The Northwest Passage is the sea route between the Pacifi c and Atlantic oceans across the top of North America.


expedition had resorted to cannibalism in a gruesome at empt to stave off death while trying to trek overland to safety aſt er being trapped in sea ice.


Rae’s report to the Admiralty in 1854 was based on the testimony of Inuit nomads who had discovered the bodies. Closely questioned by Rae through his Eskimo interpreter, Rae wrote down their account.


For good measure, he also brought home artefacts from the Franklin expedition which the Inuits had taken as souvenirs. They included a ket le in which the remnants of human fl esh and bones were present.


His report caused an international sensation when it


became public. It hit at the very core of Victorian values. English society had an unquestioning belief in the superiority of an Englishman over every other race on the planet.


It was inconceivable to the Victorian mindset that trained offi cers and men of the greatest naval power in the world would so forget their discipline and their birthright as to descend into barbarism.


Politically, too, it was dangerous. It shat ered England’s aura of invincibility as an imperial power. Indeed, Rae’s fi ndings, in the eyes of many, bordered on sedition.


Thus it was that Rae was to discover on his return that the genteel salons of London society were a much more dangerous and treacherous place than the Arctic wilderness. Virtually every hand was against him.


Leading the charge was Lady Jane Franklin, the scheming,


John Franklin, by J. Scot 1845


T e hunt to discover the fate of the stolid, unimaginative Sir John Franklin and his 128 companions was a national obsession.


Franklin, Expedition 1845 May 2015 27


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