Barrow's Boys

By: Fergus Fleming

Narrated by: James Gillies

Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Barrow's Boys is a spellbinding account of perilous journeys to uncharted areas under the most challenging conditions. Fergus Fleming captures the passion for exploration that led a band of men into situations that would humble today's bravest adventurers.

After the Napoleonic wars, John Barrow, Second Secretary to the Admiralty, launched the most ambitious exploration program the world has ever seen. For the next 30 years, his teams of elite naval officers went on missions to fill the blanks that littered the atlases of the day. From the first disastrous trip down the Congo, Barrow maintained his resolve in the face of continuous catastrophes. His explorers often died of sickness or at the hands of unfriendly natives. They struggled under budgets that forced them to resort to pulling enormous ships across floating ice fields; to eating mice, or their own shoes; and even to horrifying acts of cannibalism. While many of the journeys failed, Barrow and his men ultimately opened Africa to the world, discovered Antarctica, and pried apart the mandibles of the Arctic. Many of the missions are considered the greatest in history, but have never before been collected into one volume that captures the full sweep of Barrow's program.

©1998 Fergus Fleming. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Wow

The narrator was just fantastic for the material. His voice was perfect to relate the pathos, irony, humor, and simple facts as they occurred.

The material presented was a beautiful summary of all the other books I've had the pleasure of listening to on Adudible. There was also plenty of new information given about the men and the expeditions. Simply fascinating! I could never withstand the hardships they endured and seemed to shrug off. A great listen, if you like adventure.

Excellent

This was a delight to hear. Very interesting stories and the narrator was great.

Not an ounce of fat, fantastic listen

One of the best presenters I've heard. Even if you're already familiar with most of these stories, this book offers some wonderful tidbits not found in other places. The way the book weaves it all together makes for great listening. While some of the material will seem really familiar to other books like the Arctic Grail, the author has done his homework, and result is that you may learn a think or two you didn't already know. A+++ to the presenter for his wonderful voices, even if every Scottish guy sounds nearly the same (which means like John Ross, our main Scot!) - and I'm never sure if the audiobooks have James Clark Ross quite right as he was actually born in London and didn't live much in Scotland... but I guess his uncle was a huge influence and his family would have probably spoken with Scottish accents too, so maybe that's right. Along with Michael Palin's Erebus, this is one of the best audiobooks you'll find for the Ross expeditions.

Amazing tale of adventure and mishap

Exceptionally narrated. I had read a few accounts of polar exploration, but this book ties them all together with the common thread of John Barrow. Also I hadn’t known anything about the excursions into Africa which were as “successful” as the explorations of the polar regions. One has to admire Barrow’s vision. But his preconceived notions, stubbornness, and arbitrary prejudices cost so much misery and so many lives. His pursuit of geography and filling in the empty spaces on the globe sound admirable, but of course this was all to the end of Britain’s empire building and extraction of resources. However, you have to be in awe of what these explorers were able to go through and accomplish - at great cost. You kind of have the feeling you’d like to pick up Barrow and transport him to an ice-bound ship in the Arctic with 1/2 rations and threat of scurvy in the middle of a 24 hour polar night- or a malaria and fever infested Niger delta with hostile native inhabitants all around him. This book does an excellent job of not only describing the events of what happened but the personalities of everyone involved. For all their foibles, their courage and determination is truly awe inspiring. I highly recommend this book! And the narration is superb!

Fantastic narrator

Great history enlivened by excellent narration by James Gillies. He needs to do more nonfiction.