The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher – George Best (1971)

S$84.00

The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher – George Best (1971)

S$84.00

A travel classic recounting the voyages of 16th century explorer Martin Frobisher, who aimed to find a route to the East Indies through the Northwest Passage, but discovered Frobisher Bay in Canada instead.

Title: The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher, in search of a passage to Cathay and India by the North-West, A.D. 1576-8. From the original 1578 text of George Best.

Author: George Best, Vilhjalmur Stefansson (ed.)

Publisher: N. Israel/Da Capo Press, 1971. Reprint of the 1938 Argonaut Press edition.

Condition: Hardcover, faux leather. 2 volumes in 1, complete. Very good. Slight dust mark to bottom edge. With 10 maps and illustrations. A large, heavy book. Overseas shipping will cost extra.

SKU: martin-frobisher Categories: ,

About Martin Frobisher (from Wikipedia):

Sir Martin Frobisher (1535 – 22 November 1594) was an English seaman and privateer who made three voyages to the New World looking for the North-west Passage. He probably sighted Resolution Island near Labrador in north-eastern Canada, before entering Frobisher Bay and landing on present-day Baffin Island. On his second voyage, Frobisher found what he thought was gold ore and carried 200 tons of it home on three ships, where initial assaying determined it to be worth a profit of £5.20 per ton. Encouraged, Frobisher returned to Canada with an even larger fleet and dug several mines around Frobisher Bay. He carried 1,350 tons of the ore back to England, where, after years of smelting, it was realized that the ore was a worthless rock called hornblende. As an English privateer, he plundered riches from French ships. He was later knighted for his service in repelling the Spanish Armada in 1588.

About George Best (from Wikipedia):

George Best (1555 – 1584) was a member of the second and third Martin Frobisher voyages in positions of importance; as Frobisher’s lieutenant on the second and as captain of the Anne Francis on the third. He published A True Discourse of the Late Voyages of Discoverie (1578).

The True Discourse included the First Frobisher Voyage, in which Best did not participate, as well as the other two (1577 and 1578) as an eye-witness. It appeared in the exploration collection of Richard Hakluyt. Later, in reprinting the material, Hakluyt removed some passages, in particular one suggesting that the aim of the exploration was prospecting for minerals, rather than the North-West Passage.

George Best is also credited with working out the warmth of the tropics was due to the sun’s light being spread over a smaller area, rather than their closer proximity to the sun.