A Wretched and Precarious Situation
In Search of the Last Arctic Frontier
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A Wretched and Precarious Situation
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Narrated by:
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Joel Richards
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By:
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David Welky
About this listen
A Kirkus Reviews best nonfiction book of 2016.
A remarkable true story of adventure, betrayal, and survival set in one of the world's most inhospitable places.
In 1906, from atop a snow-swept hill in the ice fields northwest of Greenland, hundreds of miles from another human being, Commander Robert E. Peary spotted a line of mysterious peaks looming in the distance. He called this unexplored realm "Crocker Land". Scientists and explorers agreed that the world-famous explorer had discovered a new continent rising from the frozen Arctic Ocean.
Several years later, two of Peary's disciples, George Borup and Donald MacMillan, assembled a team of amateur adventurers to investigate Crocker Land. Before them lay a chance at the kind of lasting fame enjoyed by Magellan, Columbus, and Captain Cook. While filling in the last blank space on the globe, they might find new species of plants or animals, or even men; in the era of Jules Verne and HG Wells, anything seemed possible. Renowned scientific institutions, and even former president Theodore Roosevelt, rushed to endorse the expedition.
What followed was a sequence of events that none of the explorers could have imagined. Trapped in a true-life adventure story, the men endured howling blizzards, unearthly cold, food shortages, isolation, a fatal boating accident, a drunken sea captain, disease, dissension, and a horrific crime. But the team pushed on through every obstacle, driven forward by the mystery of Crocker Land and faint hopes that they someday would make it home.
Populated with a cast of memorable characters, and based on years of research in previously untapped sources, A Wretched and Precarious Situation is a harrowing Arctic narrative unlike any other.
©2017 David Welky (P)2017 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,146
In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: The North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the northern oceans. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds in the grip of "Arctic Fever." The ship sailed into uncharted seas, but soon was trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew abandoned the ship.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Superb tale that unravels at an iceburg's pace
- By Anonymous User on 03-19-15
By: Hampton Sides
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Ice Ghosts
- The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition
- By: Paul Watson
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 466
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 412
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 409
Ice Ghosts weaves together the epic story of the Lost Franklin Expedition of 1845 - whose two ships and crew of 129 were lost to the Arctic ice - with the modern tale of the scientists, divers, and local Inuit behind the incredible discovery of the flagship's wreck in 2014. Paul Watson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was on the icebreaker that led the discovery expedition, tells a fast-paced historical adventure story: Sir John Franklin and the crew of the HMS Erebus and Terror setting off in search of the fabled Northwest Passage.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Flawed Writing Dashes High Hopes :(
- By Anonymous User on 03-31-17
By: Paul Watson
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The Lost Men
- The Horrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Party
- By: Kelly Tyler-Lewis
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 76
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton sailed south aboard the Endurance to be the first to cross Antarctica. Shackleton's endeavor is legend, but few know the astonishing story of the Ross Sea party, the support crew he dispatched to the opposite side of the continent to build a vital lifeline of food and fuel depots.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Just OK
- By Anonymous User on 05-17-07
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Barrow's Boys
- By: Fergus Fleming
- Narrated by: James Gillies
- Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow
- By Anonymous User on 07-05-17
By: Fergus Fleming
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The Man Who Ate His Boots
- The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage
- By: Anthony Brandt
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 283
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 239
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 239
The enthralling and often harrowing history of the adventurers who searched for the Northwest Passage, the holy grail of 19th-century British exploration. After the triumphant end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the British took it upon themselves to complete something they had been trying to do since the 16th century: Find the fabled Northwest Passage, a shortcut to the Orient via a sea route over Northern Canada. For the next 35 years the British Admiralty sent out expedition after expedition to probe the ice-bound waters of the Canadian Arctic in search of a route.
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5 out of 5 stars
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They don't get any better than this
- By Anonymous User on 08-15-14
By: Anthony Brandt
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The Last Viking
- The Life of Roald Amundsen
- By: Stephen R. Bown
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 468
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 413
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 411
The Last Viking unravels the life of the man who stands head and shoulders above all those who raced to map the last corners of the world. In 1900, the four great geographical mysteries - the Northwest Passage, the Northeast Passage, the South Pole, and the North Pole - remained blank spots on the globe. Within twenty years Roald Amundsen would claim all four prizes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding.
- By Anonymous User on 12-01-15
By: Stephen R. Bown
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The White Darkness
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 301
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 266
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 266
Henry Worsley spent his life idolizing Ernest Shackleton, the 19th-century polar explorer who tried to become the first person to reach the South Pole and later sought to cross Antarctica on foot. Worsley felt an overpowering connection to those expeditions. In 2008, Worsley set out across Antarctica with two other descendants of Shackleton's crew, battling the freezing, desolate landscape and life-threatening physical exhaustion. He soon felt compelled to go back. In 2015, Worsley bid farewell to his family and embarked on his most perilous quest: to walk across Antarctica alone.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Will Patton's narration
- By Anonymous User on 01-18-19
By: David Grann
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To the Edges of the Earth
- 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration
- By: Edward J. Larson
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
As 1909 dawned, the greatest jewels of exploration - set at the world's frozen extremes - lay unclaimed: the North and South Poles and the so-called "Third Pole", the pole of altitude, located in unexplored heights of the Himalaya. Before the calendar turned, three expeditions had faced death, mutiny, and the harshest conditions on the planet to plant flags at the furthest edges of the Earth.
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5 out of 5 stars
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brutally honest accounts unbelievable stories
- By Anonymous User on 07-17-18
By: Edward J. Larson
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The Cruelest Miles
- The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic
- By: Gay Salisbury, Laney Salisbury
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 442
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 312
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 311
The year is 1925. It is sixty degrees below zero. The wind sweeps tons of snow over the deep-frozen Alaskan landscape. The nearest railhead is seven hundred miles away. Airplanes cannot fly. The way to Nome is blocked by a treacherous frozen sound, an icebound port, and mountains to the west. But there is a diphtheria epidemic in Nome. The children need serum from the outside world if they are to survive. Their only hope is a few chosen Eskimo drivers and their teams of dogs.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Cruelest Miles Makes Exciting Reading
- By Anonymous User on 01-07-04
By: Gay Salisbury, and others
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Erebus
- One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time
- By: Michael Palin
- Narrated by: Michael Palin
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 97
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Story5 out of 5 stars 97
Michael Palin brings the fascinating story of the Erebus and its occupants to life, from its construction as a bomb vessel in 1826 through the flagship years of James Clark Ross’s Antarctic expedition and finally to Sir John Franklin’s quest for the holy grail of navigation - a route through the Northwest Passage, where the ship disappeared into the depths of the sea for more than 150 years. It was rediscovered under the arctic waters in 2014.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Engrossing story
- By Anonymous User on 10-01-24
By: Michael Palin
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Island of the Blue Foxes
- Disaster and Triumph on the World's Greatest Scientific Expedition
- By: Stephen R. Bown
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 220
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 184
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 183
The story of the world's largest, longest, and best-financed scientific expedition of all time, triumphantly successful, gruesomely tragic, and never before fully told. The immense 18th-century scientific journey, variously known as the Second Kamchatka Expedition or the Great Northern Expedition, from St. Petersburg across Siberia to the coast of North America, involved over 3,000 people and cost Peter the Great over one-sixth of his empire's annual revenue.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Vivid History of Russia's First Contact In Alaska
- By Anonymous User on 09-01-18
By: Stephen R. Bown
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Farther Than Any Man
- The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook
- By: Martin Dugard
- Narrated by: Jack Chekijian
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 393
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 341
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 340
In the annals of seafaring and exploration, there is one name that immediately evokes visions of the open ocean, billowing sails, visiting strange, exotic lands previously uncharted, and civilizations never before encountered - Captain James Cook. Full of realistic action, lush descriptions of places and events, and fascinating historical characters such as King George III and the soon-to-be-notorious Master William Bligh, Dugard's gripping account of the life and death of Captain James Cook is a thrilling story of a discoverer hell-bent on going farther than any man.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Sloppy History
- By Anonymous User on 04-06-18
By: Martin Dugard
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Jack London
- An American Life
- By: Earle Labor
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
Jack London was born a working class, fatherless Californian in 1876. In his youth, he was a boundlessly energetic adventurer on the bustling West Coast - an oyster pirate, a hobo, a sailor, and a prospector by turns. He spent his brief life rapidly accumulating the experiences that would inform his acclaimed best-selling books The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Sea-Wolf.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Glad I chose this
- By Anonymous User on 04-14-19
By: Earle Labor
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Disappointment River
- Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage
- By: Brian Castner
- Narrated by: Brian Castner
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 119
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 103
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
Disappointment River is a dual historical narrative and travel memoir that at once transports listeners back to the heroic age of North American exploration and places them in a still rugged but increasingly fragile Arctic wilderness in the process of profound alteration by the dual forces of energy extraction and climate change.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
- By Anonymous User on 05-06-18
By: Brian Castner
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Into Africa
- The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone
- By: Martin Dugard
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,320
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,745
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,737
"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" So goes the signature introduction of New York Herald star journalist Henry Morton Stanley to renowned explorer Dr. David Livingstone, who had been missing for six years in the wilds of Africa. Into Africa ushers us into the meeting of these remarkable men. In 1866, when Livingstone journeyed into the heart of the African continent in search of the Nile's source, the land was rough, unknown to Europeans, and inhabited by man-eating tribes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Riveting
- By Anonymous User on 04-01-04
By: Martin Dugard
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The Stowaway
- A Young Man's Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica
- By: Laurie Gwen Shapiro
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 116
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
It was 1928: a time of illicit booze, of Gatsby and Babe Ruth, of freewheeling fun. The Great War was over, and American optimism was higher than the stock market. What better moment to launch an expedition to Antarctica, the planet's final frontier? The night before the expedition's flagship launched, Billy Gawronski - a skinny, first-generation New York City high schooler desperate to escape a dreary future in the family upholstery business - jumped into the Hudson River and snuck aboard. Could he get away with it?
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Nice Little Story About A Nice Young Man...
- By Anonymous User on 01-23-18
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81 Days Below Zero
- The Incredible Survival Story of a World War II Pilot in Alaska's Frozen Wilderness
- By: Brian Murphy, Toula Vlahou
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 686
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 617
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 620
The untold story of Leon Crane, the only surviving crew member of a World War II B-24 crash on a remote mountain near the Arctic Circle, who managed to stay alive 81 days in sub-zero temperature by making peace with nature, and end his ordeal by walking along a river to safety. Part World War II story, part Alaskan adventure story, part survival story, and even part inspirational story, this is what we call " a good listen".
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2 out of 5 stars
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Diluted and Distracted
- By Anonymous User on 09-27-15
By: Brian Murphy, and others
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Gold Diggers
- Striking It Rich in the Klondike
- By: Charlotte Gray
- Narrated by: Steven Cooper
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 53
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Between 1896 and 1899, thousands of people lured by gold braved a grueling journey into the remote wilderness of North America. Within two years, Dawson City, in the Canadian Yukon, grew from a mining camp of four hundred to a raucous town of more than thirty thousand. The stampede to the Klondike was the last great gold rush in history. Scurvy, dysentery, frostbite, and starvation stalked all who dared to be in Dawson. And yet the possibilities attracted people from all walks of life.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Disappointed...
- By Anonymous User on 01-29-14
By: Charlotte Gray
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- The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage
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