The World of Ice

The World of Ice
or, The Whaling Cruise of 'The Dolphin' and the Adventures of Her Crew in the Polar Regions

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(1 Review)
The World of Ice by Robert Michael Ballantyne

Published:

1860

Pages:

216

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1,412

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The World of Ice
or, The Whaling Cruise of 'The Dolphin' and the Adventures of Her Crew in the Polar Regions

By

3
(1 Review)

Book Excerpt

oats, but without effect, although the shot plunged into the water all round them. As they drew nearer, a brisk fire of musketry was opened on them, and the occasional falling of an oar and confusion on board showed that the shots told. The pirates replied vigorously, but without effect, as the men of the ship were sheltered by the bulwarks.

"Pass the word to load and reserve fire," said the captain, "and hand me a musket, Fred. Load again as fast as I fire." So saying, the captain took aim, and fired at the steersman of the largest boat, which pulled towards the stern. "Another, Fred--"

At this moment a withering volley was poured upon the boat, and a savage yell of agony followed, while the rowers--who remained unhurt--paused for an instant as if paralysed. Next instant they recovered, and another stroke would have brought them almost alongside, when Captain Ellice pointed the little carronade and fired. There was a terrific crash, the gun recoiled violently to the other side of the deck, and

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The story describes the adventures of Dolphin (a ship) to search for Pole Star, a lost ship of Fred's (hero) father in Arctic region. On the way Dolphin confronted various perils like collision with floating ice bergs, lack of provisions etc. However the crews hunt, play football, enjoy singing, dancing, organizing theaters in leisure. The book actually introduces Arctic nature, wild life, Eskimos and many other things to the readers through the activities of the crews. In one place of the book author described how the Eskimo interpreter Meetuck built an Igloo (Eskimo snow hut) and it delighted me a lot.

If you want to acquaint yourself with Arctic's nature through pleasure of reading, grab it and start reading. The story contains substantial interesting materials unknown to non-Arctics.

I would definitely recommend it for 12-16 years old. For them it’s a great read.

But grown up readers like me (I’m 23) always want tense suspense and perilous journeys full of fast-moving occurrences in sea adventure, right? In the beginning of this story there were indeed some interesting events but gradually the story seems to focus on the Arctic nature and life styles. In a place in the story, Fred found a skeleton of a Pole Star’s crew died about a few years ago. I didn’t understand how the cold weather in Arctic region lets any human corpse to turn into skeleton. Little doubtful though. After all, as it’s an Arctic story, it might be entertaining to the grown up readers.