Posts Tagged ‘Franklin expedition’
Beechey Island whiteout inspires Dead Reckoning video
Scenes from September, voyaging Out of the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada. Day 8: Beechey Island For visiting Beechey Island, the best-known historical site in the Arctic, the day was perfect: cool and overcast. We went ashore in zodiacs and climbed the rocky, snow-swept slope to the graves of the first three sailors to die…
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 MoreDead Reckoning inspires first-ever book launch at Beechey Island
First came the book launch at Beechey Island. We were sailing through the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada when, thanks to a myriad of volunteers, the party just erupted. OK, we didn’t party ON the island, site of the graves of the first three men to die on the 1845 Franklin expedition. That would have…
Read MoreHunter-historian Kamookak joins voyage to Franklin’s first-found ship
Can’t wait to travel again with Louie Kamookak! He’s the Inuk historian who pointed the way to Erebus, the first-found ship of John Franklin. Louie will revisit that site in September while sailing Out of the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada. You can find out more about this looming adventure by going here. I’m excited because…
Read MoreDead Reckoning goes orange thanks to hard-fought Facebook battle
So there you have it. Orange has won out over blue. The choice was difficult, the battle hard fought. But in the end, our scientific Facebook poll delivered a decisive result: 61% orange, 39% blue. And this on well over 200 votes! If the Brexit debacle or the 2016 American election had produced such clear results, imagine…
Read More‘Franklinistas’ are surfing an Arctic tsunami
KEN MCGOOGAN Special to The Globe and Mail Published Saturday, Mar. 18, 2017 Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition, by Paul Watson. M&S, Penguin Random House, 384 pages, $34.95. Minds of Winter, by Ed O’Loughlin. House of Anansi, 481 pages, $22.95. The headline is telegraphic: “How quest for Northwest Passage turned into…
Read MoreDead Reckoning takes us to the wreck of John Franklin’s Erebus
To a crazy-busy 2017, the eagerly awaited, double-whammy climax will come in September. First, we go voyaging Out of the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada. And this being a celebration year (something about Canada’s 150th birthday?), we get to enjoy a special, spectacular treat. Assuming the weather behaves, we will don a dry suit and, accompanied by…
Read MoreBeechey Island graves testify to the demise of the Franklin expedition
[Beechey Island is the most visited historical site in the Arctic — and with good reason. Last September, we got snow. In 2017, when we sail Out of the Northwest Passage, we will call in there once more.] DAY TEN– Beechey Island Sixty or seventy beluga whales stole the show at Beechey Island. We floated…
Read MoreAn Open Letter to Explorer John Rae On His Birthday
Dear Dr. Rae: I write from the future to wish you Happy Birthday on the 203rd anniversary of your birth. What to report from 2016? Well, searchers have recently found the two lost ships of Sir John Franklin, Erebus and Terror. This has sparked renewed interest in the fate of the 1845 Franklin expedition. On this subject, slowly we…
Read MoreMeet Louie Kamookak: champion of the Inuit oral tradition
Wonderful to see that my friend Louie Kamookak — Inuit historian, Franklin expert, and public speaker — has set up a website (click here). I’m looking forward to catching Louie in Ottawa on April 12, where he will participate in a panel discussion about Franklin and the Inuit oral tradition. It will be hosted by…
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