A Winter Away from Home
William Barents and the North-east PassageBy Rayner Unwin
251 pp. Illustrated. 1995. Paperback. $24.95
ISBN 0 924486 85 6
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Around the end of the 16th century, several expeditions tried to establish a North-East passage to Asia, but fog, pack-ice, and the confusing geography of the Russian coast proved consistently frustrating. But no one pursued that mission with as much tenacity and skill as the Dutch sailing-master William Barents.
A Winter Away from Home is the marvelously vivid account of the ordeal faced by Barents and his 16-member crew, who were the first West Europeans to winter in the high Arctic and survive. They battled scurvy, hunger, assaults from bears, and the intense winter cold, and then endured a 1,600-mile escape in open boats. Barents died on the way home, but his voyage was meticulously recorded by one of the survivors.