KABLOONAS

KABLOONAS
Burial of John Franklin. Author: me

KABLOONAS

Kabloonas is the way in which the Inuit who live in the north part of Canada call those who haven´t their same ascendency.

The first time i read this word was in the book "Fatal Passage" by Ken McGoogan, when, as the result of the conversations between John Rae and some inuit, and trying to find any evidence of the ill-fated Sir John Franklin Expedition, some of then mentioned that they watched how some kabloonas walked to die in the proximities of the river Great Fish.

I wish to publish this blog to order and share all those anecdotes that I´ve been finding in the arctic literature about arctic expeditions. My interest began more than 15 years ago reading a little book of my brother about north and south pole expeditions. I began reading almost all the bibliography about Antarctic expeditions and the superknown expeditions of Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton, etc. After I was captured by the Nansen, Nobile and Engineer Andree. But the most disturbing thing in that little book, full of pictures, was the two pages dedicated to the last Franklin expedition of the S.XIX, on that moment I thought that given the time on which this and others expeditions happened, few or any additional information could be obtained about it. I couldn´t imagine that after those two pages It would be a huge iceberg full of stories, unresolved misteries, anecdotes, etc. I believe that this iceberg, on the contrary than others, would continue growing instead melting.



martes, 21 de agosto de 2012

JAMES FITZJAMES. SECOND ROUND


I am happier with this version,  and in my defense I have to say that I allways do freehand drawing. Never tracing!!.

There is no added value only copying photos, but if I am able to capture the gestures, perhaps I could put them in other angles and postures to do the sketches of the expedition which I mentioned in the other post.

8 comentarios:

  1. This looks fabulous and quite professional! You have really captured Fitzjames' expression. About how long did it take you?

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  2. Not much, 20 minutes bored while watching a film on Tv.

    Thank you very much.


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  3. Perfect! By the way, is there any genuine physical descriptions for J. Fitzjames? Like hair color, eye color etc?

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  4. Thank you!

    Perhaps in the William Battersby book about him, I haven´t checked yet.

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  5. That is a great question, Noelia! I don't recall any real description of Fitzjames in his biography by Battersby, except that he was "tall". It is interesting to note that Description Books were kept for many voyages by the Royal Navy for all the ratings (seamen), noting the height, hair color, eye color, and complexion for each man. This facilitated identifying any man who managed to desert. The officers, however, were "above such practices".

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  6. Darn! That's too bad they took that attitude (and didn't think of cough-posterity-cough ): I know I read somewhere (fiction) that he was blond (curly hair of course) then in The Lost journals, it was mentioned J. Fitzjames had red hair; fiction again. ): who knows though?

    (shakes fist at black and white photos)

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  7. I´ve read in diagonal the W.Battersby book and I agree with Jaeschylus, only I´ve found a very short comment of other officer in a letter to home about him and that when they were testing the Inuit kayaks in Greenland James had to take off his trousers to get into the kayak because his size. From the daguerrotipe I am sure that his eyes weren´t clear.

    I´ve also read that Fairholme was an unusual big guy, perhaps he was who the Inuit found inside the ship when the ships were beset and abandoned near the southwest coast od KWI. The famous large man with long teeth...is only a supposition.

    Perhaps you can contact with William directly on his blog, if someone knows something about his phisical features I am sure that he is our man:

    http://franklinexpedition.blogspot.com.es/

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  8. Another discovery: James Fitzjames was in Cádiz,...and what?? Well, it seems that a lot of arctic involved people was in my birthplace city. At least two people...not much, isn´t it? but a lot for me!!!.

    Lady Jane was also here...

    A wonderful city by the way, and with a long and complicated history, we were conquered by the Vikings, the Romans, the Arabs, by Francis Drake, etc. but not by the French. And the city was founded by the Phoenicians.

    More information here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadiz

    P.S. Sorry for this explosion of proud.

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