This is a fascinating tale of the HMS Erebus and sister ship HMS Terror. These Hecla-class bomb vessels were built in the 1820s and eventually used as Arctic and Antarctic explorer ships.

Michael Palin (yes, of Monty Python fame) documents their harrowing adventures while also detailing the history of the time wonderfully. If 19th century exploration and/or life at sea at all interests you, this is a great book to read! ( )

I found this fascinating. It's pretty compelling to listen to the author read his own work and hear the excitement in his voice over some minutia of 19th Century exploration. ( )

Dans ce ;ivre on trouve le prosaïque et le grandiose. Exactement ce que fut l'exploration du globe. ( )

An enjoyable and digestible history of the HMS Erebus and its several expeditions to the artic and antarctic regions, ending with the doomed attempt of Sir John Franklin to discover the North-West passage. Michael Palin is a wonderful storyteller. His recounting of his own experiences in the artic probably fits better in a TV series than in the book: In a TV series, this helps the viewer to connect with the story, but in the book in feels like a distraction.

I read it in a Dutch translation by Annemie de Vries, which is generally fine, but struggles in places with the translation of English nautical jargon and historical terms. (I was amused by the mis-translation on page 32 of "Corsairs" as "Corsicans".)

For me the final analysis of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his men was a bit disappointing. Palin enumerates quickly though the evidence and the different theories, and gives a very short description of the recently discovered wrecks. I think that I have read better investigations of this, even though they were based on less evidence.

The reader is forewarned that the book and its illustrations can be disturbing. (Though arguably less so than the television series Terror, which in its first season puts a supernatural spin on the history of the Franklin expedition, and which I also find excellent. That was based on a book by Dan Simmons.) ( )

Very detailed and engaging book about the British explorer ships "Erebus" and "Terror" and their travels in Antarctica and the Arctic. Michael Palin's writing style is always a joy to read and I learnt a lot about the hard life that these seafarers and explorers lived. ( )