Posts Tagged ‘John Rae!’
Say 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 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…
Read MoreOur Hero sacrifices modesty to preserve insightful review in Cyberspace
Dead Reckoning offers lively account of Inuit contributions to discovery of Northwest Passage Review by Charlie Smith (Georgia Strait, Oct. 22, 2017) Charles Dickens is deservedly seen as the greatest novelist in Victorian England. The author of such masterpieces as David Copperfield and Great Expectations was also an influential social activist, campaigning for various reforms,…
Read MoreDead Reckoning takes us into the secret life of maps
This glorious map turns up as endpapers in Dead Reckoning: The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage. It was drawn by Dawn Huck, one of the principals at Heartland Associates in Winnipeg. I love the way it captures the discovery of the original Northwest Passage in three essential expeditions. The first, led by John Franklin,…
Read MoreSave Rae’s Clestrain with actions in Orkney and the High Arctic
Arctic explorer John Rae, who died in 1893, is alive and well in the news. The BBC reported on July 5 that the Orkney Islands Council is conferring the Freedom of Orkney on that Stromness-born explorer, albeit posthumously. Bravo for that action! Here’s hoping it draws attention to the ongoing drive to fund the restoration of Rae’s…
Read MoreSpontaneous dash to Orkney produces lost images and a whirlwind tour
We made a spontaneous dash to Orkney to visit Tom and Rhonda Muir. Then we contrived to banish them to the wrong camera (hence no pix of them!) and ended up with shots of a hotel, a statue and a charming young couple on the steps of a classic edifice in urgent need of refurbishment…
Read MoreJohn Rae Centre will celebrate Orkney, the Arctic, and the Inuit
I do love this image created by Orcadian photographer James Grieve. He has combined photos of the Stromness statue of explorer John Rae and the Hall of Clestrain, where Rae was born in 1813. Having visited the Hall a few times over the years, I still most vividly remember the first time, in 1998, when…
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 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 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…
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