Posts Tagged ‘Roald Amundsen’
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 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 MoreOur Northwest Passage voyage reaches for the Beaufort Sea
[Here endeth this series about our 2016 Adventure Canada voyage. Next September, we sail Out of the Northwest Passage, bent on finding the Hand of Franklin (or at least visiting the location of the Erebus).] DAY SIXTEEN . . . Cambridge Bay We saw the wreck of the Maud, recently brought to the surface after…
Read MoreGjoa Haven highlights this Adventure Canada voyage
DAY FIFTEEN — Gjoa Haven The people of Gjoa Haven welcomed our on-board Inuit singers as if they were rock stars. Come to think of it, they ARE rock starts. Susan Aglukark has an international reputation and following, so the screaming was no surprise. But young Kelly Fraser was also accorded a tumultuous reception. This…
Read MoreYo, Roald Amundsen! Happy South Pole Day . . . .
Hats off to Roald Amundsen, the most accomplished polar explorer of them all. One hundred and three years ago today, on Dec. 14, 1911, he reached the geographical South Pole as leader of the first Antarctic expedition to do so. Fifteen years later, in 1926, he also became the first to reach the North Pole…
Read MoreOur Hero hangs with the Last of the Vikings
I’m a Roald Amundsen man myself. But Fridtjof Nansen was also quite the explorer. We got to touch base today with both, here at the Fram Museum in Oslo. That’s Our Hero aboard the Fram, with which Nansen made polar history. Yes, you can actually go aboard and wander around. Here you see me shaking…
Read MoreRoald Amundsen: The Last Viking . . .
In the Globe and Mail of Nov. 17, our hero reviews the new biography of Roald Amundsen, called The Last Viking. Author: Stephen Bown. Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre . . . By Ken McGooogan In 1905, when he was preparing to sail out of Gjoa Haven in Canada’s High Arctic, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen buried…
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