Starting in July, 1986, dressed in high-tech diving suits and mountaineering gear, Jeff MacInnis and photographer Mike Beedell sailed, dragged and slid their 450-pound catamaran, The Perception, through the brutal high-Arctic environment. An enthralling story of struggle and survival. HC: Random House (Canada).

The elusive dream of locating the Northwest Passage--an ocean route over the top of North America that promised a shortcut to the fabulous wealth of Asia--obsessed explorers for centuries. Until recently these channels were hopelessly choked by impassible ice. Voyagers faced unimaginable horrors--entire ships crushed, mass starvation, disabling frostbite, even cannibalism--in pursuit of a futile goal. Glyn Williams charts the entire sweep of this extraordinary history, from the tiny, woefully equipped vessels of the first Tudor expeditions to the twentieth-century ventures that finally opened the Passage.

From 1850 to 1854, the ambitious Commander Robert McClure captained the HMS Investigator on a voyage in search of the missing Franklin Expedition, which sailed from England into the Arctic in 1845 to map the last uncharted section of the North-West Passage. The Investigator and her consort the Enterprise were to pass through the Bering Strait from the west but a Pacific storm separated them, never to meet again. Obsessed with traversing the passage, McClure pressed on and HMS Investigator spent three years trapped in pack ice in Mercy Bay before the crew abandoned ship on foot. This book chronicles the voyage in detail. McClure and his relationships with his officers are at the heart of the story of the arduous journey, vividly illustrated by the paintings of Lt. Samuel Cresswell.

Quarterly accession lists; beginning with Apr. 1893, the bulletin is limited to "subject lists, special bibliographies, and reprints or facsimiles of original documents, prints and manuscripts in the Library," the accessions being recorded in a separate classified list, Jan.-Apr. 1893, a weekly bulletin Apr. 1893-Apr. 1894, as well as a classified list of later accessions in the last number published of the bulletin itself (Jan. 1896)

Across the Top of the World is a tale that rivals the story of Antarctic exploration for heroism, drama and tragedy. In the great age of Exploration, the quest for the fabled Northwest Passage lured bold adventurers to the icy Arctic. They risked and sometimes lost their lives in search of a sea route across the top of the world, connecting Europe with Asia and its riches. This spellbinding saga of Arctic exploration is brought to life by quotations from grim first-hand accounts and by dramatic images, ICC colour and 100 black and white. These paintings, engravings and photos of the intrepid men and their ships, as well as of relics and archaeological sites, provide a poignant and compelling link with the past. Landscapes and seascapes of the harsh yet beautiful Arctic illustrate the challenges that faced explorers. The Inuit, the native people of the Arctic, lived in isolation until Europeans began to arrive in the sixteenth century, and relations were not always cordial. For centuries, nations sent out expedition after expedition to search for the Northwest Passage, each one suffering extreme hardship. The most tragic was the mysterious loss of Sir John Franklin, his 128 men and two ships in the 1840s. Attempts to sail the dangerous, icy maze of the passage ended in defeat until Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen succeeded in 1903-1906. Then, in the 1940s, to assert Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner, St. Koch, became the second vessel to conquer the passage. This set the stage for the modern phase of Arctic exploration utilizing icebreakers and American nuclear-powered submarines. James Delgado writes with the passion and authority of an underwater archaeologist and historian who has taken part in Arctic expeditions.

The book highlights the 16th-century English-Atlantic connections based on the world division defined by two fundamental documents of the late 15th century: namely, the papal bull Inter Caetera, and the Portuguese-Spanish Treaty of Tordesillas. Despite this, an imaginary Northwest Passage to the wealth and markets of the Far East captured the attention of Elizabethan merchants and navigators searching for an alternative sea route to Asia to challenge the Portuguese and Spanish commerce monopoly. The core of the book is Sir Martin Frobisher’s three Arctic voyages of 1576–78, intended to connect the Protestant focus on wealth acquisition with the territorial expansion. Although Frobisher’s venture lacked opportunities for advancement, he marked his place in history by creating a fascination for the mythical Northwest Passage and an interest in North America. The book is based on the eyewitness accounts of the expeditions’ captains, and will appeal to a large audience, from teachers and students in the general humanities to those specifically interested in language, literature, and trans-Atlantic and Renaissance studies.