Shipwreck at Cape Flora: The Expeditions of Benjamin Leigh Smith, England's Forgotten Arctic Explorer (Northern Lights, 16) (Volume 16)($28.81Value)

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Gripping tales of survival, exploration, and discovery are told with humour and panache in the ripped-from-the-archives story of Benjamin Leigh Smith, England’s forgotten Arctic explorer. Benjamin Leigh Smith discovered and named dozens of islands in the Arctic but published no account of his pioneering explorations. He refused public accolades and sent stand-ins to deliver the results of his work to scientific societies. Yet, the Royal Geographic Society’s Sir Clements R. Markham referred to him as a polar explorer of the first rank. Traveling to the Arctic islands that Leigh Smith explored and crisscrossing England to uncover unpublished journals, diaries, and photographs, archaeologist and writer P. J. Capelotti details Leigh Smith’s five major Arctic expeditions and places them within the context of the great polar explorations in the nineteenth century. Capelotti has produced a comprehensive, well-written, and well-researched account not only of Benjamin Leigh Smith's Arctic expeditions, but also of his unusual fam­ily background and his eccentricities. Given that Leigh Smith himself never published anything about his expe­ditions, this is an impressive accomplishment.... Capelotti has made a valuable contribution to Arctic historiography by so effec­tively bringing this brilliant, publicity-shy eccentric out of the shadows. -William Barr, Arctic : 66 (3): 366-368 "These are gripping tales of the sea, and of survival against the odds, which Capelotti, working from unpublished journals and diaries, recounts with enthusiasm and panache, while preserving the abundant subtle humour and typically English understatement of the original sources. A seasoned Arctic traveller himself, the author's empathy with the explorer shines through every page ... allowing us for the first time to see inside the complex mind of this reclusive and most neglected pioneer." -Raymond John Howgego, International Journal of Maritime History Not only does the book capture the adventures of Benjamin Leigh Smith with detail and excitement, it provides an overview of Arctic exploration as a whole. Capelotti utilized journals and logs written by Benjamin Leigh Smith and his contemporaries, to give a well-written, and well-researched account of a man lost to history. Capelotti's knowledge of Arctic exploration is on full display in this biography. Between the sagas of Benjamin Leigh Smith are detailed narratives that highlight events that took place during the same time period. Though Capelotti has documented the accounts of Benjamin Leigh Smith before (Capelotti, 2006, 2008, 2010), none pull this history together with such an interesting, compelling, and sometimes humorous style as Shipwreck at Cape Flora . --Chris McEvoy (2015), Polar Geography, 38:2, 171-172 P. J. Capelotti is Professor of Anthropology at Penn State University, Abington College. He is the author of more than a dozen books.