It was there. Henry Hudson was certain of it. Beyond the impenetrable fog and crushing ice of the North Atlantic lay the dream of kings, merchants and learned geographers - a passage to the Orient.
Sailing small wooden boats well above the arctic circle, guided by maps and charts that were based on rumor and hope as much as fact, surrounded by crews that shared neither his belief nor his commitment, Henry Hudson searched again and again for what was not there. In 1611, his mutinous crew set him adrift on the freezing waters of the bay that would one day bear his name.
Beyond the Sea of Ice is the story of Henry Hudson's four harrowing voyages of discovery. Bringing the skills of an experienced novelist to her first non-fiction book, author Joan Elizabeth Goodman creates an epic narrative of Henry Hudson's passionate quest. Fernando Rangel's paintings capture the icy beauty of the North Atlantic, the lushness of the new world and the cruelty and death that accompanied a voyage of discovery. Actual entries from the journals of each voyage bring the reader directly into life at sea in the 17th century.
(1999)