Ice Blink: The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin's Lost Polar Expedition [Paperback]

Unfortunately, this book is essentially a rehash of earlier research by both Parks Canada and the pioneering work of Owen Beattie and his colleagues who excavated the graves from the Franklin winter quarters at Beechey Island and documented lead poisoning. It is disturbing that Beattie and his co-author, John Geiger, are not given their due for their work and bestselling book, Frozen in Time, which asserted Cookman's case over a decade ago. Cookman has added more information, fleshing out the Goldner story, but like so many journalists who attempt to write history, he focuses on one aspect to the exclusion of other factors. David Woodman has done a far better job in looking at all factors in his two books about the fate of the Franklin expedition -- and while he asserts what he thinks happened, he doesn't smugly say he's nailed his points home. It is simply too "pat" and too 20th century smug in hindsight to completely blame an admittedly bad contractor for the entire fate of the expedition, and this book does a disservice to the reader in suggesting so. I'm no Goldner fan, and feel he shoulders some blame, but then so do Franklin, the officers, the bad ice year, the decision to push into Larsen Sound (albeit a bad decision only in hindsight) and of course, those who for whatever reason broke discipline and split up into unmanageable parties. The demise of Franklin is as yet still uncertainly known, with a few brief words, a handful of bodies, Inuit testimony and scattered campsites - and the "definitive word" is fraught with disagreement as to exactly what happened and why, as it has been since 1849. Cookman adds very little; if you are looking to gain a better understanding, read Beattie and Geiger's Frozen in Time or Woodman's Unravelling the Franklin Mystery, or his Strangers Among Us.

Sorry, Scott. I will not buy your book.

Cookman has certainly done some worthwhile new research; his study of Goldner and his patent canning factory is well-documented and full of suggestive (though far from definitive) evidence. Goldner's tinned foods, supplied to the ill-fated Franklin expedition to the Arctic in 1845, certainly contributed to the disaster (they have already been fingered for causing lead poisoning).

Cookman, however, ruses breathlessly past all other factors that might have contributed to Franklin's failure, and ends up ruining his case by overstating it, and by expecting that his one explanation -- botulism -- will solve all the mystery and tie up all the loose ends. Cookman's lurid prose doesn't help matters, portraying the admittedly callous and greedy canner Goldner as an evil maniac of unintentionally comic proportions -- up there with Lex Luthor.

There is some good and valuable research in this book, and in places the Franklin saga is ably retold, but the mixture of morality play and science lecture ultimately becomes rather tedious.

One reviewer has called the book "slightly speculative." That is too charitable. Cookman generally does not contradict known facts about the Franklin expedition, but he invents much more detail than he has evidence to support. The book is unsuitable for academic purposes, but it provides a compelling, though at times poorly written, story. I do not wish to be too harsh on the book. To its credit, many of Cookman's speculations are reasonable and provide information that serious historians withhold in their books on the expedition. It is best to read one of the many other books on the topic in order to know what parts of Ice Blink to trust, and which to take with a grain of salt.