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"Australia -- Discovery and exploration -- British"
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The Last Blank Spaces
The challenge of opening Africa and Australia to British imperial influence fell to a coterie of proto-professional explorers who sought knowledge, adventure, and fame but often experienced confusion, fear, and failure. The Last Blank Spaces follows the arc of these explorations, from idea to practice, intention to outcome, myth to reality.
eBook
Matthew Flinders, maritime explorer of Australia
\"This book provides a thoroughly researched biography of the naval career of Matthew Flinders, with particular emphasis on his importance for the maritime discovery of Australia. Sailing in the wake of the 18th-century voyages of exploration by Captain Cook and others, Flinders was the first naval commander to circumnavigate Australia's coastline. He contributed more to the mapping and naming of places in Australia than virtually any other single person. His voyage to Australia on H.M.S. Investigator expanded the scope of imperial, geographical and scientific knowledge. This biography places Flinders's career within the context of Pacific exploration and the early white settlement of Australia. Flinders's connections with other explorers, his use of patronage, the dissemination of his findings, and his posthumous reputation are also discussed in what is an important new scholarly work in the field\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Two Years below the Horn
In Two Years Below the Horn, engineer Andrew Taylor vividly recounts his experiences and accomplishments during Operation Tabarin, a landmark British expedition to Antarctica to establish sovereignty and conduct science during the Second World War. When mental strain led the operation's first commander to resign, Taylor- a military engineer with extensive prewar surveying experience-became the first and only Canadian to lead an Antarctic expedition. As Commander of the operation, Taylor oversaw construction of the first permanent base on the Antarctic continent at Hope Bay. From there, he led four-man teams on two epic sledging journeys around James Ross Island, overcoming arduous conditions and correcting cartographic mistakes made by previous explorers. The editors' detailed afterword draws on Taylor's extensive personal papers to highlight Taylor's achievements and document his significant contributions to polar science.This book will appeal to readers interested in history of polar exploration, science and sovereignty. It also sheds light on the little-known contribution of a Canadian to a distant theatre of the Second World War. The wartime service of Major Taylor reveals important new details about a groundbreaking operation that laid the foundation for the British Antarctic Survey and marked a critical moment in the transition from the heroic to the modern scientific era in polar exploration.
eBook
Ambitions of Jane Franklin
A genius at publicity before the term existed, Jane Franklin was a celebrity in the mid-19th century. This is her remarkable life, including her extensive travels, her years in Tasmania as the governor's wife, and her very public battle to save her husband, the Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, from accusations of cannibalism.
eBook
The ambitions of Jane Franklin
A genius at publicity before the term existed, Jane Franklin was a celebrity in the mid-19th century-her remarkable life included extensive travels, years as a governor's wife, and a public battle to save her husband from accusations of cannibalismIn a period when most ladies sat at home with their embroidery, Jane Franklin achieved fame throughout the western world, and was probably the best traveled woman of her day. This biography traces her life from her birth in late 18th-century London, to her marriage at the age of 36, to her many trips to far-flung locations, including Russia, the Holy Land, northern Africa, America, and Australia. Once Jane Franklin married Sir John Franklin, her original ambition to live life to the full was joined by an equally ardent desire to make her kind and mild husband a success. Arriving in Tasmania in 1837 when Sir John became governor, she swept like a whirlwind through the colony: attempting to rid the island of snakes; establishing a scientific society and the Hobart regatta; adopting an Aboriginal girl, and sending a kangaroo to Queen Victoria. She became the first white woman to travel overland from Melbourne to Sydney. When her husband disappeared in the Arctic on an expedition to discover the Northwest Passage, she badgered the Admiralty, the public, and even the President of the United States to fund trips to locate him, and then defended his reputation when remains of the expedition were located, and there were claims of cannibalism. Single-handedly she turned him from a failure into one of England's noblest heroes. She continued traveling well into her 70s and died at 84, refusing to take her medicine to the last.
eBook