by Alan Gurney

'Enthralling enough to make the most steadfastly land-loving reader want to set sail through arduous conditions to uncharted lands. Highly recommended.’ Boooklist

In the 1830s much of the world was still unexplored territory to European and American travellers, and the forbidding Antarctic region represented perhaps the ultimate mystery. As the decade drew to a close, three expeditions to the Pole were launched simultaneously by the United States, France and Britain, each nation vying to the first to forge a path through the ice and venture farther south than any other vessel had ever sailed before. The leaders of these expeditions were U.S. Navy officer Charles Wilkes, seasoned French explorer Dumont d’Urville, and Royal Navy captain James Clark Ross.

The Race to the White Continent is a colourful and captivating account of the travels and adventures of these navigators, who paved the way for explorers, traders, and whalers of what was to become known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration.

• Paperback
• 320 pages
• ISBN: 9780393323214