Karluk. The Great Untold Story of Arctic Exploration.

London England: Book Club Associates. Very Good/Fair. 1976. 1st Book Club Associates. Cloth. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall Hardback Hardback. Closed tear repair to top edge of front D/J. Foreword by Magnus Magnusson. This book tells for the first time the full story of the Karluk, the leading ship of Stefansson's Arctic Expedition of 1913-18, which was crushed and sunk in ice almost before the expedition had properly begun. The ship's crew of twenty-fice people were left stranded on the Arctic ice while their leader continued his northern exploration, not returning for five years. The almost incredible story of their nightmare struggle for survival in the face of ignorance, lack of leadership and the appalling Arctic conditions is told by the magnetician and meteorologist of the expedition, William Laird McKinlay, a Scottish schoolteacher, then twenty-five years old. Like most of his companions, he was inexperienced, and untrained in any of the skills essential to survival in the Arctic. No attempt had been made to select the crew for compatibility or strength of character; lying, stealing and cheating were common and lack of comradeship was one of the many terrible deprivations. In the circumstances, the results were inevitably tragic. Eight men died moving across the heaving ice-floes, one man shot himself, two died of malnutrition and the rest barely managed to keep alive until rescue came. The account of their ordeal is a deeply moving tribute to human courage and endurance and, above all, to man's overpowering will to live. The book is illustrated with a selection of extraordinary photographs taken at the time, most of which have never been seen before. Illustrated. 170 pp. (We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. academic and scholarly books and Modern First Editions ,and all types of Academic Literature.) .