John Rae (explorer)

John Rae ( born September 30, 1813 Hall of Clestrain, in Orphir in Mainland ( Orkney ), † 22 July 1893 in London) was a Scottish physician and Arctic explorer.

Life

After studying medicine in Edinburgh, he joined as a physician in the service of the Hudson 's Bay Company. On their behalf, he undertook an expedition 1846-48 to complete the investments made by John Ross in the Hudson Bay mapping out. In the same year he accompanied John Richardson at a expedition to find the Northwest Passage in the area of the Mackenzie River. After his return home he forwarded the expedition and explored the area of ​​Victoria Island and named after him Rae Street. 1853-54 came before Rae with its own expedition up on King William Land, whose island property he proved. He explored there with his expeditionary force still unknown territories.

He gained through contact with local Inuit knowledge of the fate of the lost expedition John Franklin, after whose whereabouts middle of the 19th century, numerous searches were started. Rae graduated from the stories of the Inuit that had Franklin's men have moved with heavy sled across the ice to the south, and that they thereby also to survive, from the " last chance " of cannibalism had been exercised. Despite some trade-in items that were obviously assigned to the crew of Franklin, his statements were first questioned and criticized Rae just in terms of cannibalism theories publicly in the strongest terms. It was not until 1859 an expedition under Francis Leopold McClintock Raes details confirmed for the most part, he received the claimed to clarify the fate of the Franklin Expedition £ 10,000.

1860 Rae was involved in the construction of the telegraph line to America. In the course of this work he visited Greenland and Iceland. In 1864 he took part in another Telegraph project in northern Canada. In addition to the Rae Strait, which lies between the King William Island and the Boothia Peninsula, according to him, the Canadian towns Rae Isthmus ( Nunavut ) and Rae - Edzo (Northwest Territories) are named.

Works

  • Narrative of an expedition to the shores of the Arctic Sea. London ( 1850)
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