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pp. 194, black and white photographs throughout, bibliography. “A few months before Drake set out to singe the King of Spain’s beard, Martin Frobisher sailed from Deptford, ‘passed down the Channel and steered for the north and west’, on the more peaceful mission of opening a short route to China. Although Dr. Neatby points out that explorers are prosaic figures compared to buccaneers, this well-authenticated account of three centuries of search for the North West Passage belies his statement. For, with all our hindsight, it remains utterly fascinating to follow, on the map to which new islands have been added as recently as 1948, the voyages of these intrepid men who sailed their tiny ice-shrouded craft into the unknown Arctic. From Frobisher’s expedition, ‘undertaken with the irresponsibility of a gold rush’, to the carefully planned search for Franklin, Dr. Neatby outlines the achievements of these unsung pioneers, not minimizing their shortcomings but carefully appraising their exploits in the light of the knowledge that was available to each in turn. The result brings warmly to life that ‘industrious band of navigators… remembered only for the dismal rocks and promontories to which they affixed their names’ and demonstrates most entertainingly how closely romance and geography are allied.”