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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Sep 13, 2016 - 02:25pm PT
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John Rae was a badass explorer, no doubt. As, I suspect, are most people who grow up in the Orkney Isles.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 13, 2016 - 02:36pm PT
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Many of those who worked for the Hudson's Bay Company and the Northwest Company were from Scotland, with many from Orkney.
John Rae was an extraordinary explorer and traveler, who was unjustly vilified for reporting evidence and Inuit accounts that some on the Franklin expedition had resorted to cannibalism. Evidence confirmed by archaeology.
Certainly the searchers for Franklin eventually, desperately, mapped much of the central Arctic, even if they looked for Franklin's expedition just about everywhere but where it was supposed to be, and was found more than a decade later. Still, like Scott much later, their signal failure was of not learning from experience, and the evidence all around them. That is, that small groups, well prepared and using Inuit techniques, could successfully go where large groups could not. The epitome of their failure being their worship of "man hauling".
Scott didn't have much experience or choice on his first expedition to Antarctic (1901 - 04). Still, by his 1910 - 13 expedition, he had the advantage of his own hard-won experience, and that of the Sverdrup expedition in Fram that mapped much of the high Arctic (1898 - 1902), and Amundsen's voyage through the Northwest Passage (1903 - 06). That is, emphasizing the advantages of skiis, sleds, sled dogs, Inuit techniques, etc. Plus had Nansen emphasize its importance to him. Scott's failure to learn condemned him, as it had Franklin.
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Gregory Crouch
Social climber
Walnut Creek, California
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Sep 13, 2016 - 02:48pm PT
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"I'm English and this is how an Englishman does it."
At least he kept his good form.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 13, 2016 - 02:52pm PT
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Yup, no denying the extraordinary fortitude of them all. As we know now, the explorers all had their human flaws, but they did amazing things.
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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Sep 13, 2016 - 05:12pm PT
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I have always enjoyed reading Pierre Berton's book "The Arctic Grail" which deals with the quest for the Northwest Passage and the North Pole from 1818-1909. There is a lot of information about the Franklin Expedition and subsequent attempts to rescue them. Plus Pierre's Canadian.
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TimH
Trad climber
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Sep 13, 2016 - 06:04pm PT
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All of our epics pale in comparison to Franklin's.
or Shackelton's
Or Greely's Lady Franklin Bay Expedition
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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Sep 13, 2016 - 09:37pm PT
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The Dan Simmons book referenced above, The Terror, is quite good, if you like your Victorian polar exploration tinged with a bit of supernatural horror.
For another lost polar ship story, try:
In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides, which is the story of the Jeannette, a US ship that suffered a fate similar to the Franklin expedition while searching for the warm paradise located near the North Pole.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jun 25, 2017 - 06:28pm PT
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I saw a portrait of Franklin in the Queen's House Gallery adjacent to the National Maritime
Museum in Greenwich last week. I haven't transferred the pics from the camera yet but I
know yer all on tenterhooks!
That must have been a job raising the Maud from the muck! I guess Norge can afford it, eh?
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Jun 26, 2017 - 09:18pm PT
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hey there say, anders... very interesting...
thanks for sharing... and all the side-shares, too...
oh, tami, say, i had seen a very 'dire' situation 'share' somewhere,
on the inuit situation, and them being forced to move off their lands, and into apartments, etc, but-- i can't remember who shared it, or where...
but, thanks for mentioning that bit about nutrition and all that, as,
it reminded me... was not sure even, as to what area that was, :(
in alaska, :( (not canada) ...
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 29, 2017 - 08:27pm PT
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Believe it or not, the governments of Canada and of Nunavut are arguing about who "owns" the wrecks of Erebus and Terror. Canada didn't even become a country until 1867 C.E. (150 years ago Saturday), and didn't succeed to any claim that Britain had to that area until 1870. Nunavut, a territory and not a province, didn't exist per se until 1999. The ships sank by 1850.
The one about the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible comes to mind.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/franklin-parks-canada-terror-erebus-uk-dive-nunavut-1.4181865
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona
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Jun 29, 2017 - 11:58pm PT
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I did 5th grade in Ontario, and the story of the search for the NW passage was by far the coolest part.
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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Jun 30, 2017 - 12:47am PT
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One of the backstories that may or may not directly be a reason for the recently renewed search for the Terror and Erubus is that now with global warming there is the potential for vast amounts of natural resources in that area of Canada to be mined.
It is great that they have found both ships, but the future of that region, especially if global warming continues unabated, could be grim.
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JerryA
Mountain climber
Sacramento,CA
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Jun 30, 2017 - 07:47am PT
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I first saw Amundsen' s 70 ft. "Gjoa " ,the first ship to traverse the Northwest Passage , in Golden Gate Park as a child & did not know what is was until much later .It was purchased by the Norwegian community in San Francisco in 1906 and returned to Norway in 1972.
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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Jun 30, 2017 - 11:05am PT
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Jerry,
very cool! Amundsen was the man! He was the first person to visit the South Pole. He was the first person to traverse the Northwest Passage. And, if you believe in simple math, he was the first person to visit the North Pole though that was by flying over it in a balloon.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 28, 2017 - 09:56pm PT
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For serious Arctic/wooden ship restoration geeks only: http://frammuseum.no/polar_history/vessels/restoration_of_gjoa/
The ongoing saga, with lots of photos and history, regarding restoration of Amundsen's Gjøa. She is now housed at the Fram Museum, at Bygdøy in Oslo. Gjøa was built in 1873.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Jul 29, 2017 - 05:51am PT
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Great stuff . Me loves the nautical history stuff.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jul 29, 2017 - 07:13am PT
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Did somebody say 'nautical history'?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Outside the Asylum
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 10, 2017 - 03:28pm PT
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Maud has been raised, and is on her way home, for the first time in a century.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/maud-to-return-to-norway-1.4242183
The CBC needs to work on its grammar, though. In proper English, all sailing and IIRC naval vessels are "she" or "her", never "it". Maud was in fact the name of the first queen of modern Norway, when she (countries are shes, too) regained full independence in 1905. Maud being a short form of Matilda, and in a few cases Margaret - both female names. And there's no need for a definite article ("the") before the name. Her name is Maud, not 'the' Maud.
Reilly's attempted act of piracy if not hijacking seems not to have made the intended waves.
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