CONTENTS List of illustrations Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION: THE INVISIBLE THRONE Exploring Heroism Attractive Performances A Hagiography of Action Realms of Representation Polar Celebrity Newfangled Technology Spectacles and Showmen 1 IMAGINING NAVAL HEROES Navy and Nation A Century of Change Tars of the Future Chivalry of the Sea I will be a Hero A New Patriotism Muscular Christianity Brave Spirits Duty and Daring Noble Failure Curious Cultures of Exploration Geographies of the Imagination Arctic Dreams 2 NELSON AND THE BEAR The Making of a Myth The Expedition and the Anecdote Fact and Fiction Southey and an Arctic Image Polar Performance Continuing the Tale Nelsons of Discovery A School for Future Nelsons Creative Travels Distorted Truths Inventing Things 3 THE PERILS OF CELEBRITY Hero of the Arctic Regions The Frenzy of Renown Controversial Beginnings Reporting Exploration A Hero in Print Miscellaneous Missions Lion of the Season The Hero Performs Pub Songs and Ship Ballads Acts of Discovery Nautical Melodrama Reconsidering Re-enactments Polar Portraits Panoramic Depictions Arctic Extravaganza Reward and Recrimination The Book Bitter Criticism Reputations 4 A FLIGHT OF FANCY Transforming Technologies Reconstructing the Life of a Showman-Explorer Searching for Franklin First Ascents Lectures and Lobbying Balloonacy Daring to be Different Flights of the Imagination Perfect Madness To the Limits 5 EXHIBITING THINGS The New Navalism Revisiting the Royal Naval Exhibition of 1891 Appealing Visions Displaying the Arctic Propagating Heroic Myths The End of an Epic Heroic Sailor-Soul Inscriptions Remembering Franklin Conjecture and Reality Imaginative Resource 6 FRANKLIN'S GHOST Crushed Geographies Half-Truths London Stories Follow After Durable Illusions National Diversions On the Use of Ships Glimpses of a Marvel Who Needs Heroes? Look Again Chasing Bears Notes Index.