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Gjoa Haven features Amundsen, Kamookak, Martin Bergmann
Voyaging Out of the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada, September 2018: Day 4: Gjoa Haven The little kids stole the show. Five to seven years old, they emerged in pairs, jigging out into the centre of the high school gymnasium. Within seconds, we visitors were dabbing at our eyes. These innocents were dancing so intently,…
Read MoreParks Canada expects to find human remains on Franklin ships
Voyaging Out of the Northwest Passage last September with Adventure Canada. Day 3: Simpson Strait “I expect to find human remains.” So said Marc-Andre Bernier this morning in response to a question about diving on the Erebus. “Most likely bones, skeletons.” He noted that Inuit testimony speaks of at least one body on what would…
Read MoreLighting the Kudlik in the Northwest Passage
As a rule, when we sail in the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada, I end up writing the “official” logbook that goes out to passengers as an illustrated booklet. Towards the end of the year, I like to post a few excerpts. It gets me remembering . . . and excites me about next year.…
Read MoreArctic Return Expedition backs Orkney vision of a John Rae World Heritage site
While announcing the 2019 Arctic Return Expedition, which will follow in the footsteps of Arctic explorer John Rae, team leader David Reid spoke of yearning to do something about the dilapidated condition of Rae’s birthplace in Stromness, Orkney: the Hall of Clestrain. “Clestrain stands as an example of something once proud, dignified, and strong,” he…
Read MoreArctic Return Expedition will seek Northwest Passage in the footsteps of John Rae
“A snow storm of great violence raged during the whole of [April] 14th, which did not prevent us from making an attempt to get forward; after persevering two and a half hours, and gaining a mile and a half distance, we were again forced to take shelter.” — John Rae on his 1854 expedition In…
Read MoreGeologist finds relic from Franklin search
Canadian geologist Francis Manns was prospecting for lead and zinc. The mid-summer day was bright and literally endless — 24-hour sunlight. Manns was working his way along the Abbott River in the middle of Cornwallis Island, some distance north of Resolute Bay, when he spotted a cairn on a ridge or pinnacle. “It was two…
Read MorePolar Bears explain the Fate of Franklin
What happened to the Franklin Expedition? Researchers have been debating that since 1847, two years after Sir John Franklin disappeared into the Arctic with 128 men. From the note found at Victory Point on King William Island, we know that in April 1848, 105 men left the two ice-locked ships. The note tells us that…
Read MoreSay goodbye to defenders of the Royal Navy narrative of the Northwest Passage
A few days ago, in the comments section below the Globe and Mail review of Dead Reckoning, I placed a link to my rejoinder. The review’s author, Janice Cavell, has responded in that same forum. She says nothing about my two main criticisms, and so apparently concedes — first, that her review short-shrifted the Inuit,…
Read MoreArctic expert Kenn Harper sings the unsung in solidarity with Dead Reckoning heroes
Over at The Arctic Book Review, Kenn Harper begins by declaring that I have “produced yet another worthy northern book.” Harper, an Arctic historian and formerly Denmark’s honorary consul in Nunavut, continues: “Dead Reckoning sets out to tell, as its sub-title proclaims, “The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage.” The book is peopled with the…
Read MoreDisdain for the Inuit won’t fly in Canada when Franklin exhibition moves to Ottawa
The disdain for the Inuit is palpable . . . and worrisome. We can only hope that the people bringing this project to Canada are planning major revisions. Yes, I have laid hands on a copy of Sir John Franklin’s Erebus and Terror Expedition / Lost and Found by Gillian Hutchinson (Bloomsbury). It grows out…
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