Ice!

by Tristan Jones

Ice

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Adventure, Nautical

259 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Arthur Jones, pen name Tristan Jones was a prolific English author and mariner. His stories, mostly about sailing, are a combination of both fact and fiction, and it is rather difficult to tell these apart.
He was an illegitimate child, and was raised mainly in orphanages. He joined the Royal Navy in 1946, and served for 14 years. After ending his career in the Navy, he bought a sailboat, became a whiskey smuggler, and scraped a living sailing the Mediterranean Sea.
After his left leg was amputated in 1982 (a result of health problems and accidents), he resumed sailing and sailed the trimaran Outward Leg from San Diego to London, then across central Europe by river and canal to the Black Sea, and then around south Asia to Thailand.
After the amputation of his right leg in 1991 he only returned briefly to sea, and he lived in Phuket, Thailand, he converted to Islam and took on the name 'Ali'.

Reviews

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked it but could not give it more than 4 starts because the book is written as a memoir, but it is in fact partly fictional, which becomes obvious after some unreliable episodes, like the one with the polar bear which I found quite annoying… If we ignore this, as well as a few somewhat chauvinistic comments (after all, the book was written in 1978 and the story is set in the 1950ies and early 1960ies), then this is a great travel and adventure read.

Ice! tells the story of a sailing expedition to the Arctic in a refurbished sailing boat having as single company a three-legged dog. Interspersed in the narration are very interesting descriptions of the history of sailing and great citations opening each chapter ranging from old sailor songs, philosophical texts and Emily Dickinson’s poems. I particularly liked the sailor’s songs :)

Here’s an example:

My father was the keeper of the Eddystone Light
And he loved a mermaid one fine night,
The result of the union were offspring three,
A dolphin and a porpoise and the other was me!
Oh, Ho! The wind blows free,
Oh for a life on the rolling sea!

(From a traditional English Channel song)

A very enjoyable read and I can’t help being amazed at the author’s craft, considering he was brought up in orphanages, with little real education and taught himself to write.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read and enjoyed most everything Tristan Jones every wrote. A salty old dog of a storyteller and a total delight.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tristan does it again as he travels the seas with a three legged dog as a companion. This is great tale of ship life and both the good and bad sides of sailing basically alone (canine companion notwithstanding).

[Cecelia Hightower]

A great adventure book about a Welsh man who is discharged from the military and sets a goal for himself of finding a seaworthy boat for a solitary expedition to the polar North. He found a derelict 34 foot boat with a shallow keel which had been abandoned for at least ten years. It took him five years to outfit the boat for his expedition north. His only traveling companion was a three legged Labrador who had sailed with his good friend for many years. The book covered his route, his experiences included an encounter with a voracious polar bear, being lost in a blinding blizzard and a narrow escape from being crushed to death by a capsizing iceberg. He survived all of these experiences with great fortitude and didn't go crazy.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful sailing adventure

I am not familiar with the author, I don't sail and I admit that the technical aspects were over my head but this book was beautiful. I loved it. It was funny and emotional and I do not care if it was fact or fiction. It was great and I recommend this book highly!

[Jerz · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like seafaring stories of the "old school" - no mod-cons or superyachts. Jones's stories will definitely appeal. Invalided out of the Navy with a broken back and told that he will never sail again he bought an old lifeboat. He promptly sailed it around Iceland and as far north as you can get with his old mentor's three legged dog. They got stuck in the ice for 18 months living off his staple diet of "Burgoo".

He followed this book with others including "Incredible Voyage" where he dragged his yacht across to the Dead Sea and then across the Andes to lake Titicaca so that he could sail in the lowest and highest navigable points on the world.

In another book, having lost his leg, he traverses the Atlantic for something like the 17th time and crosses Europe through the canals in a trimaran before Eastern Europe opened up.

There are a number of books covering his exploits, every one a gem.

[Bruce Rhind · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like true stories about people determined to travel where they shouldn't and determined to achieve goals that no one in their right mind would ever consider... so that survival is almost impossible, except by mastery of extreme conditions, superhuman endurance, and luck... then this is a great book. It is especially interesting in describing his techniques for ensuring the survival of his small wooden boat in the ice, where so many ships have been crushed and sunk. He also relates his thoughts about the state of mind you need to endure many months of loneliness, boredom and danger. There are often delightful passages of eloquent prose about sights and experiences that satisfy the desire for beautiful use of English. And it has a three-legged dog who seems to think that trying to sail to the North Pole is completely normal.

[Martin Chambers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read somewhere that it may be that there could be a touch of fiction in Tristan Jones's stories. Years ago I read 'The incredible voyage' and enjoyed it very much perhaps because I believed it all to be true. So now, 'Ice' and I cannot but help see the similarities and observe in myself I did not enjoy it as much. I think, mostly, this was not so much because of truthfulness but because, having set out to sail further north than anyone had ever before, and on becoming ice bound and wintering over, and re floating after all the dramas that would sink most men and boats, he does not adequately explain why he then seeks rescue by setting off flares. Still, be it imagined or real, this is an incredible tale and worth reading.
And beforehand, read his life story, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan...

[Kirk Knighton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tristan Jones has pulled me through many a dark frozen arctic nights in my life; thank God for him. And this is my favorite book of his.

[Win Dunwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unbelievable a novel vs non-fiction?

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a coastal single handed trimaran sailor and have rowed the inside passage from Olympia, WA to Ketchikan Alaska using an aero chart. Having read Ice recently I believe every word, contrary to those that question T Jones truthfulness. My interest was the physical nature of ice on the sea and I got alot more out of Mr. Jones. I probably confirmed some philosophy from his closing remarks and I've been around 73 years so that is not easy to do. I was captivated by Erskine Childers, Riddle of the Sands, about 60 years ago and TJ mentions it on page 50. Tristan likes to tell stories. I read portions of his account going down the Danube as well during flood stage. Maybe I could do half as good describing my next boat and adventure with the fiords and rivers of Alaska and British Columbia which is upcoming:-)

[James Marinero · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great yarn - and seamen's yarns have to be taken with a pinch of salt. He's an erudite writer, with an earthy style which I love. Seasoned sailors may see the occasional 'hole' in his story, but most would miss them - and there are not a lot. I loved it. 4+ stars.

[Connie Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book. I love reading about the cold waters. This man has sailed them all.

[S.P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most exciting and beautiful (in a rugged kind of way) solo polar adventure story ever told, in the classic style of a seafarer's yarn...blending fiction with nonfiction.

[R.Bruce Macdonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly entertaining.

[Joan Yokom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Riveting!

[Dick Varga · Rating 4 out of 5]

so how much was true? How much was fiction? Does it matter? Great yarns of seafaring and being your own man.

[David]

Tristan Jones will always be on my Mount Rushmore of authors!

[Mark Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

P

[Tim Coventry-Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the book as a kid and it inspired me as one of those tales of adventure, hardship and perseverance. Jones tells a great story.