Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration

Praise for Off the Map:

Fleming skillfully captivates the readers imagination with enthralling accounts of the explorers hardships and heroism, permitting the expeditions journals to convey the excitement, frustration, and agony felt by these men.... Overall excellence.

Library Journal

Fleming has mastered the craft of imparting huge swaths of information in an accessible way.... Flemings writing is informative and vivid, never stinting on such basic human drives as greed, glory, and geopolitical domination.... Almost comprehensive enough to serve as a reference, this densely packed tome supplies a bewildering wealth of information about some of humanitys most compelling adventures.

Publishers Weekly

Instead of extracting passages from the likes of Marco Polo and Captain Cook, Fleming has retold their stories in his own words, something he is particularly skilled at.... [Fleming] is always entertaining.

The Sunday Times (London) Book of the Week

The material is artfully shaped, and Fleming avoids the hazard of formlessness inherent in collections of unrelated tales. He rightly pounces on synchronicity, and on ways of linking one character to the next, or to the historical continuum of which each is inevitably a part.... The gobbets of social history he teases out of the stories are fascinating.... Fleming wrings maximum value from his story.... Fleming writes here in jaunty, loose-limbed prose.

The New York Times Book Review

[Off the Map] allow[s]... readers to experience achievements beyond their wildest dreams.

Booklist

Some of the most extreme adventures man has ever endured. Each tale describes the exploits in vigorous and evocative prose, giving individual stories a vitality that they might lack if told at greater length.... It stands as a fascinating testament to the achievement of explorers and will entertain even the most weathered of arm-chair adventurers.

Good Book Guide

TALES OF ENDURANCE AND EXPLORATION

as told by

FERGUS FLEMING

Copyright 2004 by Fergus Fleming

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, or the facilitation thereof, including
information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from
the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of
the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission
to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to
Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

First published in Great Britain in 2004 by
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London,
under the title Cassells Tales of Endurance

Printed in the United States of America

FIRST GROVE PRESS EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fleming, Fergus, 1959

Off the Map / as told by Fergus Fleming.

p. cm.

Originally published: London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004.
ISBN-10: 0-8021-4272-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-4272-6
1. Discoveries in geography. 2. ExplorersHistory. I. Title.

G80.F54 2005
910.9dc22 2005047849

Design by Butler and Tanner Ltd., Frome and London

Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Distributed by Publishers Group West

www.groveatlantic.com

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Between pages 86 and 87

Marco Polo arrives at Hormuz en route from China to Italy, c.1291. Bridgeman Art Library/Bibliothque Nationale, Paris

Christopher Columbus lands on Hispaniola, 1492. Bridgeman Art Library/Private Collection

The departure of Vasco da Gamas fleet in 1497. Bridgeman Art Library/Academia das Ciencias de Lisboa, Lisbon

Ferdinand Magellans assault on Mactan Island, 1521. Bridgeman Art Library/Private Collection

A polar bear attacks William Barentss men, 1595. Corbis/Stapleton Collection

Barentss hut at Ice Haven during the winter of 15967. Mary Evans Picture Library

Charles-Marie de la Condamines descent of the Amazon, 1743. Bridgeman Art Library/Bibliothque de lInstitut de France, Paris

Captain James Cooks death in Hawaii, 1779. Bridgeman Art Library/Giraudon

The ascent of Mont Blanc by Horace-Bndict de Saussure, 1787. Bridgeman Art Library/Private Collection

Alexander von Humboldts sketch of a Mexican river. (17991804). Bridgeman Art Library/Royal Geographical Society, London

Escaping a grizzly bear: Lewis and Clarks 18036 traverse of North America. British Library

W. E. Parrys Hecla being sawn into an ice harbour, 1824. Corbis/Stapleton Collection

A canoe strikes a tree and overturns: Lewis and Clarks 18036 traverse of North America. Hulton Archive

One of John Franklins camps during his retreat through the Badlands, 1821. Bridgeman Art Library/Stapleton Collection

Between pages 214 and 215

Richard and John Lander travel in rare style down the Niger, 1830. British Library

Timbuctoo, as drawn by Ren Cailli, 1828. Bridgeman Art Library/Bibliothque Nationale, Paris

An Inuit settlement: John Rosss Arctic voyage of 182933. Bridgeman Art Library/Stapleton Collection

James Clark Ross claims Antarcticas Possession Island for Britain, 1841. Bridgeman Art Library/Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge

The note found at Victory Point by Franklin searchers in 1859. Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge

Robert OHara Burke and William Wills after their 18601 crossing of Australia. Mary Evans Picture Library

Samuel Baker, big-game hunter and explorer of the Nile. (18645). Corbis/Hulton-Deutsch Collection

The apparition that greeted Edward Whymper following the Matterhorn disaster, 1865. Mary Evans Picture Library

Charles Francis Halls winter funeral, 1872. Private Collection

George Tysons separation from the Polaris, 1872. Private Collection

The wreck of the Hansa, 1869. Corbis/Bettmann

David Livingstone surprised by a lion. (185864). Bridgeman Art Library/Stapleton Collection

Between pages 342 and 343

Life in the tent: Julius von Payers exploration of Franz Josef Land, 1874. Mary Evans Picture Library

The wintering of HMS Alert at Floeberg Beach, 1875. Corbis/Hulton-Deutsch Collection

Adolphus Greely, leader of the US expedition to Ellesmere Island. (18814). Corbis

Fridtjof Nansen at Cape Flora, 1895. Royal Geographical Society

Salomon Andres Eagle fails to reach the North Pole, 1897. Mary Evans Picture Library

Fernand Foureau, conqueror of the Sahara. (18991900). Roger Viollet/Rex Features

The Stella Polare caught by an ice ridge, 1899. Private Collection

Robert Peary and Francis Cook dispute their right to the North Pole, 1909. Bridgeman Art Library/Archives Chaumet

Robert Falcon Scott (centre) and party at the South Pole, January 1912. Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge

Roald Amundsen, who reached the South Pole before Scott on 14 December 1911. Corbis/Bettmann

Douglas Mawson, leader of another expedition to Antartica 191113. Bridgeman Art Library/Private Collection