Posts Tagged ‘northwest passage’
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 MoreSailing the St. Roch through the Northwest Passage
Here I am in the St. Roch, steering the ship through the Northwest Passage. OK, OK, so I am hard at work in the St. Roch Wheelhouse Experience, which is nearly the same thing, right? This is at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, where tonight I gave a talk called Breaking the Ice: Dead Reckoning in…
Read MoreDead Reckoning hailed as transformative masterpiece
By Dave Obee Victoria Times-Colonist Oct. 15, 2017 Dead Reckoning: The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage By Ken McGoogan HarperCollins, 438 pp., $33.99 The Arctic is not the place it used to be; climate change is taking care of that. It is still a challenging part of Canada, but warmer weather and the relative…
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 MoreSailing Out of the Northwest Passage launches Dead Reckoning
More Dead Reckoning events are in the works. But at this point, Our Hero is sailing with Adventure Canada Out of the Northwest Passage from Sept. 7 to 23. After that, the confirmed schedule looks like this: Sept. 27: Toronto: Ben McNally Oct. 1: Stratford Writers’ Festival Oct. 14, 15: Calgary Wordfest Oct. 17: Victoria:…
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 MoreMake that Ocean to Ocean to Ocean: Canada’s Really BIG!
Over the past few days, I have been revisiting 50 Canadians Who Changed the World and shamelessly reliving The VIA-Rail, 50 Canadians, Ocean-to-Ocean, Book-Tour Extravaganza. Rail-trip of a lifetime, courtesy of VIA-Rail and Harper-Collins Canada. Sure, I had to talk endlessly about one of my books and write a few articles for VIA-Destinations, a now-defunct magazine, but…
Read MoreThis Canadian moment symbolizes achievement & reconciliation
Here I stand on King William Island in August, 1999. Matheson Point. Behind me is Rae Strait. Three of us were about to cross that strait — Louie Kamookak, Cameron Treleaven, and I — to see if we could find a cairn built in 1854 on Canada’s Arctic coast. We were bent on honoring the…
Read MoreSmaller than the Crystal Serenity, yet too big for a Scottish port
As we approached Oban on the ferry from Barra, I mistook this ship for the Crystal Serenity, which is slated to sail through the Northwest Passage later this year. But no. It’s the MV Artania, which was anchored offshore because it is too big to enter the port. This particular Motorized Vessel is 231 metres…
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…
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