Customer Reviews

Fatal Passage: The True Story of John Rae, the Arctic Hero Time Forgot

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

When one thinks of Arctic travel, the names that probably come to your mind first are Scott, Peary, Shackleton, Amundsen, Henry Hudson, Davis and, of course, Sir John Franklin.

Wait a minute ... what about John Rae?

"John Rae?" you say ... "Who's John Rae?"

Well, exactly! One might say that this is precisely the point of the book. Ken McGoogan's "Fatal Passage" is a thrilling biography of John Rae who is probably the least known, least understood and least respected Arctic explorer in history but he is also arguably the finest, the strongest, most accomplished, most extraordinary and most skilled white man to ever set foot into Canada's far north!

The list of his accomplishments, frankly, beggars the imagination. Endowed with almost superhuman physical strength and endurance, he led four major Arctic expeditions traveling more than 23,000 miles. Educated in Orkney as a medical man, he essentially taught himself the mechanics of surveying and cartography. Having done so, he then proceeded to accurately survey over 1,700 miles of unexplored territory including more than 1,500 miles of Canada's northern coastline. Demonstrating unparalleled stamina, resourcefulness and resilience, he trekked over 6,500 miles in the Arctic alone, most of it on snowshoes with a fully loaded pack and sledge, and he traveled an additional 6,600 miles in canoe and small boats. Whether alone or leading a group of men, he traveled light and fast often walking 30 to 40 miles per day (on snowshoes, in frigid temperatures with that fully loaded pack, mind you!).

In a career of exploration spanning almost twenty years as a doctor in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, he lost but one man during his travels and that was due to accident - nary a single fatality due to illness, malnutrition or starvation, murder, hypothermia or mismanagement. True to his character, he regretted the loss of that single man to his dying day.

But that wasn't enough. In the course of these travels, he also solved the two greatest Arctic mysteries of the day - the fate of the doomed Franklin expedition and the location of the final navigable link in the fabled Northwest Passage.

Despite this unmatched record of accomplishment, John Rae passed away in England never having been truly acknowledged, recognized and rewarded by his peers. He received no knighthood. He had to fight and struggle to receive even the Hudson's Bay Company compensation that was his due. He struggled against the lifelong bitter animosity and unreasoning hatred of Lady Jane Franklin. He was even soundly criticized for living "like a savage - in snow houses and so forth. This behaviour did not seem cricket to the British public ... the object of polar exploration was to explore properly and not to evade the hazards of the game through the vulgar subterfuge of going native."

"Fatal Passage" is exciting history written with an enthusiasm and a flair that easily rivals the style of Pierre Berton, one of Canada's favourite home grown historians. I certainly hope that Ken will direct his writing skill to further subjects in the pantheon of Canadian history. Goodness knows, we could stand to applaud ourselves and our past much more loudly than we are typically wont to do.

Count me a fan, Mr McGoogan. Well done and highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

There isn't much that I can add to the fine reviews here, other than to say that the author may be unduly harsh on Franklin's widow for not accepeting Rae's account that the fate of her husband's expedition ended with some resorting to canabalism. After all, who wouldn't resist accepting the news that the last days of their spouse might have included this unspeakable horror?

Despite that, this is an excellent biography. I purchased my copy during a recent trip to Scotland which, fortunately, included a visit to Orkney, the birthplace of Rae. I was immediately intrigued when our driver explained some of the background of Rae as I knew about Franklin but not Rae. I purchased the book at a local bookshop in Stromness. Those who read this book will be gratified to know that efforts are underway in Orkney to restore and preserve Rae's birthplace, an empty home that is easily seen when coming into Stromness. Additioanally, he is well remembered at St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall with a beautiful memorial. This book serves as a worthy monument in print.

I enjoy reading non-fictional accounts of exploration, and have found two geographic regions particularly interesting; Amazonian and Arctic exploration. Perhaps this is because the issues faced by explorers of those regions are particularly challenging.

This book is essentially a biography of Dr. John Rae, a longtime employee of the Hudson Bay Company, who spent much of his life on or North of the Arctic Circle. The author is an unabashed fan of Dr. Rae, and even points out in his preface that the purpose of the book is to elevate Dr. Rae to a position in the pantheon of Arctic explorers, a position that the author firmly believes that Dr. Rae has been unjustly denied.

As a result, the question arises as to whether the author presents an unbiased picture of Rae and his achievements. For the greatest part of the book, this is really not a factor. There is no dispute as to Rae's exploits, his discoveries, or the incredible feats of endurance and competence he displayed in his endeavors. However, the final quarter of the book, dealing with controversy concerning his report on the Franklin expedition and the long running feud between Rae and Lady Jane Franklin certainly have the potential to present a biased and perhaps overly complementary picture of Rae's actions.

The final segment of the book, dealing with discovery of the Northwest Passage and the honors associated therewith, give the author a final opportunity to argue the poor treatment accorded Rae. While virtually every other explorer with a hand in charting the region was awarded knighthoods and cash rewards, Rae was excluded from official plaudits. Doubtless, this was a political decision as was the decision by many to credit Franklin with discovery of the Passage (which he most certainly did not). However, to simply label Rae as the discoverer of the Northwest Passage borders on hagiography. Charting the Northwest Passage was a collaborative undertaking and required the combined efforts of literally dozens of explorers over the course of decades. While it is true that Rae identified the final piece in the puzzle (though it is unlikely that he knew it at the time), to give him full credit ignores the 95% of the puzzle that was already in place.

Despite its sometimes biased viewpoints, it cannot be argued that Rae was anything other than a fascinating individual and perhaps the most physically gifted Arctic explorer on record. I can recommend this book to anyone with an interest in exploration in general and Arctic exploration in particular.

I am an avid fan of artic exploration, and have read books on the conquest of both poles. Typically this genre of books recants stories of ship-based parties attempting to penetrate deep into the artic. I was attracted to this book because Rae approaches penetrating the arctic from a completely different vantage point. He ventures through the arctic almost exclusively on foot and by using small watercraft. In addition, Rae embraces many of the habits of the indigenous people including their dress and igloo construction techniques. Rae is also one of the first Europeans to see the value of including native people in his expedition parties for the benefit of translation, navigation and hunting. To appreciate Rae's accomplishments, one has to understand that all of these techniques were seen as borderline savage by European society at the time, so that rather than celebrating Rae's phenomenal achievements at the time, those outside of Canada typically ostracized him and at best considered him an odd ball.

This book fails to earn a 5-star rating from me because McGoogan is so enamored by Rae's accomplishments that he fails to see virtually any flaws or weaknesses in Rae. As savvy as Rae was in the wilderness, he was equally as awkward in the political world of his time. This, unfortunately, reinforced the odd ball image that he had, and because of his poor communication surrounding the fate of the Franklin expedition, he was, in fact, vilified by some powerful people in Britain. McGoogan goes out of his way to suggest that Rae's letter about the Franklin expedition wasn't meant for public distribution, and that this is what ultimately led to his poor public perception, but the reality is that in Rae's time or in modern day, if you upset powerful people and say unfavorable things about their loved ones, you will suffer negative consequences. For me, McGoogan's failure to identify flaws when they seemed apparent casts a bit of a shadow over the entire image of Rae throughout the book.

I found this book to be a very enjoyable read, with only a few areas of slower reading mostly toward the end. By all measures, the combination of Rae's innovative spirit and extreme physical prowess outdoors make his journeys throughout the book awe-inspiring and entertaining. If you're looking for an original work on Artic exploration, then this book is for you.

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.

This book started out well enough with the stranded sailors facing an unknown and terrifying creature. As the story drifted from an unknown creature to supernatural being I lost some interest, but I'm sure a lot of people would actually find a supernatural antagonist more interesting than a natural one. That being said, most of the story concerning the crew's experiences while trapped in the ice was entertaining. The endless flashbacks seemed like filler for a book that was thick enough as it was, and part of the ending was simply too bizarre. This was a pretty good book that could have been a great book if the author had dropped a few hundred pages and come up with a better ending.

This book has the intriguing premise of vindicating John Rae as the man who truly discovered the fabled Northwest Passage which is clearly well-grounded in historical research. It also has great potential because John Rae, as the author quickly points out, is an exceptionally interesting character, possessing an outstanding intellect combined with immense courage and legendary physical stamina. From the beginning, the reader admires the spirit of the author, seeking to rescue a forgotten hero, and the author's forward displays a refreshing playfulness.

Indeed, the reader is treated to a fascinating, and, as the author shows, important story. Rae is an interesting character and his exploits are joys to read about. The author has tremendous powers of description and no shortage of interesting scenes and events to describe.

The book turns out, however, to be disappointing in many respects. The author made valiant efforts, but the writing at times clouds the story. The climaxes of the book (Rae's discovery of the Northwest Passage, and of the fate of Sir Franklin's expedition) span no more than a few paragraphs and seem buried in otherwise forgetful details about Rae's virtually indistinguishable arctic travels. The discussion following the climaxes similarly lumbers along. And unlike other reviewers, I found the maps very difficult to read.

One also gets a sense that the writer is anything but objective in this biography. The writer constantly praises Rae and gives almost no even potentially negative details about him, for example, dismissing Rae's important admission that he had slept with a number of native women as "alien" to his otherwise upright character. Further, the reader would feel more comfortable accepting all of the author's assertions if he occasionally provided footnote citations.

I should say, however, that my feelings about this book are likely exaggerated by having read two books which were similar in certain respects and much better written. These books are The Terror by Dan Simmons, a well-researched but fictional account of Sir Franklin's expedition, and The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. The Terror provides a chilling and compelling narrative of arctic exploration, combined with a horror story. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is a Pulitzer Prize winning biography against which all biographies can be measured, particularly in this case where John Rae is, in many ways, very much like Theodore Roosevelt. Having read how Simmons describes the feeling of painful hunger at 60 degrees below zero, and how Morris describes a man with nearly superhuman intellect and physical abilities, I found McGoogan's efforts enjoyable but disappointing.