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Great Exploration Hoaxes - by David Roberts

Book Review, © Copyright 2001, Jim Loy

Reading about how mysteries are solved is fascinating. This book is especially good. Here is a list of the chapters, with my comments.

  1. Sabastian Cabot - Claimed to have explored much of what is now Northern Canada in search of the Northwest Passage. Eventually it was shown that his father John Cabot (actually named Giovanni Caboto) was the actual explorer.
  2. Father Louis Hennepin - Claimed to have explored most of the Mississippi River and its surroundings. Nearly all of his claims were shown to be false.
  3. Robert Drury - He was perhaps the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and was probably a fraud.
  4. Abyssinian Bruce - Early explorer of Ethiopia, was universally branded a fraud. His claims were later shown to be accurate in almost every way. He was not a fraud.
  5. Captain Samuel Adams - Fraudulently claimed to explore much of the Colorado, including the Grand Canyon.
  6. Dr. Frederick Cook - Fraudulently claimed to have been the first to climb Mt. McKinley (called Denali by the Inuits), and to have been the first to reach the North Pole. The first claim was later conclusively shown to have been a hoax, the second claim was never really taken seriously.
  7. Robert Peary - Is likely to have never reached the North Pole, although he is usually given credit for it.
  8. Admiral Richard Byrd - Probably did not actually fly over the North Pole, although he probably thought he had.
  9. Cesare Maestri - Claimed that he had climbed Cerro Torre, the "hardest mountain in the world," widely considered to have been a fraud.
  10. Donald Crowhurst - Was winning a round the world sailing race when he disappeared from his boat. Examination of his diary shows that he never left the Atlantic Ocean. See The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst - by Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall

To order this book, click on Amazon.com (goes directly to this book).

Alexander Selkirk, who was put ashore on the island of Juan Fernandez (off the coast of Chile) by his shipmates because he was a troublemaker, and who was rescued more than four years later, is widely considered the model for Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. See the interesting book Selkirk's Island, by Diana Souhami. In Search of Robinson Crusoe by Timothy Severin lists Selkirk and several other shipwrecked sailors as Defoe's inspiration.

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