Resumo de Ice Blink - Scott Cookman

An ice blink is an artic mirage, an occurrence which sometimes plagued the artic explorers searching for a passage way between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans across the top of the world. It wasn?t an ice blink that William Hobson saw in 1859 on King William Island, rather some of the last remains of the expedition led by Sir John Franklin, which left England in 1845 and disappeared.Sir John Barrow, now 82, has one last chance to plan and execute the final push to find the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the artic. Every commander he contacts with his proposition to lead the expedition to the north refuses him for various personal reasons. The British Admiralty dictates Barrow offer the position to a man Barrow dislikes, Sir John Franklin. Author Scott Cookman provides the reader with a sketch of Franklin early days in the admiralty, including two disastrous voyages to the artic. But Franklin is Barrow?s last hope for fame, and he has no choice but to agree. Barrow pushes the mission forward quickly. His agreement to contract with Goldner to provide three years worth of canned food is one of Barrow?s many mistakes. Cookman details Goldner?s processing ineptitude and down-right lies and deceit which cost the admiralty money and the crew of the Franklin expedition their lives.Cookman explains the failure of the expedition, as he sees it. The illnesses suffered, including scurvy and botulism, and the coldest winter in years all combined to lock the ships in ice. Upon Franklin?s death, the expedition?s second in command, Francis Crozier, an experienced explorer of both the north and south poles, but looked down upon as an Irish Presbyterian, was the one to lead the men from the ships and try to cross the nearest land, King William Island, on foot, weary, sickly and starved. Goldner continues to supply food to the admiralty as there was no one checking either the produced canned goods or the factory itself, until Goldner's second in charge blew the whistle on his deceitful operation. Men in the artic continued to die. Even though Crozier and the men from the ships meet native (Inuit) people as they crossed the barren ice covered island, no one took any notice of the way these people were able to survive in such a climate. If they had, maybe some of the expedition members may have survived.

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