Posts Tagged ‘Erebus’
Next time out, divers will probably find human remains on the Erebus
What happens next with the Erebus? I’ve been thinking about this because tonight will find me just north of Toronto, speaking to roughly 120 women about Searching for Franklin: The Lost Ships, the Discoveries, and the Woman Who Created a Legend. The occasion is the celebratory May Dinner of the Aurora/Newmarket branch of the Canadian…
Read MoreGetting excited to sail Out of the Northwest Passage
We’ve done eight or nine voyages with Adventure Canada, Sheena and I, but this year is shaping up to be special. First, sailing Out of the Northwest Passage is my favorite itinerary. As always, we’ll be sailing through exploration history: John Franklin, John Rae, Thomas Simpson, Roald Amundsen. But this year, traveling in September, we’ll…
Read MoreSearching for Franklin leads Our Hero to University Women
Originally, I had planned to give a talk entitled Nothing is More Fun Than Chasing the New History. But then came the finding of the Erebus. And participating in the documentary called Franklin’s Lost Ships. And people saying, well, this latest discovery is fun. But what does it mean? Why does it matter? So I’ve…
Read MoreFranklin’s Lost Ships turn up on CBC-TV’s The Nature of Things
Hats off to Andrew E.M. Gregg! He produced Franklin’s Lost Ships, an extraordinary new documentary that turned up April 9 on CBC-TVs The Nature of Things. And finished in such a short period! The most impressive thing may well have been how smoothly the narrative unwound, cutting back and forth between the contemporary search and…
Read MoreSearching for John Franklin: 2015 should bring major revelations . . .
Why are people highlighting the search for the Terror? That’s what I found myself wondering. The most exciting discoveries will almost certainly be made aboard the Erebus. Last September, with winter coming on, time ran out before Parks Canada divers could investigate that long-lost Franklin vessel. When they return this year, they will have time…
Read MoreThe ROM launches a 3-year, cross-country, Franklin celebration
Ryan Harris felt a first rush of “absolute jubilation” when the sonar image of a ship popped up onto his monitor. As a senior underwater archaeologist with Parks Canada, Harris had spent the past six field seasons searching for a Franklin ship. Now, at last, he was looking at one of them. Harris and his…
Read MoreCanadian Geographic celebrates the discovery of Franklin’s Erebus
The December issue of Canadian Geographic is billed as a “special collector’s edition,” and rightly so. It is built around the recent discovery of Erebus, the long-lost ship of Sir John Franklin, pictured above on the right. Contributors include John Geiger, Wade Davis, Leona Aglukkaq, Fergus Fleming, Noah Richler, Russell Potter and yours truly. Put…
Read MoreThe woman who launched the search for Sir John Franklin
“Denied a role in Victorian England’s male-dominated society, Jane Franklin (1791–1875) took her revenge by seizing control of that most masculine of pursuits, Arctic exploration, and shaping its history to her own ends.” This clarification went missing during my own final edit of the book, to my lasting mortification. So it’s great to see it…
Read MoreWhy John Rae and NOT Sir John Franklin
So folks are (still!) debating the accomplishments of John Franklin and John Rae over at Russell Potter’s blog, where I have been driven to offer the following thoughts . . . .:http://visionsnorth.blogspot.ca/2012/09/a-navigable-northwest-passage.html Greetings, Russell. Nicely done. But we do not yet see eye to eye. We agree, I think, that John Rae discovered Rae Strait.…
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