August 14, 2008

To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea... Canada will launch an expedition to find the Erebus and Terror, the ships of doomed Arctic explorer and folk hero Sir John Franklin.
posted by Capt. Renault 15 years ago
  • (In case you find yourself humming some Stan Rogers.)
  • (And some material from NOVA's excellent documentary last year.) (I'll stop now.)
  • More info on the search expedition itself here.
  • Oh, great, now I have that chorus playing over and over in my head for the rest of the day. And right behind that, Barrett's Privateers. Curse you, Renault!
  • *dances old-timey-prospector style*
  • I soooo wish I could go on this expedition. My mother was born in Franklin's home town of Spilsby, Lincs. Her school was in neighbouring Partney, the home of Capt Mathew Flinders, Flanklin's cousin and first person to circumnavigate Australia. Another cousin of mine lives in Aswarby, the birthplace of George Bass, after whom the Bass straight between Australia and Tasmania is named. In other words, I grew up surrounded by these tales of explorers and the sea and, being me, I was completely obsessed with them. Then I moved to Canada and eventually married a cousin of Stan Rogers...
  • She's Stan's COUSIN? Holee CRAP that's cool!
  • I hope they find more than his hand. Seriously, this is freaking cool.
  • Peter Mansbridge wraps up a documentary on the modern Northwest Passage with Stan Rogers' song
  • She's Stan's COUSIN? Sure, my mother-in-law tells stories of sitting on Stan Rogers' bed while he played guitar for her. This was, of course, before he became famous. But did you miss the part where I spent practically every summer of my childhood walking the fields where Franklin walked, gazing out over those same hills and dreaming his same dreams of adventure and discovery on the high seas? Big part of my life, here! :-)
  • Look into Deadly Winter Good book! May have to check it out again. What a strange man JF was.
  • Resolute MeFi post.