In 1850, Richard Collinson captained the HMS Enterprise on a voyage to the Arctic in search of the missing Franklin expedition. Under Collinson's com-mand, the Enterprise was instructed to find and hopefully rescue, the Franklin expedition by approaching the Northwest Passage from the west. Barr tells the story of that most unusual journey, during which the crew passed three winters frozen into the arctic ice. Relations between Collinson and many of his officers were so poor that three of them spent most of the voyage under arrest [for treason?], only to be exonerated of the wrongful charges upon ar-rival back in the UK. This gripping tale is accompanied by a selection of vivid paintings by the ships assistant surgeon, Edward Adams. "Arctic Hell-Ship" is a story reminiscent of many Arctic explorers of the nineteenth century, whose lives on the sea became as bitter and unpredictable as the sea itself.