Voyages of Delusion: The Search for the North West Passage in the Age of Reason Book

One begins to suspect that Glyn Williams has been afflicted with the same obsessive spirit that is the hallmark of many of history's greatest explorers. He has already written seven books on voyages of discovery, and in this, his eighth, he is on more than familiar territory. Voyages of Delusion tells the story of the search for the Northwest Passage in the 18th century. In Europe this was the period of the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, when superstition and ignorance were supposed to give way to a more rational and scientific approach. Yet, in an irony that Williams exploits to the full, it was the former that characterised the search for the Northwest Passage--the mythical trade route across the top of the North American continent. When it comes to political, personal and financial glory people tend to believe what they want to believe. Many of those who made their bid for glory did so on little more than a wing and a prayer: maps were sketchy, non-existent or just plain wrong and the boats completely inadequate for the job. All of which is the stuff of story-telling dreams, as expeditions either got hopelessly lost, hopelessly drunk or, in some cases, failed to return at all--and Williams duly delivers. Characters, such as Christopher Middleton, whose expedition only got as far as the Churchill River, and who has hitherto only been a historical footnote, come vividly to life. By the end of the 18th century, though, reason had finally begun to hold sway as the sombre reality slowly dawned that there was no glorious, easy northern route to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But Voyages of Delusion allows these early explorers some of the immortality they had hoped to achieve for themselves; their failure is Williams's success. --John CraceRead More