Captain Francis Crozier: Last Man Standing? Paperback – July 15, 2014

I watched AMC's The Terror and immediately had to read more - What happened to Crozier? A man looking for love in all the wrong places. I finished Last Man Standing today and, while The Terror imagines much, this book does not actually change the story - it leaves what happened still left up to imaginations and perhaps next year's science. But, the ships have been discovered, bones found, not enough notes found to write the rest of the story. I am really enjoying this read, the style, the illustrations and the facts that leave the truth alone, yet to be known. A worthy read for anyone interested in the NW Passage, in Crozier, Franklin . . may interest was in the ships that survived the gnarly South Pole. This book shines a light on a new word "cocksure" of which that the Admiralty was plentiful and that, the Navy's hubris, was the actual demise of Crozier, Franklin, Scott, Shackleton and their crews. Michael Smith, the author here, did a good research and held true to the story.

This is a good, true story about a major, but overlooked, Arctic and Antarctic explorer, Francis Crozier. It details his life as an Irishman in the British Navy, including the ethnic discrimination that held back his career. It is a nice companion piece to any of the first hand accounts of polar exploration written in the Golden Era of polar exploration. The narrative moves along at a good pace and fills in some missing pieces of the portrait of an officer whose name appears in many places in the biographies of other, more famous (by chance) British naval officers and explorers.

After watching the TV episodes of "The Terror" I was interested in the life of Capt. Crozier. This was a very interesting book of his early life and the many years he spent in the Royal Navy. He certainly did not get the credit he deserved for all that he accomplished, but the Royal Navy had its pecking order and he did not fit in. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the early explorations of both the North and South poles.

I looked for this after watching The Terror on AMC. The Terror, based on the novel of the same name, was a fanciful speculation regarding the fate of the crew members of HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, which disappeared during an expedition to find the Northwest Passage in the mid 18th Century.

Smith here unvails Crozier, the unsung Irish hero of the ice, likely bilked due to his nationally and jealous peers in the British Admiralty. 6 expeditions on the ice at both poles spaning 40 years, setting eyes on and helped naming many landmarks across both. Wow..this volume shines brightly and in my mind, be required reading along with Shakelton and Amundson.

Insight into this explorers life.

A wonderfully researched compliment to any polar reading library. Crozier's story is another well deserved biography, placing him among some of the best explorers in our historical documentaries of polar exploration.

Very interesting life story which gives a good insight into the workings of the Royal Navy and it's Admiralty. The descriptions of the many expeditions became a bit repetitive but I suppose that that's to be expected. All in all an interesting read.

This is a definitive masterpiece of polar literature. The author has gone to great lengths to gather as much information as possible about the life of Captain Crozier and the factors that contributed to his choices both in earlier Polar expeditions and in his last one. I believe this book fills a long-existent gap in the Polar saga and is definitely recommended to anyone interested in one true hero of exploration.

I thoroughly enjoyed this excellent and fascinating account of the life of a largely unsung hero of British polar exploration in the nineteeth century. It is well written and conveys much of the atmosphere of the times. Crozier's mysterious disappearance on his last expedition adds a frisson of intrigue to the whole story. My only complaint is that the maps do not show up well on my Kindle. I suppose that is an inevitable aspect of the ebook format.

After I read Dan Simmonds' "The Terror" I wanted to find out more. It's a pity that so much about this tragic expedition has of necessity to be speculation, and that is why I've only given it four stars.

Covers the subject in an accessible way and keeps the reader interested throughout he book, covers the subject well nd

A cracking, couldn't put the book down read , loved it .