The doomed Franklin expedition, the biggest disaster in the history of Arctic exploration, has become a cautionary tale of colonial rigidity.
Led by Sir John Franklin, a British Royal Navy officer, 128 men boarded two large ships laden with enormous quantities of supplies, live cattle and three pets, including a monkey named Jacko, in their search for the Northwest Passage through Canada’s Arctic Archipelago.
Franklin showed little interest in interacting with the only inhabitants of the Canadian Arctic, the Inuit.
All crew members died after their ships became trapped in ice near the northwestern shore of King William Island. Gjoa Haven, the only inhabited community on King William, is on the southeastern corner of the island.
The counterpoint to the Franklin expedition was a mission led by Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian who showed great flexibility and an open mind. With a crew of only six in a small boat named Gjoa, Amundsen became the first explorer to cross the Northwest Passage in 1906 by hugging the coast. Amundsen also set out to learn from the Inuit how to survive and travel in the Arctic.
He spent two winters in the harbor of what later became Gjoa Haven, making many Inuit friends who often visited his crew on his boat, according to Inuit oral history and Amundsen’s book, “The North West Passage,” which is filled with rich, sometimes gossipy, details about the Inuit individuals he met.
Describing the superiority of Inuit clothing, Amundsen recalled how he had asked a friendly man named Atikleura how to acquire Inuit underwear. In response, the man undressed immediately and handed him the piece of clothing.
Amundsen wrote that he “was soon clad in Atikleura’s still-warm underclothing.’’
To this day, the people of Gjoa Haven speak affectionately of Amundsen and display a large bust of him in the municipal building. Several told stories of how their ancestors had first learned of the arrival of the explorer’s crew: A young Inuk had found the discarded intestines of hunted caribou, which is a delicacy for the Inuit.
“One of my late uncles said, ‘How did you get those?’” said Jacob Keanik, 65. “And there were footprints on the snow that were very narrow in the middle of the foot. They were wondering, what kind of people are these?”
Eventually the two sides met. An Inuk man and one of Amundsen’s crew slowly approached each other, unarmed, with backup behind them.
“Amundsen interacted with the Inuit, so he successfully made it through the Northwest Passage,” said Mr. Keanik, the leader of a group of people who now protect the sites of Franklin’s sunken ships.
Norimitsu Onishi reports on life, society and culture in Canada. He is based in Montreal.
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