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terrimarshall's review
4.0
I enjoyed this book about Dutch explorer William Barents, who went on several polar expeditions to try to find a northeast passage in the late 1500s. Amazing to me that they know this much about something that happened in the 16th century. I didn't think this book was as good as some other polar adventure books I've read like those by Hampton Sides and Buddy Levy, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.
liberrydude's review
3.0
Most serious readers of exploration are aware of Shackleton’s epic survival ordeal in the Antarctic but that occurred in modern times. Barents’ ordeal occurred in 1597 in the Arctic. It’s just as epic. Three seasons marooned on an island with the 17 man crew being hunted by polar bears. Food running out. Scurvy (and they didn’t fully understand its cause) claiming lives. Wet and cold. In the dark. The wind. And the bears. Escape in two small boats. Ice everywhere.
Barents wasn’t even the commander of the expedition, his third in as many years. He was its navigator. The commander went onto fame as an admiral in the Dutch Navy and was killed in action. But he is largely forgotten. Barents was a leader though. The men sought him to convey their concerns to the commander and they quickly realized he knew his way in these seas and was their ticket home. But it was Barents insistence that had created their situation yet the crew did not blame him or hold him responsible.
I had a hard time understanding how the Dutch keep running into ice but keep believing there is a path to China. Persistence and stubbornness. Confirmation bias? Three expeditions- all failures. The author suggests that Barents was four hundred years ahead of his time given the effects of global warming on the Arctic.
I had a hard time keeping track of number of ships and who is on which. Appendix or matrix would have been helpful. The narrative of the first two expeditions is tiresome. The survival ordeal of the third expedition is engrossing.
Barents wasn’t even the commander of the expedition, his third in as many years. He was its navigator. The commander went onto fame as an admiral in the Dutch Navy and was killed in action. But he is largely forgotten. Barents was a leader though. The men sought him to convey their concerns to the commander and they quickly realized he knew his way in these seas and was their ticket home. But it was Barents insistence that had created their situation yet the crew did not blame him or hold him responsible.
I had a hard time understanding how the Dutch keep running into ice but keep believing there is a path to China. Persistence and stubbornness. Confirmation bias? Three expeditions- all failures. The author suggests that Barents was four hundred years ahead of his time given the effects of global warming on the Arctic.
I had a hard time keeping track of number of ships and who is on which. Appendix or matrix would have been helpful. The narrative of the first two expeditions is tiresome. The survival ordeal of the third expedition is engrossing.
omg_pear's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
titanic's review against another edition
4.0
starts off a lil slow but picks up when they get stranded :)
nimeneth's review against another edition
I just found the book very dry and difficult to get into. Probably would have benefited from more primary source material, although it is probably difficult to come by for 16th century exploration.
goldenluck's review
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
3.75
Barents's expedition is a story of ambition, futility, resilience, and being very, very cold. It paved for the way for future imaginations and explorations, which means it itself is a magnificent yet ignorant exploration.
Honestly, I was not entirely impressed with Barents, his skills, or his journey. The other half of his expedition did much better than he because he was so determined to find something that wasn't there. However, the things they endured due to this folly were absolutely skincrawling. Nails frozen to lips, constant bear attacks, body-unraveling scurvy. Even if how they got there was avoidable, the stuff they went through was unbearable.
The writing leaves some to be desired, more a recitation of facts than an imagining of what happened. But this is non-fiction so it's to be expected. Regardless, I was still enthralled once they got stuck in the ice and finished the whole book rather quickly (for my usual speed anyway). If you enjoy stories of old age exploration and the realistic hardship that entails, this is absolutely for you.
Honestly, I was not entirely impressed with Barents, his skills, or his journey. The other half of his expedition did much better than he because he was so determined to find something that wasn't there. However, the things they endured due to this folly were absolutely skincrawling. Nails frozen to lips, constant bear attacks, body-unraveling scurvy. Even if how they got there was avoidable, the stuff they went through was unbearable.
The writing leaves some to be desired, more a recitation of facts than an imagining of what happened. But this is non-fiction so it's to be expected. Regardless, I was still enthralled once they got stuck in the ice and finished the whole book rather quickly (for my usual speed anyway). If you enjoy stories of old age exploration and the realistic hardship that entails, this is absolutely for you.
jeremyanderberg's review
4.0
“Though Barents never gained fame in battle and never found a trade route to China, he had planted a seed for a new kind of explorer, one whose fame lay in a combination of knowledge and endurance rather than martial glory.”
I’ve read a lot of polar adventure tales, almost always in the throes of winter. Remember last week I mentioned leaning in to the darkness of the season; this is along those same lines. It’s cold and snowy outside, so why not read some epic tales of guys who’ve been much colder than me and far more miserable? Plus, stories of daring and survival are always fun, and it doesn’t get more daring or tense than the coldest cold you can imagine (and then some).
Andrea Pitzer’s Icebound, which tells the story of William Barents’ ur-expedition to the northern reaches of the world, adds to the upper echelon of polar adventure books.
Back in the late 1500s, ocean journeys were all about commerce. Finding a quicker route from Europe to East Asia was the goal—a mythical passage over the top of the world. There was even an idea that perhaps the north pole was actually a warm weather ocean. They really just had no idea what was up there.
So Barents set out on three expeditions. The first two were successful enough (he got farther north than any human possibly ever had), but no passage was found. On the third trip, Barents and his crew made it even further, but were then hemmed in by ice and forced to “overwinter,” or make camp for the long, cold, sunless season until the ice abated and allowed them to return home.
What happened next involved a driftwood hut for 18 men, numerous polar bears, nasty cases of scurvy and hypervitaminosis A (which makes your skin peel off!), and a trek home in what were functionally a couple of large row boats.
Pitzer quickly captured not only the bleak brutality of the surroundings and the arctic ocean-going experience, but also, perhaps most interestingly to me, the changing philosophy of the spirit of adventure in that time. Barents was celebrated as a hero, despite his failure to find a passable trade route.
His intrepid acts of endurance, leadership, and survival in a harrowing environment were enough. From then on, the ships that set out for the poles were more about sheer exploration than business pursuits. Though Barents isn’t a well-known name like Robert Falcon Scott or Roald Amundsen or Ernest Shackleton, he set the stage for all that came after him:
“every famous Arctic explorer who endured horrifying ordeals, every adventurer to the North whose story became a bestselling book, every voyager vowing to fill in the map for national glory, every polar adventurer whose exploits were recorded with the newest technologies—from books to telegrams to photos to radio broadcasts to phones to satellite links—has walked in the path first blazed by William Barents.”
I’ve read a lot of polar adventure tales, almost always in the throes of winter. Remember last week I mentioned leaning in to the darkness of the season; this is along those same lines. It’s cold and snowy outside, so why not read some epic tales of guys who’ve been much colder than me and far more miserable? Plus, stories of daring and survival are always fun, and it doesn’t get more daring or tense than the coldest cold you can imagine (and then some).
Andrea Pitzer’s Icebound, which tells the story of William Barents’ ur-expedition to the northern reaches of the world, adds to the upper echelon of polar adventure books.
Back in the late 1500s, ocean journeys were all about commerce. Finding a quicker route from Europe to East Asia was the goal—a mythical passage over the top of the world. There was even an idea that perhaps the north pole was actually a warm weather ocean. They really just had no idea what was up there.
So Barents set out on three expeditions. The first two were successful enough (he got farther north than any human possibly ever had), but no passage was found. On the third trip, Barents and his crew made it even further, but were then hemmed in by ice and forced to “overwinter,” or make camp for the long, cold, sunless season until the ice abated and allowed them to return home.
What happened next involved a driftwood hut for 18 men, numerous polar bears, nasty cases of scurvy and hypervitaminosis A (which makes your skin peel off!), and a trek home in what were functionally a couple of large row boats.
Pitzer quickly captured not only the bleak brutality of the surroundings and the arctic ocean-going experience, but also, perhaps most interestingly to me, the changing philosophy of the spirit of adventure in that time. Barents was celebrated as a hero, despite his failure to find a passable trade route.
His intrepid acts of endurance, leadership, and survival in a harrowing environment were enough. From then on, the ships that set out for the poles were more about sheer exploration than business pursuits. Though Barents isn’t a well-known name like Robert Falcon Scott or Roald Amundsen or Ernest Shackleton, he set the stage for all that came after him:
“every famous Arctic explorer who endured horrifying ordeals, every adventurer to the North whose story became a bestselling book, every voyager vowing to fill in the map for national glory, every polar adventurer whose exploits were recorded with the newest technologies—from books to telegrams to photos to radio broadcasts to phones to satellite links—has walked in the path first blazed by William Barents.”