Expedition of Doom - Death in the Arctic Circle

Without the oral tradition of the Inuit, the wreckage of the lost Franklin Expedition would never have been found.

Leaving England in the summer of 1845, the expedition was searching for the Northwest passage to the orient. They did not ask any help from the Inuit, but the Eskimos were watching.

The Franklin Expedition consisted of two sturdy ships, the Erebus, and the Terror. They brought enough food to last more than a year, for they rightly expected to be ice-bound for the winter. The summer that followed, according to the ice core record, was the coldest summer in 700 years. The ice did not break, and the ships were forced to spend another winter, in place.

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Knowing their supplies would not last until spring, except for the few men not able, or willing, to travel, the Franklin Expedition constructed heavy sleds to carry remaining supplies, and headed south. The desperate party was seen en route, and the crew had been reduced to cannibalism.

The ice opened up, and the Erebus drifted south, with the handful of men that remained behind. They were too weak to raise the sails. The ship came to rest in a backwater between islands. The following winter, when the ice provided a path, the Inuit investigated, finding no one inside alive.

In 2014, the white man finally decided to listen to the Inuit. That's when the wreck of the Erebus was found, in water only 36 feet deep.

The Inuit have two oral traditions. One passes down actual history, the other, their mythical folklore. Because of harsh arctic conditons, the historical knowledge of the land around them was transmitted very accurately, as this was essential for survival.

Their folklore also reflects the harsh environment. Consider the tale of Torngashuak, whose boy had gone out in his kayak, and had not returned. So the father set out in his own kayak, to search for his son, and to speak with others who might have seen him.

Beside a great glacier he met a giant, who offered him a drum, with which to call his son. But when he saw the head of the drum was made of human skin, he knew the giant was a man-eater, and Torngashuak rowed away.

Torngashuak saw a big man on land, so he rowed ashore. "I think I know where your son has gone," said the big man, and he led the father to the edge of a ravine. When Torngashuak looked down into the chasm, he saw the broken kayaks, of those travelers the big man had eaten in the past. The man-eater tried to push him over the precipice, but he grabbed the big man's jacket, and cast him down instead.

Torngasoak met an old woman, who offered to dry his boots. But when the old woman hung his boots up higher than he could reach, he realized she was a man-eater. "Now they have dried enough," he insisted, and she gave back the boots. When he ran away, she gave chase. But she fell down, and her knife was broken.

Torngasoak met a strange man on the shore. The man boasted about his new animal skin, which was stretched out to dry. Then he saw the stranger's kayak. He knew at once, it was his son's kayak, and the skin, had most likely been taken from his son. He trampled that man-eater to death, so heavily that all his bones were crushed.

Only then did Torngasoak feel able about to return home.

Shore excursions in the Arctic.mp4 from Aurora Expeditions CC BY https://vimeo.com/183780485 (original has been edited).

Start Again by Alex (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/AlexBeroza/31670 Ft: Snowflake & Subliminal (original has been edited).