Frozen in Time

[anteros_lmc]

Beattie, O and Geiger, J, (2004), Frozen in Time, Bloomsbury.


This is an absolutely fascinating book let down by some truly awful writing. Sorry.

The first half of Frozen in Time presents a concise history of British Naval arctic exploration from the opening decades of the nineteenth century, through the Franklin expedition to the later teams subsequently despatched to uncover Franklin’s fate. With occasional touches of wry humour the author (I’m guessing Geiger, but I could be wrong) outlines the horrendous physical conditions the explorers endured; years locked in the ice, starvation, scurvy, “Nostalgia”, fatigue and the all pervasive and insidious “debility”.

Those that did return were often rewarded with little more than scorn from the Admiralty and the press.

Captain John Ross is slated for failing to navigate Lancaster Sound through “…misapprehension, indifference or incapacity…” (p 21).

Later, his nephew Captain James Clark Ross, veteran of multiple polar expeditions, discoverer of the magnetic north pole and fellow of the Royal Society (and wearer of the wonderful bear skin) is derided for his “puny efforts” (p 56) in not spending a second winter searching for Franklin, despite the fact that this would have undoubtedly resulted in the death of most of his crew from scurvy and “debility”.

The characters here are remarkable:

John Ross, his officers and crew; who survived months in segregated quarters in the grandly named snow and wood edifice “Somerset House.” Where Ross “…continued to be waited upon hand and foot…He maintained a stiff upper lip, and not just because of the cold.” (p28)

Lieutenant William Parry; who entertained his men through the arctic winter with “…singalongs and bimonthly polar melodramas put on by officers in petticoats” (p 22). Fabulous. One wonders what the officers were doing with petticoats in their dunnage in the first place.

As the book turns to the 1980’s expeditions to exhume the bodies of the two Franklin sailors and one marine buried on Beechy Island the transition in narrative voice is jarring. I’m guessing that Beattie has taken over, but again I could be wrong.

The reader is presented with rather much of the mundane minutiae of expedition logistics.

“The two tents were placed so that their doorways faced each other; the team could then sit and prepare meals and talk in their own makeshift courtyard”.

Umm, yes, this isn’t an uncommon way to pitch tents.

And I hate to say it but the author’s musings and reflections rather made me cringe. On encountering a leveret:

“This tiny, gentle animal stood out in stark contrast to the forbidding landscape. Rigid with fright, its heart pounding.” (p 131)

The bathos increases once we reach the exhumation of the graves. It’s a shame because the exhumation, autopsies, analysis and subsequent findings represent a truly remarkable piece of research and a moving achievement that really requires no embellishment. I have enormous respect for Beattie's work, it's the writing that leaves me cold, so to speak.

Having worked as an archaeologist in the past and having seen human remains in various stages of decomposition it wasn’t the almost perfect preservation of the bodies and, unusually, also the faces of the Franklin remains that struck me. It was the clothes. John Torrington’s dress in particular marks him out as a 19th century sailor. He was a petty office, a stoker in fact. Torrington lived and died as a sailor and over a century later he’s still a sailor. Frozen in time indeed.

One last thing…I’m astonished by the lack of irony or sheer arrogance that led the British Navy to send an expedition to the arctic in ships named Erebus and Terror. And they did it twice.

Comments

[sarlania.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an interesting book from both a Naval Historical and Archeological (and, in my case, medical) point of view! I will find it at my uni library and read it when I have the time (probably Nov heh!).

I certainly understand your frustration with the author though. Sometimes I read books where the tone of the writing is just so off-putting. Especially if the author is "trying to be funny" or "trying to be amusing".

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

The first half of this book is excellent, I can highly recommend it as a short history of naval Arctic exploration and summary of the development of treatments for scurvy. I was really disappointed by the second half though. I remember the excavations taking place and it really was an extraordinary piece of work. It's just a shame it's so badly written :(