'For most men, as Epicurus has remarked, rest is stagnation and activity madness. Mad or not, the activity that I have been pursuing for the last twenty years takes the form of voyages to remote, mountainous regions.'H.W. 'Bill' Tilman's fourteenth book describes three more of those voyages, 'the first comparatively humdrum, the second totally disastrous, and the third exceedingly troublesome'.The first voyage describes Ti...

'To those who went to the War straight from school and survived it, the problem of what to do afterwards was peculiarly difficult.'For H.W. 'Bill' Tilman, the solution lay in Africa: in gold prospecting, mountaineering and a 3,000-mile bicycle ride across the continent. Tilman was one of the greatest adventurers of his time, a pioneering climber and sailor who held exploration above all else. He made first ascents througho...

'So I began thinking again of those two white blanks on the map, of penguins and humming birds, of the pampas and of gauchos, in short, of Patagonia, a place where, one was told, the natives' heads steam when they eat marmalade.'So responded H. W. 'Bill' Tilman to his own realisation that the Himalaya were too high for a mountaineer now well into his fifties. He would trade extremes of altitude for the romance of the sea w...

'Experience is said to be the name men give to their mistakes and of the experience I gained in Spitsbergen that may well be true.'The circumnavigation of Spitsbergen is the first of three voyages described in H.W. 'Bill' Tilman's fifteenth and final book, a remarkable example of Tilman's ability to triumph when supported by a crew game for all challenges. The 1974 voyage of the pilot cutter Baroque takes Tilman t...

In 1914, as Europe braces for an unfathomably deadly war, explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton sets sail for Antarctica to do the impossible: traverse the continent. He has a ship (the aptly named Endurance), a head brimming with optimism, and 28 men willing to follow him on an expedition across some of the most treacherous terrain on the planet. But Shackleton’s optimism doesn’t last long. Despite his experience in the Antarctic, disaster strikes early on when the Endurance is trapped in packed...

"Two Years Before the Mast" by Richard Henry Dana Jr. is a gripping memoir that chronicles the author's adventurous two-year sea voyage from Boston to California aboard a merchant ship in the mid-1830s.This classic work, first published in 1840, offers a vivid, unvarnished glimpse into the life of a common sailor during a bygone era. Dana's journey takes him from the harsh winters of Cape Horn to the bustling ports of Alta California, then a province of Mexico. His narrative is ric...

'A masterpiece.' New Yorker'Wholly riveting, brilliantly researched.' Evening Standard'A meticulous investigation into the seeds of disaster... fascinating, uncomfortable reading.' Sunday TimesIn 1968, Donald Crowhurst was trying to market a nautical navigation device he had developed, and saw the Sunday Times Golden Globe round the world sailing race as the perfect opportunity to showcase...

When Ben Tucker and his kid brother Matt decided to sail south in search of icebergs on Ben's small home-built kiwi sloop, their father Jon was allowed to come along as their cabin-boy, on a promise of good behaviour.The unfolding adventure took them through thick pack ice to become trapped at the windiest place on the planet, a remote location in East Antarctica.'Snow Petrel' is proof of what ordinary people can achieve on a minimal budget. Recently released in New Zealand...

Scottish doctor and explorer John Rae is a controversial figure in the history of the Arctic. He began his career with the Hudson's Bay Company as a surgeon in Moose Factory, Ontario, where he learned to survey, live off the land, and travel great distances on snowshoes. These skills served him well when, in 1846, he was charged with completing the geography of the northern shore of North America and set out on his first expedition. Some years later, while exploring the Boothia Peninsula i...

Instant answers for your boat handling, navigation, and seamanship questionsThe Instant Handbook uses a dynamic new quick-reference format to cover the critical aspects of piloting, seamanship, and boat handling under sail or power more accessibly and effectively than has ever been done before. It puts at your fingertips all the information you need about:Boat Handling Under Power--Bob SweetSail Trim and Rig Tuning--Bill Gladstone

Photographer Ponting joined Robert Scott's expedition to the South Pole in 1910. His remarkable book not only tells of the life among Scott's crew on board and at camp, but also provides numerous photos depicting the Antarctic landscape. Ponting also recorded, both in print and on film, habits of the native penguins and seals, and shares stories of his arrival at volcanic Mount Erebus, nearly losing a team of dogs in a crevasse, and escaping a harrowing run-in with a pack of killer-whales....

This edition is published in 2 volumes sold separately.
 Elibron Classics. Replica of 1908 edition by Archibald Constable & Company Limited, London.
Oversize maps are available as a free download. 
By Roald Amundsen, with a Supplement by First Lieutenant Hansen, Vice-commander of the Expedition. With about one hundred and thirty-nine illustrations and three maps.
Gjøa was the first vessel to transit the Northwest Passage. With a crew of six, Roald Amundsen traversed the passage...