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Ice Blink |
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 Ice Blink byScott Cookman John Wiley & Sons 332 pages - 2000 Reviewed by Devorah Stone What went wrong? How could 129 officers and men with the most technologically advanced ships and enough canned, baked and pickled food for three years on a journey to find the North West Passage in 1845 - vanish? There had been eight previous polar expeditions since 1819 and only 17 deaths out of 513 men. This was one of the greatest British navel disasters. Ice Blink is about mismanagement, oversights, government foibles, prejudice and incompetence. The lessons of the Sir John Franklin's Expedition in 1845 are still sadly relevant. The same problems that doomed those men in the far North are around today. Governments and corporations often award contracts to the lowest bidder, prejudice means the right people do not get hired, top heavy management creates inefficiencies and over reliance on technology obscures common sense. The lowest bidding manufacturer, Stephen Godner's Canned Food, was the exclusive supplier of canned food for the expedition. No one in the navy bothered to check the filthy conditions at this factory. The canned food arrived just a few hours before the launch, avoiding close inspection. Sir John Barrow, Second Secretary of the Admiralty, hired men of English birth and Anglican faith for the expedition, and dismissed ten experienced Scottish Seamen. One officer was in charge of four men. Sir John Barrow and Captain Franklin believed in the latest machinery. Ships, scientific knowledge and canned food would lead them to victory. There were no hunters on board or native guides used. Despite all this, Ice Blink is also about the bravery, loyalty and resourcefulness of the men who served on the expedition. They did everything they could to survive and to help each other. Scott Cookman brings alive the times that made this expedition possible. He probes into the mindset of the men who cleaned the decks, fixed the sails, shoveled the coal, polished the silver, cooked the meals and attended the sick. He also probes into the motives of Captain Franklin, his officers and Sir John Barrow, and puts the events in context. His details of life in the British navy, the medical profession, class dynamics and ship building of over a hundred and fifty years ago draw the reader into that world. The author’s painstaking research has paid off in a griping non-fiction book that often reads like a novel. Cookman compares the expeditions to explore the last frontiers on earth to the current space missions. Going across the North-West Passage was similar to going to the Moon. It was as remote and uncharted. Every one involved with the manned mission to Mars should read this book. It is a `what not to do' when organizing and preparing for an ambitious venture. |
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