and Columbus’s expedition (1492–1506) 6, 31, 33, 40, 41, 45
and discovery and exploration of America 6–7, 63–4, 70
and Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) 45, 53, 70, 83
and Magellan’s expedition (1519–22) 60, 61, 62
and Netherlands 75
and Louisiana 115
Speke, John Hanning 292, 309–15, 345, 346
capable outdoorsman 309
envies Burton’s linguistic skills 310
contracts eye infection 310
makes excursion to north alone 311
seized by fits 311
goes back to Africa with Grant 312
assisted by Sam Baker 313
returns to London 314
shoots himself 315
Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile 314
Spencer-Smith (chaplain) 448, 450, 451, 460, 461
Spice Islands see Moluccas
spices 5, 50, 60, 61
Spitsbergen
and expedition of Barents (1596) 77
and Hudson’s expedition (1610–11) 87
and Parry’s expedition (1824) 215
and Prince of Monaco 292
Nansen and Johanssen reach (1896) 391
and Andrée’s balloon flight (1897) 392, 393, 394, 395, 396
Irvine on university expedition to (1923) 470
aircraft flights from 477
and Nobile’s Zeppelin expedition (1928) 479, 480, 481, 482, 483, 485, 486, 487
Spittle (ship’s mate) 241
Spöring, Herman 149, 159
Sri Lanka 13, 16, 25 see also Ceylon
Staffe, Philip 88, 89, 90, 92
Stanley, Henry Morton 290, 315, 346–52
becomes journalist 346
arrives in Zanzibar 346
heads for Lake Tanganyika 346
meets Livingstone in Ujiji 347
hair turns grey 348
sails again for Zanzibar 348
goes down the Congo 349
arrival at Stanley Pool 350
column starving 350
members of team succumb to disease 351
has recurring malaria 352
dies of pleurisy 352
Stanley Falls 350
Stanley Pool 350
Stanleyville 350
Starvation Island 70
Starved Rock 108, 109, 113–14
States Island 76
Stefansson, Vilhjalmur 3, 291
Stella Polare (ship) 404, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409
Steller, Georg Wilhelm 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137
Stephenson, Commander Henry 361
Stony Desert 300, 301
Strait of Magellan 56, 62
Straits of Le Maire 151
Straits of Malacca 11
Strindberg, Nils 393–7
Stromness Bay 456
Strutt, Lieutenant-Colonel Edward 465
Stuart, John 297, 307
Sturt, Charles 299, 300
Sudan 352
Sumaco, valley of 65
Sumatra 15, 26
Sunshine (ship) 86
surfing 154
Sverdrup, Otto 414
Sweden 149, 392, 484
Swedish Air Force 485
Sydney 158, 268
syphilis 155, 203, 206 see also venereal disease
Syria 12, 18, 19, 27
Tabora 311, 312, 347
Tabriz 21
Taconnaz Glacier 173, 174
Tafilafet oasis 254
Taghaza 28
Tahiti (Otaheite; King George III Island) 124, 149, 153–5, 161–2, 164, 165
Talon, Jean 105, 106
Tangier 19, 254
Taugwalder, Peter (Old Taugwalder) 322, 323, 324
Taoudeni 28, 253
Tasman, Abel Janszoon 8, 156, 157
Tasmania (Van Diemen’s Land) 124, 156, 157, 170, 265, 267, 271
tattoos 154
Tchukhnovsky, Boris 486, 487
technology 295
Tegetthof see Admiral Tegetthof
Teissier (on Mississippi expedition) 113
Tejbir (Gurkha) 467
Ténéré, the 400–1
Tenerife 181
Teplitz Bay 404, 405, 406, 407, 408
Ternate 60
Teroahauté, Michel 224–5
Terra Nova (ship) 423–4, 425, 427, 430, 432
Terra Nova Bay 425, 426
Terror (ship) 265, 268, 269, 270, 271, 273, 282, 283, 284
Texas 7
Thailand 51
Thank God Harbour 337, 339
theodolite 190, 191, 193
‘thermometric gateways’ 331, 335, 353, 367, 370
Thetis (ship) 382, 383
Thomas, John 93
Thomas of Liverpool (ship) 240, 241
Thrace 23
Tiata (Tahitian servant) 155, 159
Tibet 326, 327, 329, 330, 462, 471
Treaty of (1904) 462
Tidore 60
Tieme 251, 252
Tierra del Fuego 151–3, 269
Tigress (ship) 341
Tigris, River 21
Timbuctoo 29, 122, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 339
journeys to (1824–8) 243–55
timepieces 120–1, 160 see chronometers
Times, The 216, 274
Timor 60
Titanic (ship) 431
Tonty, Captain Henri 106, 107, 108, 109, 113, 114, 115
Tookolito (Inuit) 337
Tordesillas, Treaty of (1494) 45, 53, 62, 70, 83
Toscanelli, Paolo da 31
Toulon 255
Trafalgar, battle of 217
travel books 123
Travelers’ Rest 204
triangulation 190–1
trichinosis 396
Trinidad 71, 187
Trinidad (ship) 53, 56, 57, 60, 61
tripes de roche (lichen) 222, 223, 224, 225
Tripoli 229, 231, 236, 246, 247, 248, 255
Pasha of 229, 231, 246, 249
Tromsø 396, 409
trophies 293
Tropic of Capricorn 42
Tsango River 329
Tuareg 232, 247–8, 249, 252–3, 398, 399–400, 401
Tuat 29
Tuckey, Captain James Hingston 228–9
Tunis 181
Tupia (Tahitian priest) 155, 159
Turkestan 326
Turkey 12
Tyndall, John 317, 319–20, 321, 324–5
Tyrol 176
Tyson, George 337, 339–41, 342
Polaris vanishes 339
rescues people and supplies 339
unable to keep order 340
risks evacuation 340
describes their situation 341
rescued by the Tigress 341
Ujiji 310, 311, 346, 347
Ukraine 23
Ulloa, Antonio de 139, 142
Ultima Thule 3
Umm Janaiba 29
United Provinces 75, 76
United States 122, 293, 382
Louisiana sold to 115, 194
Humboldt and Bonpland visit 188
Jefferson’s ambitions for 194–5
conclusions about polar exploration 374
operates sub-polar station 375
Arctic exploration 378
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey 369
United States Navy 410, 413, 415
Upernavik 420
Urals 189
vaccination 232
Vahsel Bay 449
Vaigach Island 73, 75, 76, 78, 81, 82
Valais, the 317
Vancouver, Captain George 202
Van Diemen’s Land see Tasmania
Vardø 72, 78, 82
Varga, Hernán Sanchez de 67, 69
varvascu 145
Veer, Gerrit de 75, 76, 77, 78, 81
Vega 486
venereal disease 398 see also syphilis
Venezuela 183–5, 186, 187
Venice 5, 17, 48
Venus 183
transit of (1769) 120, 149, 154, 155
Verguin, Captain 139, 144, 146
Vespucci, Amerigo 63
Victoria (boat) 69, 70
Victoria (ship) 53, 56, 59, 60, 61
Victoria (state) 296, 307
Victoria, Queen 267, 289, 294, 345
Victoria Falls 343
Victoria Island 276, 277, 281
Victory (ship on Ross’s Arctic expedition) 256–7, 258–9, 260, 261
Victory Point 260, 282, 283
Vienna 291, 359
Vikings 3
Villegas, Jerónimo 68
Vincent (member of Imperial TransAntarctic Expedition) 453
Virginia 8, 109
Visp 321
Vitamin A
bear liver, a toxic source of 79, 437
husky liver a toxic source of 437–8
Mawson suffers effects of overdose of 437–8, 440, 443
Mertz suffers and dies from overdose of 437–9
Vitamin C
contained in fat of Arctic creatures 259–60
discovery of 427
scurvy caused by deficiency of 79, 259, 366
Volga, River 11, 23
Voltaire 139
Walfisch Bay 42
Wallis, Samuel 124, 153
Warrington, Emma 246, 247, 249
Warrington, Hanmer 231, 246, 247, 248, 249
Washington 199, 205
Wawa, Sultan of 239
Weddell, James 165
Weddell Sea 445, 447, 448, 449, 450, 451, 452
Welch (surveyor) 306
Wellington, N.Z. 459, 460
Wellington Channel 279
Wellman, Walter 292
West Indies 7, 31, 63 see also names of islands
Westminster Abbey 348, 352
Weyprecht, Captain Carl 291, 353–60, 375, 387
commander of Admiral Tegetthof 353
gives Payer ultimatum 356
orders evacuation to Novaya Zemlya 358
extraordinary leader 359
expedition lands at Hamburg 359
disillusionment 359
White Island 394, 396
White Sea 73, 82
Whymper, Edward 316–25, 391
mountaineering convert 317
climbs 100,000 feet in 18
days 317–19
obsession with Matterhorn 319
gets to within 1,400 feet of summit 320
lose footing and tumbles 320
attempted climb from Swiss side 322
conquers Matterhorn 323
Croz, Hadow, Hudson and Douglas fall 323
sinks into depression 324
Wild, Ernest 448, 459
Wild, Frances 433, 434, 442, 448
Wilhelmina Bay 449, 453
Wilkes, Lieutenant Charles 264
Wilkes Land 264, 267
William (ship) 73
William, Brother 12
William IV, King 261
William of Rubruk 4, 11
Williams, John 90
Willoughby, Sir Hugh 73
Wills, Sir Alfred 465
Wills, William 299–305, 306, 307
description of Wills 299
describes journey as ‘picnic party’ 300
describes lassitude 302
staggers into Depot LXV with Burke and King 302
befriends Aborigines 303
writes final letter to father 305
dies 305
Wilson, Bill 89, 91, 92, 93, 94
Wilson, Edward (in Arctic mutiny, 1610–11) 94, 95
Wilson, Edward (in Antarctic expedition, 1911–12) 425, 427, 429, 430
Winter Harbour 211–12, 213
Wolstenholme Sir John 88, 96, 99
Woodehouse, Thomas 88, 92
World War I (1914–18) 293, 295, 445, 461
Worsley, Frank 452–3, 454, 455, 456, 457, 458
Wrangel, Baron von 369
Wrangel Island 369
Wright, William 299, 300, 302, 303, 304, 306
Wright brothers 477
Yakutsk 130, 372, 373
Yantic (ship) 379, 380, 382
Yarqui 142, 144, 145
Yauri 238–9
Sultan of 233, 235, 238–9
Yelcho (ship) 458, 459
Yellalla rapids 42
Yellowstone River 204, 205
Yemen 22
Yeou (Yobe), River 232
York (slave) 195
York Factory 219, 226
Yoruba 235, 237
Young, James 346
Young, Nicholas 156
Younghusband, Sir Francis 462, 463
Yucatan 63
Zambezi River 343, 345
Zamorin of Calicut 48–9
Zanzibar 44, 309–10, 345, 346, 347, 348, 351
Zappi, Filippo 482, 485, 486–7
Zeila 21
Zheng, Admiral 4
Zanzibar 16
Zeppelins 291, 295
development of 477
flight of Norge 477–8
flight of Italia 479–81
crash of Italia 482
Zermatt 319, 322, 324
Zinder 402
Zmutt Ridge 404
* To put their obsession in context, both the North-East and North-West Passages still occupy businessmen today. From Europe to Japan, the sea journey through the Suez Canal is 11,000 miles long and takes 35 days. The same trip via the North-East Passage is 7,000 miles and takes 22 days. In an age when the Suez Canal did not exist, and when it took several months to reach the Far East via the Cape of Good Hope, these northern routes must have seemed exquisitely tempting.
* The émigrés included the nephew of an English bishop, a Frenchwoman from Lorraine who cooked Guillaume de Roubrouk’s meals, and a Parisian silversmith named Boucher, who constructed an ornate automatic alcohol fountain of such complexity that it never worked and required the insertion of a small person to operate its mechanism from within.
* The name had nothing to do with the number of his men, but came from the Turkish word ordu, meaning tent.
* His other wives were either dead or had been divorced. The concupiscent Ibn Battuta maintained a loose attitude to marriage, as he explained when extolling the virtues of the Maldives: ‘It is easy to marry in these islands because of the smallness of the dowry ... When the ships put in, the crew marry; when they intend to leave they divorce.’ Throughout his travels he married numerous women, usually because they were well-connected, then discarded them, with or without child, when it was time to seize the next opportunity.
* The details of Columbus’s early life are obscure. By his own account, he went to sea at the age of 14. Later his son Ferdinand would claim that he attended university, where he studied astronomy, geography and cosmography.
* Columbus had been present when Bartholomeu Dias returned from his voyage. According to some accounts, Dias’s achievement spurred him to find the Indies. Ironically, the grand captain of Lisbon harbour to whom Columbus delivered his news in 1493 was none other than Dias himself.
** The easternmost bulge of Brazil was just within the limit, allowing Portugal later to claim both the coast and, by sleight of geographical hand, its vast hinterland.
* According to some sources, this was due to a belief that iron nails might drag the ships towards underwater magnetic rocks.
* It was common practice for Iberian travellers to bring back unusual specimens. The courts of Lisbon and Castile were awash with novelty humans of every shape and colour.
* Magellan’s last stand would be replicated, almost action for action, by that of Captain James Cook in 1778.
* In one of the famous moments of military history, he burned his ships on landing at Vera Cruz. Intended as a political gesture to prove his independence from Cuba (he successfully legalized his position as representative of the Spanish Crown), it was also a powerful declaration of inten
t: the Spaniards were there to stay – as Cortes soon showed.
* It has been estimated that the central Amazon population was, in 1541, about two or three million. Carvajal recorded a town that stretched 18 miles along the riverbank.
* It did not sink, thanks to its rounded hull, popular amongst Dutch shipbuilders of the time, which gave the ice no grip and allowed the ship to rise to the surface. Four centuries later Fridtjof Nansen deployed the same technique on the Fram, which drifted on the pack for four years before being deposited safely in open water.
* Along the way they made a discovery that shed new light on an old mystery. A certain species of goose visited Europe every year, but nobody had ever found their nests or their eggs, which gave rise to the belief that they grew on a tree in tiny shells that then fell into the sea before maturing into birds. In medieval bestiaries they were known as barnacle geese. Heemskerck’s men found the nests of the barnacle geese, thereby correcting a centuries-old misconception. That done, they ate the eggs.
* He got his revenge: when an Inuit paddled out to the ship Frobisher grabbed his arm and hoisted him, kayak and all, over the gunwales. The unfortunate man was taken as a trophy back to England, where he died from a cold.
* Mermaids featured prominently in histories of the time. One was captured in Belfast Lough and baptized. Another was found on the Dutch coast and taken to Haarlem, where she learned how to spin. A third was caught off Borneo where she was imprisoned in a vat, refused all food and died after a week, leaving droppings that were likened to those of a cat.
* Fury and Hecla Strait was discovered in 1822 by W. E. Parry and George Lyon. It was as impassable then as it was in Foxe’s time.
* They were in modern Matagorda Bay, approximately 500 miles west of the Mississippi.
* The flattery was forced: the French had applied several times to do the job themselves and might have done so had not Peter forbidden foreigners to enter the northern territories. As for Peter’s cultural pretensions, it was not until 1725 that he founded the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences, and even then almost all of its members were foreigners.
* Or perhaps it was the 14th. Not only was the Russian calendar 11 days ahead of the rest of Europe, but its days started and stopped at different hours. On land, a Russian day was measured from midnight to midnight. At sea, it was from noon to noon.