Erebus – The story of a ship

Erebus – The story of a ship, by Michael Palin, is the splendid, true tale of the life and death of the sail ship HMS Erebus. This valiant ship, together with her sister ship HMS Terror, disappeared off the face of the earth in 1846 while trying to discover the North West Passage from Britain to the Orient. She was rediscovered by chance 168 years later, in 2014, in 36 feet of water off one of Canada’s many small Arctic Islands.HMS Terror was rediscovered two years later in 2016 in the same area just off King William Island.

 

Both vessels saw brief service in the Mediterranean Sea at the end of the Napoleonic War before being set aside. They were brought back into service when the British Admiralty decided to survey the variations in magnetic reading from different places all over the different oceans of the world , all taken at similar times of the day and year in other ships. Under the command of James Clark Ross, the two boats penetrated deep into the Arctic Ocean, even reaching the magnetic north pole. Following that success, Ross was sent with Erebus and Terror to do the same at the other end of the world. For obvious reasons Ross never managed to plant a flag on the magnetic south pole but he approached closer than any other man before him. He returned to England in glory to what he hoped would be retirement. But there was no retirement either for Erebus or Terror. These, under the command of Sir John Franklin was sent north once again. This time to find the fabled North West Passage They never returned and many were the expeditions sent to try to find the lost explorers.

 

Michael Palin brings to life the lives and privations of the officers and men of both vessels and the special qualities of their ships which were trapped in ice many times. Where modern ice breakers have engines of 4,000 hp, Erebus and Terror, in a nod to the new technology , were each fitted with 25 hp engines.

The book is carefully researched and is a tribute both to the Ships and also to those early explorers. Those were men of special stuff. Intriguingly, not all were men!

Highly recommended.

 

Bernard Gallivan

September 2109