Frozen notes: On Frank Nugent's "Seek the Frozen Lands"

Book cover, Seek the Frozen Lands
 
 
Assorted notes:
  1. "Parry Mountains," presented as a standard discovery – they didn't exist as such;
  2. Erebus-Terror collision – a failed, abrupt attempt to give a summary;
  3. "Ross displayed his seamanship" – so did Crozier (isn't this book supposed to up the Irish?);
  4. "tacking" – the ships were turning on opposite tacks (in relation to the wind), meaning direction, not the process of tacking, which is a method of sailing. I.e. they were turning sharply to avoid an obstacle;
  5. at Falklands, "the hold of each ship was emptied in turn to ventilate and to restock" – the holds were cleared first of all so that the ships could be hauled ashore and repaired;
  6. "a new bowsprit for Terror" – for Erebus (unsurprising given the strange description of the collision);
  7. "a message from Lady Franklin through James Clark Ross" – it was a kind remark that Ross passed on to Crozier (more about this correspondence in Kimmins' article);
  8. "travelled overland to Paris and Italy" – how exactly does one travel overland from England to Paris? And Crozier didn't go to Paris anyway (from Saint Malo, he continued along the northern coast of France, then down the Spanish boarder, also visiting Pau, and onto Marseilles, then sailed to Leghorn);
  9. "Crozier – knowing the importance to Franklin" – this was Ross' reasoning, not Crozier's;
  10. "on 3 March" appointed – to be precise, officially appointed (confirmed Feb 10);
  11. Franklin crew: first astonishment that "[n]o one from either Ross or Crozier's recent Antarctic crew" were chosen, then, a couple of chapters later, "there were very few of Ross's men" – nine men joined the 1845 expedition;
  12. "civilian scientists" McCormick, Hooker, Robinson & Lyall – they were all RN.