A Voyage of Discovery Towards the North Pole
Performed in His Majesty's Ships Dorothea and Trent, under the Command of Captain David Buchan, R.N. 1818

Published in 1843, this work recounts the 1818 British expedition to the Arctic, including also a survey of previous voyages.

Frederick William Beechey (Author)

9781108074988, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 April 2014

382 pages, 6 b/w illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 2.2 cm, 0.49 kg

Having joined the Royal Navy at the age of ten, Frederick William Beechey (1796–1856) had risen to the rank of lieutenant when he served under John Franklin on the 1818 British expedition to the Arctic in search of a possible route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Two ships, the Dorothea and the Trent, were sent to find a route via the seas around Spitsbergen. A little north of 80° their progress was halted by ice. Sailing west to Greenland, the Dorothea was seriously damaged and the expedition aborted. Beechey's account remains the principal source for this voyage as neither Franklin nor the overall commander David Buchan published their journals. Beechey's Arctic service equipped him to later command the Blossom in northern waters: his two-volume Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait (1831) is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.

Part I: Introduction
Instructions
1. Expedition determined upon
2. Quit Magdalena Bay
3. Put to sea from Fair Haven
4. Extent of damage ascertained
5. Early attempts to settle at Spitzbergen
Part II: 1. Events which led to the prosecution of Arctic discovery
2. The States General of Holland offer a reward
3. Hudson's second voyage
4. The British government equips an expedition
Part III: Appendices.

Subject Areas: Historical geography [HBTP]