Appears unread.  Maps as eps. 208pp incl index; b&w photos thru’out text; some col photos. Gift inscription to previous owner, ‘Mom and Dad’ to half tittle page.

The age of discovery received its strongest impulse from the rediscovered knowledge that the world is round. And once it was established that a ship sailing east or west could theoretically return to its home port from the opposite direction, speculation grew about the possibility of using this knowledge to establish more routes to the East and its coveted products. The land route was known from ancient times; but the Turks now held dominion over those lands. The way by sea had been found by voyaging south but what of the northern seas? The terrible cold of Arctic waters was well known; but a north west or north east route would be much shorter. If one could be found. The epic story of the exploration of the top and bottom of the world began.

The nature of the quest into uncharted seas and virgin territory under appalling conditions and with at first, no knowledge of how to deal with the the unpredictable ice and murderous cold, offered a challenge that might, on the face of it, be hardly worth taking up. But all sorts of men, from many nations, took part and these were as remarkable for their diversity as for their daring. Martin Frobisher, the Elizabethan adventurer; William Barent, the heroic Dutchman, who was the first man to winter in the Arctic; Vitus Bering, a Dane in the service of Peter the Great, who forced a way east across Siberia and found Alaska, Cook, these wer pioneers. They paved the way for Nordenskjold, Nansen, Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott, Peary, Byrd, for the charting of polar seas and the mapping of polar lands; for vastly increased scientific knowledge and for new ways of not only surviving the cold but of living in it.

Over 200 illustrations, 24 in colour. Maps. Index.