John Rae is best known today as the first European to reveal the fate of the Franklin Expedition, yet the range of Rae’s accomplishments is much greater. Over five expeditions, Rae mapped some 1,550 miles (2,494 kilometres) of Arctic coastline; he is undoubtedly one of the Arctic’s greatest explorers, yet today his significance is all but lost. John Rae, Arctic Explorer is an annotated version of Rae’s unfinished autobiography. William Barr has extended Rae’s previously unpublished manuscript and completed his story based on Rae’s reports and correspondence—including reaction to his revelations about the Franklin Expedition. Barr’s meticulously researched, long overdue presentation of Rae’s life and legacy is an immensely valuable addition to the literature of Arctic exploration.
Not long after he began reading the handwritten, 820-page diary of Scottish explorer John Rae, Ken McGoogan realized that here was an astonishing story, hidden from the world for almost 150 years. McGoogan, who was originally conducting research for a novel, recognized the injustice committed against Rae. He was determined to restore the adventurer’s rightful place in history as the man who discovered not only the grisly truth about the lost Franklin expedition, but also the final link in the elusive Northwest Passage. Fatal Passage is McGoogan’s completely absorbing account of John Rae’s incredible accomplishments and his undeserved and wholesale discreditation at the hands of polite Victorian society. After sifting through thousands of pages of research, maps and charts, and traveling to England, Scotland and the Arctic to visit the places Rae knew, McGoogan has produced a book that reads like a fast-paced novel—a smooth synthesis of adventure story, travelogue and historical biography. Fatal Passage is a richly detailed portrait of a time when the ambitions of the Empire knew no bounds. John Rae was an adventurous young medical doctor from Orkney who signed on with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1833. He lived in the Canadian wilds for more than two decades, becoming legendary as a hunter and snowshoer, before he turned to exploration. Famous for what was then a unique attitude—a willingness to learn from and use the knowledge and skills of aboriginal peoples—Rae became the first European to survive an Arctic winter while living solely off the land. One of dozens of explorers and naval men commissioned by the British Admiralty to find out what became of Sir John Franklin and his two ships, Rae returned from the Arctic to report that the most glorious expedition ever launched had ended with no survivors—and worse, that it had degenerated into cannibalism. Unwilling to accept that verdict, Victorian England not only ostracized Rae, but ignored his achievements, and credited Franklin with the discovery of the Passage. Fatal Passage is Ken McGoogan’s brilliant vindication of John Rae’s life and rightful place in history, a book for armchair adventurers, Arctic enthusiasts, lovers of Canadian history, and all those who revel in a story of physical courage and moral integrity.
This creative nonfiction biography of the celebrated Arctic explorer Dr. John Rae begins in 1854 when, on a mapping expedition to the Boothia Peninsula, Rae discovers the missing link in the Northwest Passage. On the same trip, a chance encounter with an Inuit hunter leads him to uncover the tragic fate that befell the officers and crew of the long-missing Franklin Expedition when, starving on the ice, they resorted to cannibalism. When the Scottish-born scientist and Hudson's Bay Company Chief Factor reports the shocking details about the men's demise to the British Admiralty, he is publicly belittled by such well-known Victorian society figures as the novelist Charles Dickens and Sir John Franklin's widow, Jane. From then on, Rae's life becomes a restless journey of soaring hope and bitter disappointment, as he attempts to restore his good reputation with the British public, defend the integrity of the Arctic natives who brought him detailed testimony about the evidence of cannibalism, and rebuild his shattered identity. Rae's search for what has been lost takes him to Hamilton, Lower Canada, across Rupert's Land to the Pacific Coast, to the Faroe Islands, across Greenland, and then finally home to the Orkney Islands where yet another turn of events catches him by surprise.
Although Arctic explorer and Hudson Bay Company surveyor John Rae (1813–1893) travelled and recorded the final uncharted sections of the Northwest Passage, he is best known for his controversial discovery of the fate of the lost Franklin Expedition of 1845. Based on evidence given to him by local Inuit, Rae determined that Franklin’s crew had resorted to cannibalism in their final, desperate days. Seen as maligning a national hero, Rae was shunned by British society. This collection of personal correspondence—reissued here for the first time since its original publication in 1953—illuminates the details of Rae’s expeditions through his own words. The letters offer a glimpse into Rae’s daily life, his ideas, musings, and troubles. Prefaced by the original, thorough introduction detailing his early life, John Rae’s Arctic Correspondence is a crucial resource for any Arctic enthusiast. This new edition features a foreword by researcher and Arctic enthusiast Ken McGoogan, the award-winning author of eleven books, including Fatal Passage: The Untold Story of John Rae (HarperCollins, 2002).
Scottish doctor and explorer John Rae is a controversial figure in the history of the Arctic. He began his career with the Hudson's Bay Company as a surgeon in Moose Factory, Ontario, where he learned to survey, live off the land, and travel great distances on snowshoes. These skills served him well when, in 1846, he was charged with completing the geography of the northern shore of North America and set out on his first expedition. Some years later, while exploring the Boothia Peninsula in 1854, Rae obtained information about the rather shocking fate of the Franklin expedition, which had been missing since 1845. Upon his return to England, however, Rae was discredited by Charles Dickens and shunned by the British establishment, never receiving proper recognition for his roles in finding the Northwest Passage and discovering the fate of Franklin and his crew. The Arctic Journals of John Rae is the definitive collection of John Rae's writings, from his only published work, Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847, to obscure notes and journals and reports of his controversial findings in 1854. An accomplished explorer who had great respect for the customs and skills of the peoples native to the Arctic, John Rae is a fascinating figure and an important part of the history of the North.
When Sir John Franklin disappeared into the Arctic in 1845, it was his adventurous wife, Jane Franklin, who kept the search for him alive and, as a result, contributed more to the discovery and mapping of the North than any explorer. A third masterful biography from historian Ken McGoogan, Lady Franklin’s Revenge is the richly documented story of a complex, ambitious Victorian—arguably the greatest woman traveller of the 19th century— and the transformation of a failed expedition into a triumphant legend. A Globe and Mail Book of the Year, and shortlisted for the Ontario Libraries Evergreen Award, Lady Franklin’s Revenge is an exquisitely illustrated epic adventure.
In 2015 Barbara Rae travelled to Greenland on the trail of her namesake and fellow Scot, the surgeon and explorer Dr John Rae (1813-1893). Captivated by the 'wild sort of life', he travelled to the Arctic in 1846, learning local languages and survival techniques. His enlightened co-operation and collaboration with the Inuit - almost unheard of at the time - allowed him to discover the fate of Sir John Franklin's lost 1845 expedition, and to confirm the existence of the Northwest Passage, the maritime link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This book is the artistic result of Barbara Rae's extraordinary journey. Through the artist's deft handling of colour and line the frozen landscape of the Arctic jumps into life from the page. This special publication takes the reader on a journey of discovery from Scotland to the Arctic, and back again. Her vivid images are combined with insightful texts from authors including the Inuit leader and advocate Tagak Curley, the architect Ian Ritchie and the celebrated art critic Duncan Macmillan, as well as contributions from the artist herself.
Visitors to the Arctic enter places that have been traditionally imagined as otherworldly. This strangeness fascinated audiences in nineteenth-century Britain when the idea of the heroic explorer voyaging through unmapped zones reached its zenith. The Spectral Arctic re-thinks our understanding of Arctic exploration by paying attention to the importance of dreams and ghosts in the quest for the Northwest Passage. The narratives of Arctic exploration that we are all familiar with today are just the tip of the iceberg: they disguise a great mass of mysterious and dimly lit stories beneath the surface. In contrast to oft-told tales of heroism and disaster, this book reveals the hidden stories of dreaming and haunted explorers, of frozen mummies, of rescue balloons, visits to Inuit shamans, and of the entranced female clairvoyants who travelled to the Arctic in search of John Franklin’s lost expedition. Through new readings of archival documents, exploration narratives, and fictional texts, these spectral stories reflect the complex ways that men and women actually thought about the far North in the past. This revisionist historical account allows us to make sense of current cultural and political concerns in the Canadian Arctic about the location of Franklin’s ships.
The English explorer Henry Hudson devoted his life to the search for a water route through America, becoming the first European to navigate the Hudson River in the process. In Fatal Journey, acclaimed historian and biographer Peter C. Mancall narrates Hudson's final expedition. In the winter of 1610, after navigating dangerous fields of icebergs near the northern tip of Labrador, Hudson's small ship became trapped in winter ice. Provisions grew scarce and tensions mounted amongst the crew. Within months, the men mutinied, forcing Hudson, his teenage son, and seven other men into a skiff, which they left floating in the Hudson Bay. A story of exploration, desperation, and icebound tragedy, Fatal Journey vividly chronicles the undoing of the great explorer, not by an angry ocean, but at the hands of his own men.
