Fatal Passage

Fatal Passage
Author :
Publisher : HarperCollins Canada
Total Pages : 256
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781554689194
ISBN-13 : 1554689198
Rating : 4/5 (94 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Fatal Passage by : Ken McGoogan

Download or read book Fatal Passage written by Ken McGoogan and published by HarperCollins Canada. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.


Fatal Passage Related Books

This Errant Lady
Language: en
Pages: 286
Authors: Jane Franklin
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2002 - Publisher: National Library Australia

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Jane Franklin's diary account of her travels from Van Diemen's Land to Port Phillip and then overland from Melbourne to Sydney in 1839 provides a detailed and c
Fatal Passage
Language: en
Pages: 256
Authors: Ken McGoogan
Categories: Travel
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-06-01 - Publisher: HarperCollins Canada

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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
The Terror
Language: en
Pages: 798
Authors: Dan Simmons
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2007-03-08 - Publisher: Little, Brown

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The "masterfully chilling" novel that inspired the hit AMC series (Entertainment Weekly). The men on board the HMS Terror — part of the 1845 Franklin Expediti
Lady Franklin's Revenge
Language: en
Pages: 488
Authors: Kenneth McGoogan
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2006 - Publisher: Bantam Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Born into a wealthy London family in late-eighteenth-century England, Jane Griffin enjoyed nothing like the opportunities available to men of her class. And yet
Once They Were Hats
Language: en
Pages: 202
Authors: Frances Backhouse
Categories: Nature
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-10-01 - Publisher: ECW/ORIM

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“Unexpectedly delightful reading—there is much to learn from the buck-toothed rodents of yore” (National Post). Beavers, those icons of industriousness, h