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There are places on earth
that are so vast they still impress
upon us the power of nature.

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The immense, rugged
and varied terrain of Canada
never fails to astound me.

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This is a record of my journey
across this magnificent land
and back into its history.

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A history written by explorers
who should be household names

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in their native Britain, but are as
unknown as the land they encountered.

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Canada is a country that
was built on the skills of the land,

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traditional bush craft,
understanding nature and survival
in the harshest of environments.

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This isn't a survival series.

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It's about how those skills
and that knowledge were used to do

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something quite different, something
remarkable - to explore a country.

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And in Canada's Arctic North,
there's one explorer whose name
stands out, John Rae.

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This is St Magnus Cathedral
in Kirkwall in the Orkney Isles.

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I've come here because of a man
that I consider should be one of our
country's most celebrated figures.

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A Scotsman born nearby in 1813
and buried here in 1893.

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This is the memorial to Dr John Rae,
a medical doctor who, in my opinion,

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was the greatest
Arctic explorer ever.

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This is the man who succeeded
where so many had failed.

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The man who found the final link
in the holy grail of 19th-century
exploration, the Northwest Passage.

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And yet, while other lesser explorers
were being given medals
and knighthoods,

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Rae was shunned by society
and, even today, his achievements
go largely unrecognised.

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It's time to set the record straight,

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time for me to explore the life
of an unsung British hero.

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This is the Hall of Clestrain
on Orkney.

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This was the birthplace of John Rae
and it's really
important to come here

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to get a sense of the man.

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It's hard to imagine today that
this building would once have been
an incredible Georgian structure,

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very impressive, but you can see how
the weather over the centuries
has really taken its toll,

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and that weather is actually
a part of the story of John Rae,

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because
he was an Orcadian born and bred.

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It was across these hills that
he used to stride at great speed
to shoot grouse

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and through the sounds here he used
to race boats,

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developing boating skills that in
later years he'd be celebrated for.

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But perhaps the most important thing
was the spirit of the place.

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See, Orcadians are islanders,

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they're exposed to the whims of
nature and they have to deal with
that with a degree of stoicism.

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That stoicism is something
that Rae took with him to Canada

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and recognised in the native people
he learned to travel with
and to trust.

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These qualities were not lost
on the Hudson's Bay Company,

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the British fur trade company
that owned and ruled much of Canada.

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This was the place their ships
came to recruit

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as they filled up
from the last available fresh water

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on the route from London
to their bases on the shores
of Hudson's Bay in Canada.

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This is Login's Well,
it's a very historic place.

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You can still see
plenty of clear water in here today.

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This is where the Hudson's Bay
Company ships used to fill up from.
They'd fill their tanks from here.

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It's a very special place.
It wasn't just the Hudson's Bay
Company that stopped here.

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A lot of very famous ships,
including Captain Cook, both the
Resolution and the Discovery,

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stopped here to fill their tanks.
It's amazing.

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This fixed point on the
journey from London to Canada

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created a special link between the
Hudson's Bay Company and Orcadians.

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Janette Park is curator
at the Stromness Museum in Orkney.

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Tell me about the history of the
Hudson's Bay Company and Orkney.

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It's got a very
strong connection to Orkney.

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Quite a lot of the workforce was
recruited in Stromness.

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John Rae's dad was actually a
recruitment officer.

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A lot of the young men
that were brought up in Orkney,

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it was big families,
it was the family croft

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and the eldest son would inherit the
croft and the other sons would have
to make their own way in the world,

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and a good way of doing that was
signing on for a term of employment
with the Hudson Bay.

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If you did a seven year stretch out
there, you would earn enough money

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to come back and maybe buy your own
piece of land and marry
and settle down and set up.

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So it's a good way to better
yourself when you came home.

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It provided a great opportunity.
Oh, it did, yeah. It was taken up
by a lot of men.

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And what do you think were the
qualities amongst the Orcadians

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that the Hudson's Bay Company
recognised and liked?

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Well, I think a lot of the
Orkney men that went there were,

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I think it's been quoted
as being of a sober disposition
and hard working

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and probably kept in mind why they
were there and what they were doing.

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Orkney is actually
further north than Churchill
the company's main base in Canada.

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It's said that Orcadians often
remarked, only half jokingly,

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that they travelled to Churchill
for the warmth.

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After qualifying as a doctor, Rae,
like so many Orcadians before him,
joined the Hudson's Bay Company.

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But his was to be no ordinary career.

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Although he made his name in the
Arctic, that success was built

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on foundations laid down in his
early years working as a doctor
further south in the woods of Canada.

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His work involved tending
to both the European and the
Indian employees of the company

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and he travelled with an open mind.

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When John Rae came here, he saw the
wisdom that existed in the life
skills of the people he encountered,

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the indigenous populations of Canada,
and he went to great efforts,

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not to just buy from them the tools
that he needed,

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he learned from them how to employ
those techniques, how to make repairs

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and how to make the tools himself
so that he became
just as skilful as they were,

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and this was one of the keys
to his success as an explorer.

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This is the Canadian winter.

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The only way for Rae to reach
his patients was by snowshoe.

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Like so many things in his life,
he quickly mastered the technique.

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There are stories of him walking
half the night

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to catch up with the postman because
he'd forgotten to post a letter.

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He became so proficient that he
even made his own snowshoes to cope

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with the variety of environments
and conditions that he encountered.

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There's no doubting his
commitment to life here.

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He clearly respected
the craft skills of the locals.

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I'd like to learn more, so I'm going
to spend a couple of days making a
close replica of Rae's snowshoes

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with Pinock Smith,
an Algonquin craftsman
who I worked with a few years ago.

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We start with an ash log.

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Here we go again, Pinock.

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Splitting. All your projects
start like this, don't they?

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It's the easiest way to do it. It's
good to be working with you again.

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That's going real sweet.

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Open it up? Yep.

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The last time I worked with Pinock,
we built a birch bark canoe together

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and it took longer than anticipated
to film everything and do it,

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so, on this occasion,
I've asked him to come prepared.

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And this is what
you've brought with you.

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So that's an eighth...

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and then that's been split again
taken down to produce this,

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which is really the point
at which all the work starts.

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Now we're going to start using
our crooked knife to shape this
to the size we want. Yeah.

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First, we're gonna taper the ends?
Yeah, we want to taper this off

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so when we put them together,
it'll come to about that width.

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But we don't want to taper it off
an extreme taper,
we'd like it to come gradually

112
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so that when we put it together,
we don't have this thing, it has
a tendency to crack off sometimes.

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This was the world Rae embraced,

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a world without tape measures
where everything's judged by eye.
But it's no less precise.

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Mine's a little thick yet.

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This is how Rae learned to live here,
by working with the craftsmen
that surrounded him.

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I reckon that's the second taper done
on mine, looks all right, doesn't it?

118
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We'll get away with that.

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Tie it together, laminate it...

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Got a little whiskeyjack there.
Better feed your bird there.

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They're funny, aren't they?

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Come on, you know you want it.

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The locals say it's good
luck to feed the whiskeyjack.

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It means they'll clear up the camp
for you after you leave.

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My hands are getting a bit cold now.
It's a bit windy, isn't it?

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I'll put the shavings on the fire.

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Since I was a child, I've loved
the smell of burning ash. It's almost
as rewarding as the carving itself.

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With conditions worsening
and a temperature of minus 34,
it's time to go inside.

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I want these snowshoes to be
as close to Rae's as possible.

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On this trip,
I want to know what it feels like
to, literally, walk in his snowshoes.

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I sent Pinock a picture with the
dimensions of Rae's snowshoes.

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But when you're working like this,
inevitably, every pair is different.

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Very lightweight and very hard,
so this is very, very good snowshoe.

134
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That should be a better fit, flatten
this one down, it wasn't so flat.

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OK.

136
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Let's have a look.

137
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Are you happy with that?

138
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That's the frame ready.

139
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This temporary brace is set at
roughly the same width as Rae's.

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Next, we bind them with rawhide -
un-tanned animal skin.

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Then we'll have to,
we want to close this about here.

142
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Keep it. Tie it. Tie it up.

143
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Why are you using rawhide?

144
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As it dries,
it's gonna start tightening up more
and it'll hold it together for us.

145
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It's also something that we already
have cos we're using a lot of it
for the lacing.

146
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Traditional material from the....
We're not gonna go out and buy the
twine to do it, we have it here.

147
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Rae's snowshoe design incorporated
a distinctive curve at the front
to stop them sticking in the snow.

148
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To achieve this in the time
we've got available,

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we're going to laminate the wood.

150
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That means splitting it so that
it will take the curve more easily.

151
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Rae's would have been soaked
and steamed over several days.

152
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OK, now we can try bending it
around. That looks a lot better.

153
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Tight, huh?

154
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I gave you all the hard work.
That's all right. Younger person.

155
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Wow, look at that. Pretty good.
It looks all right, doesn't it?
It's very good.

156
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Now we have to twin this up with
another one, but you've already
prepared some earlier.

157
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Cos you complained about last time.
That's not true.

158
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OK, show me the next step.

159
00:13:51,040 --> 00:13:56,440
Right, so you've got two frames,
and you've spread them up here.

160
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This is to hold these two together
when you bend them, you don't want
the bend to come down any further.

161
00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:05,760
That's...so that's like a clamp,
a primitive clamp.

162
00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:09,240
And these gauges here in our
clamps and everything, we always...

163
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I've never seen anybody keep 'em.
They're thrown out and burnt or
whatever, because every time we...

164
00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:23,360
we make snowshoes they're always
different size anyway,
so we end up throwing them out.

165
00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:30,480
You know, that's because you're
not standardised, Pinock.
Oh, yes, trust you to say that.

166
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With the basic frame complete,
we can remove the brace
and fit the cross pieces.

167
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And this piece, we'll put up
about two thirds of the way,

168
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for balance of the shoe.
Does that look like two thirds?

169
00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:45,720
Cos remember it's all eyeball.

170
00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:49,000
Yeah. OK, you can
scribe that on the inside there.

171
00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:54,760
Rae was not a man to compromise
on quality.

172
00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:58,960
So he used five cross pieces
for strength and durability.

173
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If this first one is in the
wrong place, the snowshoes
simply won't work properly.

174
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So obviously, if there's the
snowshoe, as you lift your foot,

175
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it needs to tip so the nose comes out
and doesn't dig into the snow.

176
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Rae's snowshoes were so effective
he became known as Aglooka -
he who takes long strides.

177
00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:35,280
His most incredible feat was to walk
1,200 miles across the winter forest

178
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in just two months to meet a man
who could teach him how to survey.

179
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The transformation from doctor
to explorer had already begun.

180
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The more you put into this way of
life, the more rewarding it becomes.

181
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I've rounded off the edges of these
cross bars and the reason for that

182
00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:08,480
is, when the snowshoe's laced up, the
rawhide lacing will pass around this.

183
00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:13,640
I don't want any sharp edges
that could cause it to wear through.

184
00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:18,920
They're looking quite good.
Again, it just shows you how
versatile a crooked knife is.

185
00:16:18,920 --> 00:16:23,400
Crooked knives come in all different
shapes of bend in the end there.

186
00:16:23,400 --> 00:16:28,880
This is particularly good for doing
spoons and cups and that curved part

187
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enables you to put a nice round shape
onto the wood. It's really versatile.

188
00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:39,920
Rae knew that the knowledge of how to
do things was the key to life here.

189
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That's what I like about Pinock.

190
00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:47,320
With a couple of tools,
he can make whatever he needs,
working steadily day after day.

191
00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:56,200
Well, it's been a very satisfying
day, I really enjoy
this sort of craft work.

192
00:16:56,200 --> 00:17:01,760
One of the things I find really
interesting about working with
Pinock who has the benefit

193
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of an Algonquin Indian heritage
is that the way he makes snowshoes
is very simple.

194
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A lot of people would make a snowshoe
like this on a complex jig which is a
more modern approach to making them.

195
00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:21,000
His is the way of the forest
where you make very simple clamps
from little sticks as you go.

196
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And it makes me think of John Rae
as well because this is very much

197
00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:27,480
what he encountered
when he was here in Canada.

198
00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:32,520
In John Rae's time, women wove the
hide or babiche for his snowshoes.

199
00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:34,640
Today Pinock does the whole thing.

200
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Oh, we'll just start in the middle
any place, doesn't matter where.

201
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Go in, pull it through,

202
00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:47,320
Once you're in, start here,
and all I do is I come across again,
go into this hole here.

203
00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:54,640
The pace of this work is
really helping me to connect
to the world Rae lived in.

204
00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:59,520
I think I ought to start one.

205
00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:03,760
Go to the end,
push him down right through.

206
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Bring your string over.

207
00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:10,280
Which way do I pull
out with that one? On this side.

208
00:18:10,280 --> 00:18:14,360
Then you go in from the top,
down here, through here.

209
00:18:14,360 --> 00:18:18,240
That's the one, down there,
up again and then back up again.

210
00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:20,800
Yep, that's it. Now again,

211
00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:25,520
over, under this one,
again over these, under this one,

212
00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:27,720
under that one,
under this one here as well.

213
00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:30,440
'Don't worry. I'm getting lost too.'

214
00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:34,760
Now let me see if I can figure this
out, cos this is the tricky bit.

215
00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:41,040
So...oh, yeah, so now, I guess,
it's going over one, under one,

216
00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:45,720
over one, like before,
because that's all we've got left.

217
00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:49,560
But we want to stay on this side.
so you're gonna pick up...

218
00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:53,000
I go in there, yeah?
That's it, yep.

219
00:18:56,080 --> 00:18:59,440
There. And then you come
right back off the side of it,

220
00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:02,120
right in front of it, right there.

221
00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:06,200
And go right back down again,
you gotta cut next...no, this one.

222
00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:10,080
Right there, right beside it.
Right back out. That one?

223
00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:12,880
Yep, go right back down again.

224
00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:16,600
And come out in the other, there.

225
00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:18,240
It's a tricky business.

226
00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:22,440
My appreciation of the skill involved
is growing with every stitch.

227
00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:27,320
I've watched an old Indian woman make
the most amazing pair of snowshoes

228
00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:32,760
and I watched her hands go like a
sewing machine, and it's so skilful.

229
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,480
I mean, it's simple but there are
lots of mistakes you can make.

230
00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:40,960
Very easy to make a mistake.
I mean, I'm going dizzy doing this.

231
00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:46,400
Now I, well, anyway,
not bad for a first attempt.

232
00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:50,040
Not bad for a novice.
But nowhere near as good as Pinock's.

233
00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:52,920
It takes him most of the day
to complete the webbing.

234
00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:55,680
Rae used an incredibly fine weave,

235
00:19:55,680 --> 00:20:01,040
his shoes were designed for speed
and they were built to last.

236
00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:05,920
Rae was obviously a man
who was keen to go places.

237
00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:10,960
So these are the finished snowshoes.
That pattern of babiche,
of rawhide, is beautiful.

238
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:16,560
As that dries, it shrinks a little
bit and tightens it all up,
pulls it together.

239
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:22,520
Sounds like a tennis racket now.
Just one job remains
and that's to put the binding on.

240
00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:28,120
So this is the moment of truth -
trying the snowshoes.

241
00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:32,280
When the bindings are new,
they're a little bit more fiddly.

242
00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:36,320
Once you've used them for a while
they settle down
and are very easy then to put on.

243
00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:39,040
You push your toe through,

244
00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:47,360
till it's round your heel,
then you can angle your toe in.

245
00:20:47,360 --> 00:20:51,440
Now, as I use them they will stretch.
but they'll also settle down,

246
00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:56,280
Once the binding's settled down, you
can put them on and off without
even having to use your hands.

247
00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:57,760
Let's try them out.

248
00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:11,200
They're very good.

249
00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:18,200
Very light. It's like walking
on two feathers in the snow.

250
00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:46,240
John Rae is quoted as saying, "A long
day's march on snowshoes is about
the finest exercise a man can take."

251
00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:52,080
When he wasn't working,
he would be out using his snowshoes,

252
00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:55,520
learning how to hunt
everything from grouse to caribou.

253
00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:58,280
But this wasn't just a pastime.

254
00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:05,880
Perhaps the most important thing
about John Rae as an explorer,

255
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:11,640
certainly in my mind,
was his ability to truly take
care of himself on the land.

256
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:17,760
A lot of other explorers relied upon
Indian guides, local guides
to help them to find food,

257
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:23,080
but Rae took a pride
in being able to find food for
himself and live off the country.

258
00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:30,080
This is his gun. It's not known
whether he took it on expeditions but
he certainly used it in later life.

259
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:37,080
It tells me something about the man.
It's a plain gun but of good quality,
it's very light and wieldy.

260
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:43,240
It's exactly the sort of thing
that you would want to carry with you
on that sort of expedition.

261
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:50,640
It was his strength,
his self reliance and his clarity of
purpose that meant, in 1845,

262
00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:57,040
John Rae was chosen by the Hudson's
Bay Company to lead an expedition
to search for the Northwest Passage

263
00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:01,000
by filling in the last blanks on
the maps of the northern coast.

264
00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:03,600
He was headed for the Arctic.

265
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:11,040
As a woodsman, this landscape makes
me feel rather exposed and it must
have been the same for John Rae.

266
00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:15,200
He'd learned his skills of travelling
in the north land

267
00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:19,920
in amongst the trees and the forests
with the forest Indians,

268
00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:24,920
and now here he is in this landscape
where, instead of trees,
there's ice and snow.

269
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:28,920
Canada's Arctic coast
was becoming an obsession.

270
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:33,440
The Northwest Passage
could revolutionise sea trade
to the far East.

271
00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:36,920
A route across the top of Canada
offered an alternative

272
00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:41,320
to the otherwise hazardous journey
through French and Spanish waters.

273
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:45,360
By the mid-19th century,
much of the route had been mapped.

274
00:23:45,360 --> 00:23:49,360
But this far north, the sea freezes
for months and every attempt

275
00:23:49,360 --> 00:23:54,040
to complete the passage had come
up against the immovable sea ice.

276
00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:57,600
The Royal Navy
were determined to complete the task.

277
00:23:57,600 --> 00:24:02,760
But the search is incorporated
in the Hudson's Bay Company charter.

278
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:06,400
They had John Rae marked
as their best hope.

279
00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:11,800
His would be the first Arctic
overland attempt to solve the riddle.

280
00:24:16,120 --> 00:24:20,120
At the time, the Arctic mainland
was an unknown entity.

281
00:24:20,120 --> 00:24:25,720
Rae and his men were the
first Europeans ever to
spend a winter here.

282
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:32,720
Their survey, filling in the blanks
on the map, brought them here,
to a place they called Pelly Bay.

283
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:38,160
To explore the world Rae encountered,

284
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:45,040
I'm going to be working with members
of the Canadian Rangers, the Canadian
army's eyes and ears in the north.

285
00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:53,480
Rae was on foot, hauling a sledge.

286
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:56,320
But this is the way to travel today.

287
00:24:58,120 --> 00:25:00,960
To many people, these are playthings.

288
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:04,320
But they're just the tractors
of the north

289
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:09,880
and after a few hours travelling
on one through minus 30,
that's exactly what they feel like.

290
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,320
From the outset, Rae was different.

291
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:18,480
He travelled to the Arctic with only
a few months of supplies, even though
he intended to stay over a year.

292
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:21,840
He was going to live off the land,
just like the people up here.

293
00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,360
Ranger Liederik is going
to be my interpreter.

294
00:25:26,360 --> 00:25:31,240
We're out on the frozen sea ice
that proved such a barrier
to ship-based expeditions.

295
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,200
Cold day today. Yeah, windy.

296
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,400
Very windy, we're lucky here,
in the lee of this island.

297
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:41,080
Out there, that's not easy
travelling, is it? No, it's not.

298
00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:45,200
And you guys get cold like everyone
else, don't you? Yes, we do.

299
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:50,440
I've brought warming tea, Liederik's
providing the snack - frozen char.

300
00:25:55,000 --> 00:26:00,000
A lot of people will think that
this would make you cold,
but it doesn't, does it?

301
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:05,040
No, when you first eat it,
it feels cold

302
00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:11,280
but...maybe half an hour later,
you start to feel warm.

303
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:14,000
It's lovely, beautiful.

304
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,680
Tell me about your
traditional fishing spear.

305
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:20,400
Our traditional ones,
we use this one.

306
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:22,400
It's called kakivak...

307
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:26,880
We make a hole in...

308
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:32,840
..make a hole
and we just put that in, er...

309
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:37,080
in a hole like that,
and we wait for the fish to go by,

310
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:40,040
and that's... You spear them.

311
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:45,840
You're using some modern materials
here, some electrical tape and things
to make it,

312
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:50,520
but this isn't, is it? What's that
there? That's a musk ox horn.

313
00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:53,520
And that's still better
than modern materials? Yes.

314
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:58,760
And does it have that shape naturally
or have you carved that that shape?

315
00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:02,720
Have to carve it like that.
They carve it like that.

316
00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:09,280
It's not so long ago
that the people here
relied on their traditional skills.

317
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:13,160
This archive film is from the 1960s
and shows a way of life

318
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:17,440
that had hardly changed from the
world Rae would have encountered.

319
00:27:24,360 --> 00:27:29,000
In winter and in summer,
caribou are essential to life here.

320
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:31,920
They provide food,
clothing and tools.

321
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:34,000
John Rae relied on them too.

322
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:40,120
In the autumn, when much of the
snow has melted the kakivak spear
comes into its own on these weirs.

323
00:27:51,360 --> 00:27:58,400
Knowing how to find food
all year round was knowledge that
was crucial to Rae's expeditions.

324
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:05,720
DRUMMING

325
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:19,080
This landscape has to be one of
the hardest places to come and
make a documentary.

326
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:24,000
Just standing here talking to you,
my face is absolutely freezing.

327
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:28,520
It's actually quite a warm day as the
Arctic goes - it's only minus 24.

328
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:32,040
A few days ago in the forest,
I was in minus 40.

329
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,840
But with the wind,
it's a completely different ball game

330
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:39,960
and exposed flesh is very,
very vulnerable to cold injuries.

331
00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:46,640
Rae knew that and he knew that one
of the most important things was
learning how to find or make shelter.

332
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:50,920
He implored all of the people
who went on exhibitions with him

333
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:56,280
to learn how to do things
the local way, and that meant
the snow house or igloo.

334
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:11,120
Levy, an elder here, is using
his harpoon to test the snow.

335
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:15,560
Because when you look at it,
you just seem to see this go in,

336
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:19,480
but actually what he's feeling for,
the top is soft

337
00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:25,160
and then there's a layer
of harder snow underneath.

338
00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:29,320
They're removing the top soft snow
cos that's no good
for igloo building.

339
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:37,960
But building an igloo
isn't always straightforward,

340
00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:40,760
and this snow is too crumbly.

341
00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:51,480
He doesn't like the snow.

342
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:58,120
No. The vagaries of snow are
such that just a hundred yards away
we find the perfect conditions.

343
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:04,600
It's 13 years since I last had a go

344
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:09,440
at building an igloo, so I can expect
to be quite a bit rusty, I think.

345
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:19,760
And I've just been shown a tip.

346
00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:23,960
If I score a groove
in both sides of the snowblock,

347
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:27,000
you can get hold of it easier.

348
00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:34,080
Like that. They're quite heavy.

349
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:46,440
Is that all right. Yep.

350
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:48,120
Good, good.

351
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:50,000
Ah, the foreman says that's good.

352
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,000
The first block will be that one.

353
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:55,680
It's gonna be the first block.

354
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:03,440
When Rae first arrived in the Arctic,

355
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:08,120
he fell back on Orcadian traditions,
building a hut out of stone.

356
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:12,760
He didn't know any better.
But it was the wrong
technology in the wrong place.

357
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:15,720
When Rae saw the insulation
an igloo provides,

358
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:20,160
he quickly made it his
business to learn how to make them.

359
00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:25,720
Piece by piece, he was
acquiring the skills needed
for life this far North.

360
00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:42,120
Here first?

361
00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:44,120
Yeah.

362
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:48,320
OK.

363
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:51,400
Let's have a look.

364
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:06,720
I am remembering the blocks
have to stick in three places,

365
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:10,400
up here,
down here and down there,

366
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:12,320
so three points of contact,

367
00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:16,240
and then they stick together,
and that's the tool that's used,

368
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:19,400
the snow knife -
it's just a butcher's knife

369
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:21,120
and they've fitted their own handle.

370
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:25,000
This handle's a fantastic shape cos
you can hold it with mitts,

371
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:27,680
like that, and can use two hands
with it,

372
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:32,400
or you can use one hand as well,
and this is the most important tool.

373
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:36,880
In the jungle, it's the machete. In
the high Arctic, no Inuit leaves home

374
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:42,240
without his snow knife -
it's the most important thing. They
can break through the ice with this,

375
00:32:42,240 --> 00:32:45,640
can make an igloo with it, they can
cut up their meat with it, brilliant.

376
00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:55,040
There's that lovely sound.

377
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:07,720
You should try and make it same
shape as the next block all the
time, you try and make it tight.

378
00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:09,760
That way it's easier to work on.

379
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:22,800
That's easier said than done.

380
00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:26,680
The other two blocks I did
went in so easily.

381
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:35,080
What am I doing wrong?

382
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:39,560
Not quite right -
you show me what I've done wrong.

383
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:41,600
He's looking on disapprovingly.

384
00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:04,680
When I watch Levy, I see
a lifetime of experience and skill

385
00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:05,880
shaping every block.

386
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:13,880
Just like that.
You done this before?

387
00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:20,480
Watching the master at work now,
going to have a go,

388
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:24,160
watch a little bit, have another go,
you get better all the time.

389
00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:59,520
As the wall starts to go up,
we're already now getting

390
00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:04,480
that windbreak effect,
which is very welcome today.

391
00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:14,720
It's incredible.

392
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:27,320
This is the bit that always
astonishes me, it looks like
it defies belief, doesn't it?

393
00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:30,200
Very, very clever how
it all locks together.

394
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:36,000
The igloo to me is one
of the most incredible marvels
of human achievement.

395
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:40,360
There are a few things that, if I had
a time machine, I'd like to go back

396
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:44,360
and see - one is the first man
to make fire by friction

397
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:49,720
and the other is the first Inuit who
mastered this complicated technique

398
00:35:49,720 --> 00:35:52,320
of building it -
it's incredibly clever.

399
00:36:08,720 --> 00:36:11,360
Yes, that is our steam.

400
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:15,760
It shows just how much insulation
these structures provide.

401
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:22,920
Rae is on record as
choosing to sleep alone in his igloo.

402
00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:27,040
It may have been colder,
but he couldn't bear the
smoke of his crew's pipes.

403
00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:31,680
He kept his books and ink in
his sleeping bag to stop
them from freezing.

404
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:33,160
He was some man.

405
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:47,280
It's been a real insight

406
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:51,080
to get a masterclass
from someone as talented as Levy.

407
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:55,360
Levy, for me it's been a real
privilege to be here and to see

408
00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:57,560
you at work in this environment and,

409
00:36:57,560 --> 00:37:01,720
if there's only thing,
one thing I really can say,
that's "qujannamiik".

410
00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:07,000
Tell him I'm very glad I was able
to teach him everything

411
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:10,080
about the Arctic - if he ever
needs me to come back, I'm happy.

412
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:21,000
Ah yes, definitely
I'm very grateful for his kind offer

413
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:25,560
of his snowmobile, his Kamiks, his
parka, I will take very good care

414
00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:29,760
of these things when I take
them back to England with me.

415
00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:31,400
Thank you.

416
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:40,360
TRANSLATION: I tell you what,
you give me your fancy clothes and
I'll happily give you my old ones.

417
00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:49,200
Using the snow to build their homes
and finding food from the land

418
00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:51,680
were key to Rae's
ability to travel up here.

419
00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:55,320
He was working with the elements,
not against them.

420
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:24,640
The people Rae met
were not just surviving.

421
00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:27,080
He experienced a land
with a rich culture.

422
00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:32,920
A culture that continues to evolve
and that I'm being treated to today.

423
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:37,960
This throat singing reminds me
of singing I've heard in Mongolia -

424
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:40,360
it seems very similar.

425
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:46,120
RHYTHMIC BREATHING
AND VOCALISING

426
00:38:52,680 --> 00:38:56,000
Very good. Is there a song,
a rhythm that you're following

427
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:59,320
or is one of you trying
to catch the other one, or...?

428
00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:04,040
It's kind of both. You're leading
and then you've got to keep up.

429
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:09,480
Yeah. OK. I think...
OK, right, I'm listening out now.
It sounds like there's more,

430
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:13,760
more than two of you in here,
it sounds like there are
three or four people in here.

431
00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:16,440
It's amazing, how do you make that,
you've got two sounds,

432
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:21,320
cos you're making
a musical sound and then there's
that, that, that throat sound,

433
00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:24,120
EXHALES
SHE VOCALISES: Um...
can I hear just one of you?

434
00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:26,400
Um, ah!

435
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:29,720
I don't think I'd be
any good at this at all.

436
00:39:29,720 --> 00:39:33,000
It's very good, it's fantastic,
it's a very strange sound,

437
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:36,920
but it kind of belongs
here in the North. doesn't it?

438
00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:40,120
Can I hear some more,
cos I think it's great.

439
00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:44,360
THEY SING

440
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:50,600
Today Pelly Bay is called Kugaaruk.

441
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:54,520
The people here are making sure
the skills and knowledge continue.

442
00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:57,000
Once a week, elders visit the school.

443
00:40:00,720 --> 00:40:04,240
The kuglik is the traditional stove
and heater for an igloo.

444
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:13,800
Nets, of course,
were and are vitally important

445
00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:16,280
for people who live on the coast.

446
00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:21,520
It's not all about survival though -
there were tricks to learn, too.

447
00:40:25,720 --> 00:40:29,240
Wood is a relatively
new resource in a land without trees.

448
00:40:29,240 --> 00:40:35,200
Inuit sledges were once made from
frozen fish wrapped in skin

449
00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:37,880
with cross members of antler
tied together with seal skin.

450
00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:54,920
This is a fabulous place.
It's given me a glimpse into
the kind of people and lifestyles

451
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:58,040
Rae would have come across
on his travels.

452
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:13,600
They start them young here.

453
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:17,040
Actually this a mother and
toddler class, Inuit style.

454
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:21,440
Sophie, can you tell me what are
you are teaching the young women?

455
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:29,640
TRANSLATION: I'm teaching them how
to use this tool in order
to make the skin softer.

456
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,000
I've worn caribou clothing
and I know how good this is,

457
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:38,520
but I think people
who aren't used to it are surprised

458
00:41:38,520 --> 00:41:42,120
that you are still using
these traditional methods.

459
00:41:45,680 --> 00:41:53,520
Well, these clothes are the
warmest you can get in the winter.
A fact that was not lost on Rae.

460
00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:56,160
And you don't tan the skins,

461
00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:58,360
you just soften the skins.

462
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:05,760
When you finish with the scraper,
you rub warm water into the skin.

463
00:42:12,240 --> 00:42:17,120
Then you fold it, tie it with rope
and leave it for about 24 hours,

464
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:20,560
then you untie it and
it's beautifully soft.

465
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:31,240
When Rae adopted the snow house,
he also adopted Inuit clothing,

466
00:42:31,240 --> 00:42:34,800
in fact, he'd been using local
clothing for some time.

467
00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:38,640
There was great wisdom in that,
because the two technologies
go together.

468
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:42,560
Here's some caribou clothing and
one of the secrets to the success

469
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:47,000
of this clothing is that the
skin side is close to your body,

470
00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:49,600
and it's warm, and that means that
your body perspiration

471
00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:53,960
can pass through it
and it collects in the fur

472
00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:57,160
on the outside of the garment.

473
00:42:57,160 --> 00:43:02,120
Now if you bring that into
the main chamber of the igloo
when it's heated, the frost melts,

474
00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:07,760
and is drawn by capillary action
up into the insulative underhair

475
00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:11,840
close to the skin and when you go out
again, it would freeze like ice.

476
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:15,840
By leaving it in the porch,
any moisture freezes

477
00:43:15,840 --> 00:43:20,800
in the outermost layer of the hair,
which can simply be brushed away in
the morning - it's fantastic,

478
00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:28,400
it's so simple and so effective -
a completely windproof garment that
breathes and is also insulative.

479
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:34,120
Now, modern clothing just doesn't
function like this, all of these
garments we've got here,

480
00:43:34,120 --> 00:43:37,480
even if we were to bring them
into the igloo overnight,

481
00:43:37,480 --> 00:43:41,240
with the traditional lantern going
in here, there's no way we can get

482
00:43:41,240 --> 00:43:44,120
this environment warm enough
to dry our clothing

483
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:46,560
and get the moisture out of them.

484
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:51,080
That was one of the keys to
his success - he had both bits
of technology, insulative snow houses

485
00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:54,240
and the right clothing
that worked with it.

486
00:43:54,240 --> 00:43:57,480
That meant he could go a long
distance without too much hardship.

487
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:04,640
Caribou clothing was
the final element

488
00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:08,800
that brought John Rae the freedom to
explore where others feared to tread.

489
00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:15,800
Rae and his men completed their
expedition, a 600-mile round trip.

490
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:18,960
He may not have found the
passage yet, but the blanks

491
00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:23,760
in the map were getting smaller
and smaller.

492
00:44:23,760 --> 00:44:30,440
However, in 1845, the Royal Navy
despatched their own expedition
by sea, led by Sir John Franklin -

493
00:44:30,440 --> 00:44:34,000
the competition to find the passage
was hotting up.

494
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:40,840
When Rae left here he'd already
established his credentials
as an Arctic explorer -

495
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:46,160
it was then that
he was to become involved with the
folly of the Franklin expedition...

496
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:50,760
An expedition that was to dog
his career for the rest of his life.

497
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:55,080
I find it irritating that I even have
to mention Franklin's name

498
00:44:55,080 --> 00:44:59,920
in association with Rae's. Sir John
Franklin was a senior naval officer.

499
00:44:59,920 --> 00:45:04,080
He set sail with two ships,
Erebus and Terror,

500
00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:08,760
equipped with everything so-called
modern science could provide -

501
00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:11,560
steam power, strengthened hulls,
even tinned food.

502
00:45:16,720 --> 00:45:20,000
With the full backing of the Royal
Navy, this was the expedition that

503
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:24,160
everyone expected to complete
the search for the Northwest Passage.

504
00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:29,520
But Franklin was not a man
who could adapt to conditions.

505
00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:34,240
He reflected the Victorian
attitude of superiority.

506
00:45:34,240 --> 00:45:39,280
A ship with several years
of supplies of tinned food
had no need of local knowledge.

507
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:47,280
But Franklin went missing,
and a massive search for him began.

508
00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:55,480
At one point, it's estimated 15 ships
and 500 men were looking for him.

509
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:04,640
In fact, in 1848, Rae was ordered
to join one such expedition,

510
00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:07,280
searching for Franklin by land.

511
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:15,000
'The land he was headed for
is already familiar to me.'

512
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:19,960
It's the same area that Samuel Hearne
explored in the previous century.

513
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:22,960
I visited here
travelling in his footsteps.

514
00:46:27,720 --> 00:46:32,600
Hearne was another
Hudson's Bay Company explorer.

515
00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:37,440
He pioneered the use of indigenous
skills and knowledge for exploration.

516
00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:41,080
He recorded his experiences
in a journal.

517
00:46:41,080 --> 00:46:44,960
A journal that Rae is likely
to have read -

518
00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:49,400
I can't believe it's just coincidence
that he employed exactly
the same approach.

519
00:46:49,400 --> 00:46:54,680
This is Tlicho land - people both
Hearne and Rae met on their journeys.

520
00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:01,160
It's really nice to be back
with the Tlicho, in the winter,

521
00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:05,040
and they've really kindly
set up this camp for us,

522
00:47:05,040 --> 00:47:10,120
to be able to show us some of
their traditional winter skills.

523
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:15,080
We've come into the bush here about
halfway between the Great Slave Lake

524
00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:19,400
and Great Bear Lake, and it's
about -20, something like that.

525
00:47:19,400 --> 00:47:24,440
It'll be a lot colder at night,
and this is going to be our
accommodation while we're out here.

526
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:28,640
And there's a fantastic smell -
I wish you could smell it,
it's incredibly evocative, the smell

527
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:34,320
of spruce wood coming from the wood
burning stoves - it's a real sense
of comfort in a harsh landscape.

528
00:47:34,320 --> 00:47:40,560
But it's only out here, once you get
away from the communities, that all
the traditional skills bubble

529
00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:46,040
to the surface and you can see just
how vibrant and alive some of the
traditional knowledge still is.

530
00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:54,080
Skills like trapping,
making bannock and ice fishing.

531
00:47:56,520 --> 00:48:00,880
It's good to see the youngsters
here too - a sign of a vibrant

532
00:48:00,880 --> 00:48:02,920
and healthy culture.

533
00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:34,040
It feels quite cold here -
it's that breeze, isn't it?

534
00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:36,600
Ah, yes, yes, it's quite cold.

535
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:39,080
Yeah. The ice sounds
like glass, it's amazing.

536
00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:44,400
That's what happens when it's -50
and that's without the wind chill.

537
00:48:55,480 --> 00:48:57,960
It's thought that
early in Franklin's voyage,

538
00:48:57,960 --> 00:49:01,760
some men died from lead poisoning
from solder on their tinned food.

539
00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:05,520
Meanwhile Rae could eat fish
caught with nets under the ice.

540
00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:09,520
Maybe Franklin should have paid
more attention to the local ways.

541
00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:16,160
There really is plenty of food out
here if you know how to find it.

542
00:49:17,120 --> 00:49:22,480
And the fish preserves itself,
freezing instantly.

543
00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:32,800
It's said that Franklin maintained
English standards on his voyages -

544
00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:35,640
he dressed for dinner
and dined off china plates.

545
00:49:35,640 --> 00:49:38,200
Rae led a very different life.

546
00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:46,720
And it's only after dark
that the serious business begins.

547
00:49:46,720 --> 00:49:51,160
I wonder if John Rae was treated
to such fine hospitality.

548
00:49:54,520 --> 00:50:00,000
So I think I may have made the
mistake of asking "What do you do
for entertainment?",

549
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:06,960
as the mood has changed - now this is
all a bit rough and ready, I have to
say - we're in the confinement

550
00:50:06,960 --> 00:50:11,120
of this tent, and you may see
shadows from the sound recordist

551
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:16,560
and all sorts is going on, because
I've been invited to play

552
00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:19,320
in their traditional
hand-game competition.

553
00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:24,400
This is taken very seriously
and already the opposing team

554
00:50:24,400 --> 00:50:29,040
have got the look - they look like
they're hunting caribou and I
feel like the caribou right now.

555
00:50:29,040 --> 00:50:31,280
But I've got Jared on my side,

556
00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:36,840
who is a champion so I may be in good
hands here, we'll see what goes on.

557
00:50:40,560 --> 00:50:46,640
Under no circumstances
am I placing any bets cos

558
00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:51,640
people have lost their
shirts playing this game, yeah.

559
00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:53,280
I don't like that laugh.

560
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:04,320
'Don't ask me about the rules. As far
as I can tell it's something to do
with which hand the stick is in.

561
00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:51,960
'I've no idea who won.

562
00:51:51,960 --> 00:51:53,880
'But at least
I didn't lose my shirt.'

563
00:51:57,160 --> 00:51:59,680
Of course, it goes on into the night.

564
00:52:09,600 --> 00:52:12,720
But Rae was just passing through -

565
00:52:12,720 --> 00:52:17,360
the search for Franklin meant
he had to move on.

566
00:52:20,840 --> 00:52:23,880
Rae was on his way
to the Coppermine River.

567
00:52:23,880 --> 00:52:28,440
From here he could search
the surrounding coast
for signs of Franklin.

568
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:33,960
Hearne witnessed a massacre here,
and coincidentally, one of
Rae's men drowned here too.

569
00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:39,640
He was the only person
to die on a Rae expedition,

570
00:52:39,640 --> 00:52:46,640
an incredible achievement when
cold and malnutrition were common
causes of death on expeditions.

571
00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:50,960
But though Rae and his men

572
00:52:50,960 --> 00:52:54,960
spent years searching,
they found no trace of Franklin.

573
00:52:54,960 --> 00:53:01,080
But there was still the
Northwest Passage, and Rae had shown
he was clearly the man for the job.

574
00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:05,840
Two years later, he was sent back
to Pelly Bay to carry on his work.

575
00:53:05,840 --> 00:53:09,320
Make no mistakes about it,
this is a really difficult place,

576
00:53:09,320 --> 00:53:12,560
if you're not born here it takes an
incredible degree

577
00:53:12,560 --> 00:53:16,800
of mental determination to be able
to just cope with conditions here.

578
00:53:16,800 --> 00:53:21,160
This was Rae's fourth expedition
into the North, and it was on this

579
00:53:21,160 --> 00:53:26,520
occasion that he was to make
the most important discovery of
his career, the piece of water

580
00:53:26,520 --> 00:53:34,000
that today bears his name, the Rae
Strait, that was the missing link
in the Northwest Passage.

581
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:36,800
The seemingly impossible task was
complete and thanks

582
00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:41,320
to his unique approach,
Rae was the man who had achieved it.

583
00:53:41,320 --> 00:53:46,160
It was a small strip of water North
West of Pelly Bay

584
00:53:46,160 --> 00:53:49,360
between the Boothia Peninsula
and King William Island.

585
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:51,360
The search was finally over.

586
00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:53,920
Rae should have been given
a hero's welcome.

587
00:53:58,680 --> 00:54:03,200
But the achievement
was immediately overshadowed.

588
00:54:03,200 --> 00:54:08,120
Almost at the moment of his greatest
triumph, Inuit from Kugaaruk
brought word to Rae

589
00:54:08,120 --> 00:54:11,760
that they had found
a party of dead English sailors.

590
00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:14,720
From relics traded with
the Inuit, it was clear

591
00:54:14,720 --> 00:54:21,240
this was the Franklin expedition, and
their end had not been a quiet one.

592
00:54:21,240 --> 00:54:26,600
They'd behaved in the
only way they knew how, desperately
hauling their boats over land,

593
00:54:26,600 --> 00:54:28,520
taking their supplies with them.

594
00:54:28,520 --> 00:54:32,920
But without knowledge of how to live
in the land that surrounded them,
they really hadn't a hope.

595
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:38,600
Rae couldn't believe it -
on this expedition he's found
the Northwest Passage,

596
00:54:38,600 --> 00:54:42,320
he knows where the missing explorers
are, and he heads back to Britain

597
00:54:42,320 --> 00:54:44,720
to tell people what he's learned -

598
00:54:44,720 --> 00:54:46,760
you'd think they'd be happy,
wouldn't you?

599
00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:50,120
Strange thing is, things
didn't quite turn out that way.

600
00:54:54,360 --> 00:54:58,320
Armed with the knowledge that
Franklin's expedition had perished,

601
00:54:58,320 --> 00:55:00,600
Rae returned to London.

602
00:55:00,600 --> 00:55:03,600
His Admiralty report
sealed his fate.

603
00:55:03,600 --> 00:55:08,240
His report was reprinted
in this edition of The Times,

604
00:55:08,240 --> 00:55:10,560
Monday October 23rd, 1854.

605
00:55:13,560 --> 00:55:17,360
"Intelligence which may be
fairly considered decisive

606
00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:24,080
"has at last reached this country
of the sad fate of Sir John Franklin
and his brave companions."

607
00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:29,480
The article then reprints Rae's
letter - this is the key passage.

608
00:55:29,480 --> 00:55:36,600
"From the mutilated state of many
of the corpses and the contents of
the kettles, it is evident

609
00:55:36,600 --> 00:55:41,000
"that our wretched countrymen had
been driven to the last resort,

610
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:43,760
"cannibalism,
as a means of prolonging existence."

611
00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:48,440
To suggest that members of the Royal
Navy had resorted to cannibalism

612
00:55:48,440 --> 00:55:52,160
was inconceivable to society
of the day and when it was learned

613
00:55:52,160 --> 00:55:57,640
that Rae had been unable to verify
the facts for himself and had instead

614
00:55:57,640 --> 00:56:05,000
trusted the word of an Inuit, well,
society simply closed ranks upon him.

615
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:11,880
Franklin's widow refused to
accept Rae's findings and mounted
a sustained attack on him.

616
00:56:11,880 --> 00:56:16,680
It became a cause celebre,
and society sided with the Franklins.

617
00:56:18,360 --> 00:56:23,520
And this is the result - statues
both here and in Westminster Abbey.

618
00:56:23,520 --> 00:56:28,040
And look, he's given credit for
discovering the Northwest Passage -

619
00:56:28,040 --> 00:56:29,720
it's a travesty.

620
00:56:29,720 --> 00:56:33,160
Erected by the unanimous
vote of parliament.

621
00:56:33,160 --> 00:56:35,800
Frankly what did they
know about the North?!

622
00:56:38,360 --> 00:56:44,680
Rae was our true champion of the
North, he'd learned to live there
as though it was his home -

623
00:56:44,680 --> 00:56:48,560
not only did he get no public
recognition for his achievements,

624
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:51,760
but society
literally left him out in the cold.

625
00:56:51,760 --> 00:56:55,160
He's been all but forgotten
for the past hundred years.

626
00:56:55,160 --> 00:56:59,960
Rae does not deserve
to be brushed aside -

627
00:56:59,960 --> 00:57:03,040
his achievements were astounding.

628
00:57:03,040 --> 00:57:06,120
He undertook four Arctic expeditions

629
00:57:06,120 --> 00:57:11,000
with the loss of just one life.

630
00:57:11,000 --> 00:57:15,160
He mapped around 1,500 miles
of coastline.

631
00:57:15,160 --> 00:57:18,200
He found the Franklin expedition.

632
00:57:20,720 --> 00:57:25,920
And he discovered the Rae Strait, the
final link in the Northwest Passage.

633
00:57:25,920 --> 00:57:27,840
That's why it bears his name.

634
00:57:29,600 --> 00:57:33,720
But that still leaves his greatest
contribution to exploration.

635
00:57:33,720 --> 00:57:37,600
If you come and travel
in this landscape today,

636
00:57:37,600 --> 00:57:40,640
just about every book you read

637
00:57:40,640 --> 00:57:42,720
will tell you how the local people,

638
00:57:42,720 --> 00:57:46,240
the Inuit, have coped with these
conditions for thousands of years.

639
00:57:46,240 --> 00:57:50,200
John Rae knew that when he came here,
he learned everything he could

640
00:57:50,200 --> 00:57:53,480
about travelling in this
incredibly hostile environment

641
00:57:53,480 --> 00:57:57,600
from the people who knew how,
and yet he was vilified

642
00:57:57,600 --> 00:58:02,240
for it - I find it astonishing that a
man of such wisdom could be treated

643
00:58:02,240 --> 00:58:04,640
so shabbily by the establishment.

644
00:58:19,840 --> 00:58:23,160
Next, my journey takes me in the
steps of a woodsman

645
00:58:23,160 --> 00:58:27,760
who mapped some three million square
miles of this magnificent land.