5 comments about Fatal Passage: The True Story of John Rae, the Arctic Hero Time Forgot.

1. McGoogan has written an excellent biography of John Rae that conveys not only the struggles that the explorer went through to find the ill-fated Franklin expedition, but also the scientific banishment that he suffered when he reported the bizarre circumstances of their deaths.
   Rae was a doctor employed by the Hudson's Bay Company. The HBC had been set up to exploit the vast fur trade in Canada, and had outposts across the North. Rae, an outdoorsman and naturalist, was commissioned to explore the shores of the vast Arctic waters, searching for the last, elusive connection that would allow sailing ships to navigate from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.
   Many explorers had gone before Rae. One expedition, headed by Sir John Franklin, had disappeared without a trace in the 1840s. Several search parties subsequently failed to find the explorer and his crew.
   Finally, Rae was asked to search for the party. He set out, not with a large crew and ships, but with a small number of natives and Europeans experienced in traveling in the frozen North. After several years, in which Rae found the last remaining link in the Northwest Passage, he finally uncovered the fate of the Franklin Expedition; the boats had foundered in the ice, and the crew had starved to death while marching south.
   Rae also uncovered evidence of cannibalism. In their last efforts to remain alive, the crewmen had consumed their dead companions. Rae, in his report, duly noted this observation.

   Unfortunately, this was to be his undoing. Led by Franklin's widow, Lady Jane, Rae was ostracized from the Royal Geographical Society and his epic discovery of the final link in the Northwest Passage disparaged. For over a century, his achievements languished in the footnotes of history.
   McGoogan set out to rectify Rae's tarnished image. Using research from Rae's extensive notes, as well as primary sources from a multitude of independent sources, he has carefully constructed a description of Rae's achievements, as well as the denunciations that robbed him of his rightful place in history.
   As an homage, the author journeyed to the Arctic and placed a memorial at the final discovered link in the Northwest Passage, now officially recognized as Rae Strait.




2. What kind of man, at 45 years of age, slogs 60 kilometres through a Canadian January to give a lecture on icebergs?

   The Victorian era has endured much hostile press in recent years. Cultural mores have been challenged, essential ideas decried as "social artefacts" and the reputations of heroic idols, nearly universally male, demolished as shams. It's become a novelty to encounter the celebratory resurrection of a forgotten icon. McGoogan relates the life and accomplishments of Scotsman John Rae, who joined a Hudson's Bay Company ship as surgeon, travelled to Canada in 1833 and remained for twelve years - on the first stay. McGoogan has surveyed many of the resources dealing with Arctic exploration, but Rae's own accounts provide the essential framework for this compelling narrative. The book is nearly two stories in one: Rae's ranging explorations along the Canadian Arctic coast, and the mysterious disappearance of the John Franklin expedition. McGoogan keeps this paired account nicely balanced until they merge to determine Rae's future reputation.

   John Rae was a departure from the usual explorer of the Victorian age. Instead of heading complex expeditions, he travelled with a small support group. Instead of ships or extensive caravans, he travelled by canoe or small boat, on land using snowshoes. He was extraordinarily hardy, traversing extensive distances, often alone. He adapted many features of Aboriginal life in his travels when "going native" was disdained by most. He kept his associates fed when other British explorers were starving on government rations. He found the route of the elusive Northwest passage and determined the fate of the lost Franklin expedition seeking that route. Later, he turned from Arctic adventures to the survey of a telegraph line site across the Rocky Mountains. Why have we heard so little of him?

   According to McGoogan, one individual maintained a steady campaign to reduce Rae's reputation. Jane Franklin, Sir John's quasi-widow [she refused to admit her husband's death for years], irked by the possibility her husband had turned to cannibalism in extremity, actively challenged many of Rae's accomplishments. She fostered Leopold McClintock as the verifier of Sir John's finding of the Northwest Passage. In her zeal, she even managed to secure the aid of no less a figure than Charles Dickens to her cause. McGoogan contends Dickens' virulent racism aided this assault when the novelist asserted the Inuit were consummate liars and the true cannibals. In the event, John Rae stands out as the only explorer of note that failed to achieve knighthood for his achievements.

   McGoogan has produced a noteworthy study, done with lively wit and solid research. This book restores John Rae's position as the true finder of the Northwest Passage and as man with few peers. This book can be read by anyone seeking knowledge of the North or as a model of perseverance and sacrifice. Illustrated with photographs and engravings and including a fine bibliography, this is a real treasure to read and possess.




3. A biography of John Rae in more capable hands could have been a fantastic read. This is a mediocre presentation. Informative but annoyingly contrite and difficult to read unless you enjoy reading mattress pad labels.



4. Ashamed of my ignorance of the history of our great neighbor to the north, Canadaland, I resolved to get this book to learn more of one of its greatest unsung heroes. Who, of course, had actually been born in Scotland. But he got over to Canuckia as soon as he could, and stayed a long time. Before going back to Britain. Well...he was still heroic, if not fully Canadian.
   
   They certainly built people different back in olden pre-Internet times. These days, of course, most of us regard a trek to our mailboxes as an epic ordeal, but back in the day, it was nothing to go hiking about for miles and miles. Of course, there was no TV, so entertainment options were few, and if you were living in the remote northern Canadian woods for months on end, you really had nothing better to do than hike about and push aside the native peoples to "discover" things. But even amongst the hardy traders and trappers, John Rae was an anomaly.
   
   Pretty much, anything you could do, he could do better. I mean, he was a proficient sailor and hunter virutally out of the womb, then became a doctor at a very young age, then rose through the ranks of the Hudson's Bay Company. And the dude could walk! Thirty miles in a day would be a disappointing outing for him. Plus he could totally snowshoe, and he learned all sorts of cool stuff from various Native American tribes and the Inuit. He was like a one-man Winter Olympics, except with somewhat less luging.
   
   We would find him notable for all of his exploring, but what was more remarkable about him was his enlightened attitudes toward the assorted indigenous peoples he encountered. Whereas your average Victorian regarded the original inhabitants of North America with, at best, amused contempt, Rae realized that they were perfectly adapted to their environment and that they could teach him a great deal about how to survive in the far north. Consequently, whilst various British expeditions to find the Northwest Passage, and then to find the vanished Sir John Franklin and company, were blundering about the Arctic, crashing and sinking and starving and freezing, Rae was moving about with comparative ease and was seldom in any jeopardy.
   
   His major accomplishments were to discover the final link of an ice-free navigable Northwest Passage and to uncover word at long last about the Franklin Expedition, which he basically did by the simple expedient of asking some passing Inuit, "Hey, what happened to Franklin?" Unfortunately for Rae, the truth was not palatable to his waiting British audience. As it turns out, the crews of Franklin's ships had been forced to abandon their icebound ships to set off on a doomed trek to reach a far-distant trading outpost, mysteriously declining to head toward a much closer and more easily accessible known cache of supplies left by a previous group of explorers. But it was the news of the extremities to which they had been forced that most upset the public. At least some of the Franklin Expedition had resorted to cannibalism (which assertion has subsequently been proved in modern times by forensic analysis of some of the remains later discovered scattered here and there across the Canadian coast).
   
   It was easier for the outraged British to claim that Rae was a liar or a fool and that the Inuit had either murdered the Franklin crews or selfishly hogged all the caribou to themselves and declined to help the starving explorers. It never really sunk in for most of Rae's critics that the Inuit weren't exactly carting around surplus tons of food or that the land wasn't at all capable of supporting dozens and dozens of people at a time. And so the vilification of Rae began in earnest, orchestrated by the Widow Franklin and ably abetted (to his eternal shame) by one Charles Dickens.
   
   This is a handsomely illustrated volume with an assortment of helpful maps. Since it was originally published in Canada, to some very minor degree it presupposes that the reader has some small knowledge of certain Canadian-type things, but that's only the most insignificant of impediments to American readers. My real quibble is that the author sometimes takes an overly novelistic approach in describing certain scenes (down to details of facial expressions) and recreating dialogue. The bibliography is slim and I would've felt on more solid ground had he better documented his materials for some of these "you are there" passages.
   
   Also, his forward for the American edition is so unabashed in its effusive praise for Rae that it spirals at the end into a quasi-hysterical screed for public worship of this great man. He would have been better advised to follow the basic rule of "show, don't tell", and let us draw our own conclusion without demanding our obeisance to all things Rae. Still, this is a most entertaining and well-told tale of a figure who indeed deserves much greater acclaim and a more prominent place in the annals of Arctic exploration.



5. After finishing Fatal Passage, I felt perhaps a twinge of the same frustration that John Rae must have felt in his last years. Rae had the misfortune of delivering the disturbing accounts of cannibalism among the members of the Franklin Expedition. The report was so disturbing, especially to the powerful Lady Jane Franklin, that public opinion turned against Rae, who was only reporting accurately what he had learned. The net result was that Rae became a controversial figure in his time, rather than being recognized as the amazingly adaptive explorer that he was. McCoogan helps restore Rae to his rightful place in history and I am grateful for the author's efforts. The book is well-written and looks at the search for the Northwest Passage from a unique angle. It is a shame that the political climate of the time robbed Rae of the recognition he deserved. As a snowshoer who could cover 50-60 miles in a day, he was also perhaps an athlete of incredible stature and this aspect is well documented in the book as well. I am happy I read the book and recommend it to anyone interested in Arctic exploration.

No comments about The Morningside Years.

2 comments about Kids Book of Canadian Exploration (Kids Book of).

1. If you are a kid in grade 6 and learning about explorers in school then you should read this book. It has a lot of interesting information about lots of explorers of Canada to help you do a history project. It was pretty interesting to read and has good pictures and maps to help you see what it was like to be an explorer back then. There is a timeline at the back of the book so you can figure out when different explorers were exploring Canada and it tells you stuff that isn't even in your textbook. Tell your teacher about it. by Kevin



2. This book is very well written. It provides factual information, in a very interesting context. It is history made interesting. The book is a valuable resource tool as well as being enjoyable reading. Kudos to the authors of this worthwhile book.

5 comments about The Last Voyage of the Karluk: A Survivor's Memoir of Arctic Disaster.

1. Unliked the other reviewers thus far, I have not read other accounts of polar expeditions, never found the subject intriguing enough when there were so many other histories clamoring for my attention. I'm still not sure what persuaded me to buy this little book, but I am SO glad I did. I found it sufficiently detailed to give me the progressive pictures of ineptitude, boredom, labor, frostbite, incompatibility, isolation, hunger, despair, et al, without becoming bogged down in tedium. By virtue of having waited so many years to pen his account, McKinlay is probably more even-handed in the telling than he would have been otherwise, and makes the book a moving experience rather simply a bitter one. Kudos to the man, he was indeed a canny Scot, and has related a story worthy of being captured on film.



2. I purchased this book to send to my son who teaches history. I decided I would read it, first. The author was a teacher and was honored that he was selected to take this exploration voyage with so many distinguished scientists. This book will show you what the body and spirit can endure when it has the ardent desire to live; among the survivors is the Eskimo family with two children, ages eleven and three, and a cat. This happened in 1913-1914. It will make you wonder if today's people still have the endurance and the will to survive as seen in this era.



3. A totally gripping true-life adventure, written in 1976 by an 88-year old Glasgow schoolmaster who, prior to serving as an officer in WW1, was one of the survivors of a horrifically mismanaged Arctic expedition. The "Karluk" was one of three vessels involved in an exploration of the Canadian Arctic in 1913, master-minded by one Vilhajalmur Stefansson, a monomaniac fixated on the idea of the Arctic as a friendly environment in which abundant food could be soured. In the event however none of the expedition members received any relevant training in survival skills before setting out. The ships' crews did not expect to winter in the Arctic while the scientific staff, of whom McKinlay was one, were almost all young men straight from University, with no previous Arctic experience. Steffanson's callousness in deserting the Karluk once it was ice-bound, and starting an independent five-year exploration journey without making any attempt to arrange rescue of its crew, almost beggars comprehension. McKinlay's story of misery, squalor, sickness, death, cowardice and heroism over the following year is at times depressing reading, but is always gripping. Of the Karluk's complement of twenty five, eleven died following the break-up of the ship in the ice north of Siberia, in the attempts to reach land and during the subsequent struggle to stay alive under conditions of extreme privation. That any survived is due to the heroism of the Karluk's captain, Robert Bartlett, who with one Eskimo companion managed to reach the Siberian mainland to seek help while the other survivors attempted to eke out an existence on the bleak Wrangel Island. The author's account is understated as regard his own role but it was obviously critical in maintaining morale and cohesion in an ill-assorted group with no real basis for camaraderie and discipline. It is the lack of these two factors that McKinlay found the great difference with his later, albeit terrible, experiences in Flanders, making the Wrangel Island episode incomparably worse. The writing is simple, spare and elegant and sweeps the reader along. It is the narrative of a decent, courageous man and it deserves to live on as a classic or adventure and exploration.



4. Geat time reading !
   I still have 2 questions :
   1. What is a Crowbill bird ?
   2. No Mosquitos pested the stranded crew ?



5. The author was a member of Vilhjalmur Stefansson's Arctic Expedition of 1913, and was on board the main expedition ship Karluk when it was frozen into the ice north of Alaska before the expedition was truly begun. The Karluk (abandoned by Stefansson early on) drifted west almost to Wrangell Island before the ship was crushed.
   
   The only ones aboard with Arctic experience were the ship's captain and an Inuit family, including two girls ages five and three. Two men were veterans of Shackleton's 1907 attempt on the South Pole, but land ice and sea ice are two different kettles of lutefisk, and their conviction that they knew more than the ship's Captain just made things worse.
   
   After leading the men to Wrangell Island, the Captain and one Inuk went ahead to Siberia to seek rescue. Without the Captain's leadership the remaining ill-assorted, inexperienced men fought, stole food from one another, became ill, and generally had a dreadful time. Eleven men had died by the time rescue finally arrived.
   
   The author blamed Stefansson's lack of organization and foresight for making the plight of the Karluk worse than it needed to be. In later years he gathered evidence to debunk Stefansson's image as one of the great polar explorers. He twenty-five when he took part in the expedition and was in his eighties when he wrote this memoir.

1 comments about 100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces.

1. On behalf of Canada's foremothers and future daughters ... thank you! It's about time that someone researched and documented the history of Canadian women. Merna Forster weaves together a beautiful tapestry of courageous, fiesty and determined women who paved the way for all of us. Three pages per heroine ... just enough to give you a taste of her life, and wanting more. When I have children someday, I will read these profiles to them ... so they will learn about Canada's "other" pioneers ... Canada's heroines.

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No comments about Far in the Waste Sudan: On Assignment in Africa.

No comments about Georges Vanier: Soldier; The Wartime Letters and Diaries, 1915-1919.

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