The Arctic Voyages of Martin Frobisher by Robert McGhee, British Museum
Press, 拢19.99, ISBN 0714125644
MARTIN Frobisher鈥檚 name still has a ring to it. He was one of the Elizabethan
sailors knighted for his part in defeating the Spanish Armada, but once his main
motive had been plunder. Like many of the 鈥渟eadogs鈥� he had been a privateer. In
the lavishly illustrated The Arctic Voyages of Martin Frobisher, Robert McGhee
tells the tale of his three expeditions in search of a Northwest Passage.
Frobisher was the first European to sail to the Arctic and make contact with
the Inuit, a meeting of total ignorance on both sides. He also attempted to
start colonies, but every one failed. But the driving force here is high
adventure. And McGhee entices the reader at once with a hair-raising story of a
ship, blown right over on to her side and sent skidding across the water, saved
single-handed by the stalwart Frobisher.
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Frobisher鈥檚 third expedition was ambitious, a hunt for gold with 15 ships.
But the ores and rocks he brought back, initially assayed as loaded with the
precious stuff, proved barren. Was this a mistake or a frustrated swindle and if
so, was Frobisher party to it? The mystery makes this book an even more
intriguing tale.