The White Darkness - David Grann

[Saluki]

Just finished the audiobook and highly recommend. The author also wrote Killers of the Flowers Moon. It's a very short book, 160 pages, but very good writing.  It's about a descendant of one of the crew of Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica, who had a lifelong obversion with the voyage. When his career in the British SAS plateaued, he decided to attempt to recreate the historic voyage with two other men, one of whom was also a descendant of one of Shackleton's men.  After another trip where he retraced other prior explorers routes, he eventually tried to do it solo and it killed him.   

 

The audiobook was a nice way to pass the time while walking the dog in the snow. 

[Jaygo]

have you read the wager by Grann? Also about shipwreck. i love audio books but this on has some maps and pictures that are nice to reference.

[Saluki]

12 minutes ago, Jaygo said:

have you read the wager by Grann? Also about shipwreck. i love audio books but this on has some maps and pictures that are nice to reference.

 

No, but I'll add it to the list because he's a good writer and I have a fascination with Patagonia, my ancestral homeland. 

[Saluki]

@Jaygo almost done with The Wager, thanks for the recommendation.  Besides the great writing, I enjoyed the history.  The Wager mutiny happened when they were on their way to attack Valdivia, my ancestral homeland.  At the time it was the southernmost outpost of the Spanish empire.  No one lived below that, which is why the British were interested in it and how they ended up owning the Falkland's. 

 

One of my ancestors had arrived from Spain a few years before to be in charge of one of the forts that guard the mouth of the river that leads to Valdivia. So if the Wager and the others had succeeded they would've literally crossed swords with him. At the time, it was basically a penal colony. The forts had been destroyed by an Indian uprising, helped by the Dutch supplying weapons, and was being rebuilt by convicts who were offered freedom in exchange for a set amount of military service (the same way Russia emptied it's prisoners into Ukraine).  So he was the commander or warden, depending on how you look at it.  

[Jaygo]

That’s an awesome tidbit of history. both our connections are to   

 

Argentina is on our places to travel list this year but still unsure. 
 

The wager. It’s a great book about a very interesting time. Historical fact or fiction is by far my favorite genre. I love the contrast to our own lives, these guys are living in a lice and rat infested hull below the waterline for years and I’m upset when that sob at Starbucks doesn’t put the lid on my latte tight enough. I could have been slightly hurt by that moderately hot beverage damn it !!!