William Laird McKinlay's Books

The Last Voyage of the Karluk

A Survivor's Memoir of Arctic Disaster

By: William Laird McKinlay

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The Last Voyage of the Karluk

A Survivor's Memoir of Arctic Disaster

By: William Laird McKinlay

An astonishing narrative of disaster and perseverance, The Last Voyage of the Karluk will thrill readers of adventure classics like Into Thin Air and The Climb. In 1913, explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson hired William McKinlay to join the crew of the Karluk, the leading ship of his new Arctic expedition. Stefansson's mission was to chart the waters north of Alaska; yet the Karluk's crew was untrained, the ship was ill-suited to the icy conditions, and almost at once the Karluk was crushed-at which point Stefansson abandoned his crew to continue his journey on another ship. This is the only firsthand account of what followed: a nightmare struggle in which half the crew perished, one was mysteriously shot, and the rest were near death by the time of their rescue twelve months later. Written some sixty years after the fact, and drawing extensively on his own daily log, McKinlay's narrative of this doomed expedition is rendered with remarkable clarity of recollection, and with a combination of horror and a level of self-possession that, to modern eyes, may seem incredible. Like most of his companions, McKinlay was inexperienced, without a day's training in the skills essential to survival in the Arctic. Yet he and many of his fellow crewmen, with the help of an Eskimo family accustomed to such conditions, survived a year under the harshest of conditions, enduring 80-mile-per-hour gales and temperatures well below zero with only the barest of provisions and almost no hope of contact with civilization. Nearly a century later, this remains one of the most compelling survival stories ever written-an extraordinary testament to man's overpowering will to live.

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Page Count

229

Publisher

St. Martin's Griffin

Published Date

ISBN 10

1250095700

ISBN 13

9781250095701

Karluk

The Great Untold Story of Arctic Exploration

By: William Laird McKinlay

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Karluk

The Great Untold Story of Arctic Exploration

By: William Laird McKinlay

William Laird McKinlay was a twenty-five-year-old Scottish schoolteacher when he set out as meteorologist on this 1913 expedition to the Arctic. Barely before the expedition had begun Karluk, their ship, was crushed and sunk in ice. He narrates the story of the crew¿s nightmare struggle for survival in the face of ignorance, lack of leadership and appalling conditions. No attempt had been made to select the crew for compatibility or strength of character, and they were untrained in any skills essential to survival in the Arctic. So they were left stranded in the Arctic ice while their leader continued his northern exploration, not returning for five years. 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.

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Page Count

166

Published Date

ISBN 10

0753811014

ISBN 13

9780753811016

The Last Voyage of the Karluk

A Survivor's Memoir of Arctic Disaster

By: William Laird McKinlay

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The Last Voyage of the Karluk

A Survivor's Memoir of Arctic Disaster

By: William Laird McKinlay

Average ratings

N/A

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

229

Publisher

St. Martin's Griffin

Published Date

ISBN 10

1250095700

ISBN 13

9781250095701

Karluk

The Great Untold Story of Arctic Exploration

By: William Laird McKinlay

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Karluk

The Great Untold Story of Arctic Exploration

By: William Laird McKinlay

This book tells for the first time the full story of the KARLUK, the leading ship of Stefansson's Arctic expedition of 1913-1918, which was crushed and sunk in ice almost before it got started.

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Age

Page Count

170

Publisher

New York : St. Martin's Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

031245080X

ISBN 13

9780312450809

Book's by William Laird McKinlay

The Last Voyage of the Karluk

The Last Voyage of the Karluk

Karluk

Karluk

The Last Voyage of the Karluk

The Last Voyage of the Karluk

Karluk

Karluk

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