Scottish Adventurer, Unsung Hero, John Rae

[barddas]

Orkneyjar.com



John Rae has to be the greatest of Orkney's unsung heroes. Although his ornately carved memorial lies prominent within St Magnus Cathedral, the sad truth is that very few Orcadians know of the man or his deeds.

John Rae was born at the Hall of Clestrain in Orphir on September 30, 1813. The fourth of a family of nine - six brothers and three sisters - Rae's father, John Rae senior, was the factor of Sir William Honeyman's estate; a role that meant the Rae family had a reasonably affluent upbringing.

But despite the comfortable lifestyle, the young John Rae thrived on the outdoor life. Making the most of his rural home, he spent most of his Orcadian boyhood sailing, climbing, trekking, hunting and fishing - an Orkney youth that served him well for his future exploits. It was this "roughing it," as Rae called it that helped build up his powerful physique.

In 1819, Rae's father was made the Orkney agent of the Hudson's Bay Company. As a boy Rae would accompany his father in the sail from their home on the shore of the Bay of Ireland to the HBC offices in Stromness. During this time Rae saw the company's many supply ships the town as their final port of call before crossing the Atlantic.

A 'wild sort of life'

In 1833, shortly after qualifying as a surgeon in Edinburgh, Rae signed on as a surgeon aboard the Hudson's Bay Company ship Prince of Wales to Moose Factory on James Bay. Intending only to serve a single season, early ice meant Rae was forced to spend the winter on the desolate and windswept Charlton Island.

There he faced a rough introduction to the Nor' Wast. But despite the harsh conditions, John Rae found himself captivated by the "the wild sort of life to be found in the Hudson's Bay Company service". So he accepted the post of surgeon at Moose Factory where he served for ten years - his Orcadian background serving him well.

Over this period he learned much about the area and the Canadian natives. Rae saw himself as a student and learned from the native Cree Indians how to make and maintain snowshoes and how to hunt caribou and store the meat. From the Inuit he learned how to ice the runners of a sled, how to combat snow-blindness and how to construct shelters.

But it was this association with "natives" that was also to lead to Rae's eventual downfall. His methods were often frowned upon by many, who considered his habit of dressing like a native a disgrace.
Dr John Rae (1813-1893)

But his time with the Native Americans led to a great knowledge and respect for them and eventually Rae became regarded as the foremost authority of native methods of Arctic survival and travel.

Said to be the best snowshoe walker of his time - covering 1,200 miles on foot over two months in 1844/45 - Rae earned the name Aglooka ("he who takes long strides") from the Inuit. His resilience and survival skills led to him being commissioned to go north to the west coast of Melville Peninsula from Fury and Hecla Strait southwards, and westwards to Dease, filling in the "blanks" on the maps of the coastline of northern Canada.

Before undertaking this commission, Rae went to Toronto to obtain training in astronomy and navigation. He travelled north in 1846, crossed what is now known as Rae's Isthmus, explored, as far as ice permitted, the West Coast of Melville Peninsula, and wintered on Repulse Bay.

Rae took over the charge of the Mackenzie River district at Fort Simpson in the Autumn of 1849.

The Franklin Expedition

Before long Rae was drawn into the search for a lost naval expedition led by Sir John Franklin. Franklin had disappeared after being sent from England IN 1845 to discover the final link in the Northwest Passage. Franklin's expedition, made up of two ships and 134 men, failed to return resulting in one of the largest, most expensive searches ever mounted.

In charge of the expedition was Sir John Richardson, who wanted Rae as his second-in-command. Rae ended up leading two overland expeditions - one with Richardson - in vain attempts to locate the missing sailors.

Throughout this period Rae continued with his work charting the unknown territories of the north Canadian coast. Because of this he succeeded where Franklin had failed and proved the existence of the North West passage.

Rae abandoned the search for Franklin in 1854 after learning that the expedition had ended in disaster, with the final survivors resorting to cannibalism. In April 1854, Rae learned from an Inuit that in 1850, a group of some forty white men had been seen by seal hunters dragging a boat and sledges south along the west coast of King William Island. It would seem that the ice had crushed their ships.

Some time later the Inuit discovered some thirty dead bodies and some graves were found on the mainland and five upon an island, " about a long day's journey to the north west of a large stream, which can be no other than Great Fish River". The man had died of starvation.

Rae wrote: "Some of the bodies had been buried (probably those of the first victims of famine); some were in a tent or tents; others under the boat, which had been turned over to form a shelter, and several lay scattered about in different directions."
Rae's gravestone in the St Magnus Cathedral kirkyard

Rae added: " From the mutilated state of many of the bodies and the contents of the kettles, it is evident that our wretched Countrymen had been driven to the last dread alternative - cannibalism -as a means of prolonging existence. "

He later acquired from the Inuit more of the possessions that had once belonged to the doomed sailors. Items such as cutlery, watches and even a medal that had once belonged to Franklin proved the expedition had perished and going on the native accounts Rae concluded the men had perished in the winter of 1850 after ice had crushed their ships.

But going solely on the accounts of the Inuit, Rae did not actually visit the site, saying that the Inuit were reluctant to make the 10-12 day trek to where the lost expedition was.

This "failure" to visit the site led to considerable criticism after Rae's report on his findings - a report that damned the doctor in the eyes of Victorian England - was published.

Condemnation

The establishment condemned John Rae's report and his integrity was immediately called into question. How dare this man, who dressed and mingled with Canadian natives, suggest that men of the Royal Navy indulged in cannibalism. And more to the point imagine accepting the word of the natives!

Particularly vitriolic in her attacks on Rae was Franklin's wife. Lady Jane Franklin sought to glorify the memory of her husband as the man who found the Northwest Passage, so unsurprisingly Rae's discoveries did not go down well.

Lady Franklin was aided by the writer Charles Dickens, who published articles rejecting Rae's conclusions and the manner in which he had come to them. According to Dickens it was unthinkable that the English Navy "would or could in any extremity of hunger, alleviate that pains of starvation by this horrible means".

But Rae refused to back down and stood by the content of his report and the circumstances surrounding the fate of the Franklin Expedition.

The full story was only revealed when an expedition sent by Lady Franklin found a small cairn at Point Victory on the northwest coast of King William Island, in which Lieut. Crozier, second in command, had left a message confirming that Sir John Franklin died on 11th June 1847 at a point when only 24 men had thus far died.

The cairn was found in May 1859, eleven years after Crozier had written that the survivors were to start on their way to Great Fish River.

Skeletons of some of the last survivors appeared to confirm that the men had resorted to cannibalism.

Dr John Rae retired from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1856 at the age of 43.

But his exploring days were far from over. When the Atlantic telegraph cable failed, a route was suggested through the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland to North America. Rae explored the land part of this route. Then in 1884 he accepted a task that brought him back for the time being, into the service of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Western Telegraph Union Company, exploring the possibility of a telegraph route through Siberia, Bering Strait, Alaska and British Columbia. Rae was asked to survey the route from the Red River to Victoria.

In the course of this survey he negotiated a considerable stretch of the Fraser River in a dugout canoe, without a guide. His survey notes proved of value in the later development of the Canadian West.

But following the Franklin controversy John Rae began to slip from the pages of the history books - his achievements ignored at worse, grudgingly acknowledged at best.
Dr John Rae's memorial inside St Magnus Cathedral

Although they had failed to find the North West passage, Franklin and his officers were posthumously knighted. Aside from his other achievements, Rae had found the passage but received no recognition or award. He was the only major explorer of the era not to receive a knighthood.

Rae died in London on July 22, 1893, aged 80.

On Saturday, July 29, 1893, his body arrived in Kirkwall on board the paddle steamer St Magnus. A solemn crowd gathered to pay their respects as John Rae returned home for the last time.

His coffin was carried to St Magnus Cathedral where he was buried with great ceremony. He now lies in the Cathedral kirkyard in the nave is his recumbent figure carved in stone, in his Arctic travelling clothes, with his gun by his side, and a blanket or sleeping bag thrown over his body.

[barddas]

A cool site on Franklin and the franklin Expedition..Just for some backround info to Rae's story....




The Franklin Expedition