All posts by Hans Henrik

Africa, America, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Oceans, Pacific, The New World

Nellie Bly: Around the World in 72 Days (1890)

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“I want to go around the world! I want to go around in eighty days or less. I think I can beat Phileas Fogg’s record. May I try it?”

When investigative reporter Nellie Bly approached her editor in 1889, he was not excited about the idea at all. But, in the end, she did travel around the world.

On her adventure, she met Jules Verne – whose story had inspired her – and many, many others. The result is this book.

The endeavor became an international story almost overnight, and Nellie, whose real name was Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, became a celebrity herself.

Her travel around the world in a record-setting 72 days is the most remembered of her feats today, but she was a pioneer in several other fields, too. For instance, Bly practically invented investigative journalism, when she lived undercover in a mental institution and uncovered horrible conditions to the public.

Around the World in Seventy-Two Days is not only a testament to the will of an extraordinary person, who became a role model for girls around the world. It is also very well written and entertaining indeed.

Download Around the World in Seventy Two Days as PDF for free here:

Nellie-bly-Around-the-World-in-Seventy-Two-Days-pdf

 

Antarctic, Arctic

The South Pole by Roald Amundsen

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“Adventure is just bad planning!”

Captain Roald Amundsen did not fool around, but based his conquest of the South Pole on defining an elegant and simple plan – and sticking with it.

On December 14. 1911, the efforts were rewarded, when Amundsen and his four companions planted the Norwegian flag on the Pole, five weeks before the ill-fated British expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott.

In The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian expedition in the Fram, 1910–12 (Volumes I and II) he tells the whole story. The book is written in a dry, understated humoristic tone and clinically cleansed from any kind of self-praise. This makes for a very satisfying read.

Originally, everyone – even Amundsens crew! – believed that they were going for the North Pole. But as the rival Americans Cook and Peary each claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1909, Amundsen set his sights on the South Pole instead. He kept his plans secret, though, and when his intentions were revealed, it caused international outrage. But Amundsen was on his way and did not care the slightest bit.

The Norwegian expedition used the same ship, The Fram, as Fridtjof Nansen in his attempt to reach the North Pole more than a decade earlier, and Nansen himself wrote the introduction to this extraordinary book:

“When the explorer comes home victorious, everyone goes out to cheer him. We are all proud of his achievement—proud on behalf of the nation and of humanity. We think it is a new feather in our cap, and one we have come by cheaply. How many of those who join in the cheering were there when the expedition was fitting out, when it was short of bare necessities, when support and assistance were most urgently wanted? Was there then any race to be first? At such a time the leader has usually found himself almost alone; too often he has had to confess that his greatest difficulties were those he had to overcome at home before he could set sail. So it was with Columbus, and so it has been with many since his time. So it was, too, with Roald Amundsen.”

Download the entire The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian expedition in the Fram, 1910–12 Vol I + II (986 pages / 55 MB) here:

The South Pole Roald Amundsen

Arctic, Greenland

The First Crossing of Greenland

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Men have tried to cross Greenland since the Middle Ages. But the Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen finally succeeded in 1888 by traversing the island on cross-country skis.

This book is one of the best stories about polar exploration, and it is beautifully illustrated with maps, drawings, and photos all the way through.

Internationally, Nansen is known as the father of modern polar exploration and for reaching a record Northern latitude during his “Fram”-expedition (1893-96). But while crossing Greenland for the first time, he tried out many of his techniques for real. At the same time, he completed the first major goal of Polar exploration.

His innovations and ideas were widely used by many later Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. During his life, Fridtjof Nansen took many roles upon himself; as explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian. In 1922, Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Download the entire book (460 pages / 24,9 MB) here:

 The First Crossing of Greenland

Uncategorized

The Worst Journey in The World

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It was bad news for Robert Falcon Scott, when his party reached the South Pole on January 1912 – and found that the Norwegian Amundsen-expedition had been there 34 days before. Even worse, Scott’s entire party perished on the way back.

“The Worst Journey in The World” tells the whole story and then some. It is widely praised as one of the best, most frank (and chilling!) books about polar exploration in the early 20th century.

In this epic memoir, Apsley Cherry-Garrard of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition, tells about the expedition, about its fate – and about the disastrous planning, the extreme suffering and sheer bad luck that was also part of the story.

The title of the book – The Worst Journey in The World – would seem a fitting description for the Terra Nova-expedition. But it actually refers to a sub-quest to recover eggs of the emperor penguin for scientific study. Here, Cherry-Garrard participated on a journey across the Ross Ice Shelf in complete darkness and in temperatures below −40 °C. But the eggs were retrieved, and the small expedition returned – barely – alive.

Make a (hot!) cup of tea, get a warm blanket and download the entire book with plenty of maps and illustrations here:

The Worst Journey In The World (760 pages / 23 MB)

Asia, Himalaya

Mount Everest, the Reconnaissance, 1921

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Why risk your life climbing the world’s highest peak? “Because it’s there!”

Climber and WW1-veteran George Mallory coined the iconic explanation, and Mount Everest, the Reconnaissance is the epic recount of the 1921-expedition where he participated along with A. F. R. Wollaston and Charles Howard-Bury.

Sadly, Mallory died on an Everest-expedition three years later, but he might – or might not – have been the first on top of Everest. That is a fascinating story in itself, which you can read much more about in this really great story in National Geographic.

The goal of the 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition was to explore how it might be possible to get to the vicinity of Mount Everest and to discover possible routes for ascending the mountain.

The mission was a success, as it secured valuable knowledge for future expeditions. For instance, by determining that a good route might be to approach the East Rongbuk glacier via the Rongbuk glacier and then follow the North Col route to the summit.

Download the free PDF e-book here:

Mount Everest, the Reconnaissance, 1921

Litterature, Oceans, Pacific, Uncategorized

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea 

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“By what name ought I address you?”

“Sir,” replied the commander, “I am nothing to you but Captain Nemo; and you and your companions are nothing to me but the passengers of the Nautilus.”

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne is one of the greatest adventure novels of all time, and – at the same time – a groundbreaking work of science-fiction.

The narrator, Professor Pierre Aronnax, and his companions join the fiercely independent Captain Nemo aboard his submarine, the Nautilus, on a wondrous and dramatic journey around the world.

“I am not what you call a civilised man! I have done with society entirely, for reasons which I alone have the right of appreciating. I do not, therefore, obey its laws, and I desire you never to allude to them before me again!”

Download Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea here (PDF 1,1 MB / 168 pages)

20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

 

Arctic, Greenland, Inuit, Oceans, Thule

The North West Passage by Roald Amundsen

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The North West Passage by Roald Amundsen is the well written and sometimes dramatic story about the “Gjöa Expedition”, led by Amundsen himself during the years 1903-1907.

This fine work was published after his successful return and it is richly illustrated with maps and high-quality photographs, considering the time. The expedition was sometimes quite dramatic, and only sheer luck separated survival from total catastrophe:

“In the pitch-dark night, which luckily was perfectly calm, a mighty flame, with thick suffocating smoke was leaping up from the engine-room skylight. A fire had broken out in the engine-room, right among the tanks holding 2,200 gallons of petroleum. We all knew what would happen if the tanks got heated: the “Gjöa” and everything on board would be blown to atoms like an exploded bomb. We all flew in frantic haste.”

The expedition was spectacular since it was the first time man navigated The North West Passage – the northern link between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. At the time, the passage was only partly open for short periods in the summer, making the voyage very difficult and the risk of getting stuck in ice was imminent.

Today, though, due to climate changes, the passage is increasingly open for commercial traffic and it has the potential to disrupt global sea transport.

The objective of the expedition was met, but the Norwegian Roald Amundsen was disappointed that he was not able to reach the magnetic north pole, which also was a goal of the journey.

Download The North West Passage PDF here in full length (349 pages/10MB):

The North West Passage

America

Walden – Life in the Woods

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Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau is possibly the most famous, beloved, and influential book about living in and close to nature. Which is what Thoreau did for two years, two months, and two days (1845-1847). From the book:

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

Thoreau lived in a small cabin built by himself by Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts, where he spent his time in the woods reflecting upon human development and human nature while living according to simple living and self-sufficiency ideals.

Today, a parking lot is placed close to his cabin, and the pond is a popular – and quite beautiful – destination for the citizens of Concord to go swimming on hot summer days.

But the book itself appears as fresh and inspiring today as when written in the middle of the 19. century.

Download the free PDF e-book here:

 Walden; or, Life in the Woods

Walden; or, Life in the woods mobi e-book

Litterature

Robinson Crusoe

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Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe was published in 1719 and is a work of fiction. But it is written as an autobiography – and the first edition credited the main character as the author, lending it even more credibility!

Robinson Crusoe is the captivating story about a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad and Venezuela. It has captivated the imagination of readers for more than 300 years and has – beyond doubt! – inspired countless kids through the ages to seek adventure in the backyard and beyond. 

Download the complete illustrated book as PDF or as a file for Kindle for free at Greatest Adventurers! (409 pages):

Mobi: Robinson Crusoe

PDF: Robinson Crusoe

Africa, Asia, Europe

Winston Churchill: My Early Life

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SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL was a resolute Prime Minister of Great Britain during the Second World War. Furthermore, he inspired millions of Europeans to “keep buggering on” when all seemed lost in the epic struggle with Nazi-Germany.

He was also an adventurer by heart, who spent his youth participating in conflicts in India, Sudan, Afghanistan and South Africa. He escaped captivity from a Boer prison camp – and accounted for his many adventures in numerous articles.

Based on the wartime experiences of his youth, Churchill even suggested that it would be a pretty great idea if he could watch the first waves of the amphibious assault of D-Day from the warship HMS Belfast. The generals and admirals declined the PMs request – politely but with no room for misunderstanding what so ever..

Being a storyteller by heart, Sir Winston was also a prolific writer. He was even awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.”

Churchill authored a great many books. He genuinely enjoyed the process of writing (most of the time, at least). More importantly, however, the generous fees helped finance a lifestyle which, even at the worst of times, could never be considered anything less than stately.

Many of his books are strictly speaking quite a bit longer and more detailed than necessary. Not so with “My Early Life,” which you can read by clicking on the link below. It is relatively short and tells the story of Churchill’s childhood and youth. It also collects a lot of his most memorable experiences from The Second Boer War, Sudan and India.

My Early Life is generally considered one of Churchill’s best books – and it is undoubtedly one of his most amusing and entertaining works!

Download the free PDF e-book here:

 My Early Life – A Roving Commission

Europe, Oceans, The New World, Uncategorized

Treasure Island

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Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson is – even though fictional – perhaps the most famous story about high adventure, pirates, betrayal, and gold. Lots, lots & lots of gold!

Countless kids and adults have dreamt themselves away to the epic story where young Jim Hawkins joins a grand expedition to discover the untold riches buried by the late Captain Flint. But all is not exactly as it seems – and the one-legged cook, Long John Silver, has other plans than to make sure the crew is well fed…

Download Read Treasure Island for free at Greatest Adventurers as PDF or MOBI-format for Kindle by clicking below.

Yo-ho-ho – and a bottle of rum!

Treasure Island PDF

Treasure Island mobi

 

TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER
If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons,
And buccaneers, and buried gold,
And all the old romance, retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of today:
—So be it, and fall on! If not,
If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie!

Africa

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

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Heart of Darkness is one of the most read and thoroughly analyzed adventure novels of all time. On the face of it, the book is a fairly straightforward tale about the narrator Marlow’s journey on a small steamboat up the Congo River to find the ivory trader and commander of a trading post, Kurtz.

It is also, however, a ground-breaking history of morality, civilization, racism, imperialism and the drive to seek out and explore blank spaces on the map.

Heart of Darkness did not only provide inspiration for Coppola’s movie Apocalypse Now but is also regularly listed as one the best novels in English from the 20. Century. Download the free PDF e-book here:

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Antarctic, Science

Sir Ernest Shackleton: South!

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South! The story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition (1914–1917) is still considered one of the single most dramatic, thrilling and exhausting adventures during the so-called Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

In “South!”, Shackleton tells the whole story in his own words.

The goal of the expedition was to perform the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. But when Shackleton’s ship, The Endurance, became locked in ice – and subsequently were crushed and sunk – the goal of the expedition became sheer survival. During the two years of the expedition, the desperate and heroic acts of Shackleton and his crew made history, and rightly so.

Download the free PDF e-book here:

South! by Sir Ernest Shackleton

Uncategorized

Edward Jenner – Pioneer of vaccination

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As the world groans under the global spreading of the corona-virus, it is worth remembering one of the true pioneers in disease control. As one of the very first, the British physician Edward Jenner popularized the concept of immunization through vaccination.

In the late Eighteenth Century, the dreaded disease smallpox routinely killed approximately 10 percent of the British population – rising towards 20 percent in the overpopulated cities, where people lived under cramped conditions and horrible hygienic conditions. Mr. Jenner wondered, however, why dairy workers in the countryside seldom contracted smallpox. He discovered that they were practically immune, and speculated that the cause was exposure to the much less severe cowpox. Jenner tested his theory by inoculating people with pus from blisters on infected cows – and discovered that it worked!

The story of his success spread quickly and helped save countless lives. Mr. Jenner’s work also inspired the so-called Balmis Expedition, a three-year-long mission that helped spread the concept of vaccination against smallpox to Spanish America and Asia.

Jenner made quite a few other discoveries and received a number of prestigious awards in his lifetime. He even got a medal from Napoleon – during the war with England! – and had two English prisoners released. Because, as the French general put it, he could not “refuse anything to one of the greatest benefactors of mankind.” In modern time, BBC included Jenner in the list of 100 Greatest Britons.

Here, you’ll find the book that started it all – and without whom neither of us might be alive today.

An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae