive account of the mind numbing cold of Arctic winters and a ship entombed in pack ice for years. His summary account of the last desperate months and weeks of their survival, as the expedition disintegrated, is poignant in the extreme. Palin describes how the search for Erebus and her crew extended over decades – often suggesting missed opportunities as well as shocking findings. Divers found the wreck remarkably intact as their description and photographs reveal. HMS Erebus wasn’t seen again until one hundred and sixty-nine years later under thirty-six feet of Arctic water. This was the prized northern route to China and India via Arctic waters. In 1846, during the heroic but ill-fated Franklin Expedition, HMS Erebus, her companion ship HMS Terror, captained by Francis Crozier, and a total of 129 men, “vanished off the face of the earth whilst trying to find a way through the Northwest Passage” (ppxii – xiii). They all serve to provide a picture of the life and death of those on board HMS Erebus. It’s a story illustrated by Victorian photographs, other colour photographs and paintings, sonar images, maps and sketches. It also notes the impact of sponsors and suppliers who may have contributed to the final tragedy. It includes accounts of influential men and women who shaped the voyages and crew selection. It’s an evolving story of the interpersonal relationships of those men serving on the ship relationships that blossom and those that deteriorate. However, Erebus: The story of a ship is more than a mere chronology of dates, actions and events. They culminate in the last crew abandoning the ship, trapped in Arctic pack ice, in 1848. He traces their histories from the launch of the ship at Pembroke dock in 1826, via unremarkable Mediterranean patrols, lengthy voyages to Australia to bone chilling Antarctic and Arctic expeditions. Through a comprehensive analysis of the Ship’s Logs and crew reports, personal letters, private and naval journals, books, papers and newspaper articles he documents the life of the ship and its crews. In a title of six words, Erebus: The story of a ship, Michael Palin tells us precisely what his book is all about.
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