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.



lunes, 13 de agosto de 2012

JAMES REID


Well, this is my own representation of James Reid, the ice master of the HMS Erebus.  The original picture is here. Again the drawing doesn´t have any resemblance with the original, I think that he looks even infantile in my drawing, any trace of his hard facial features, but....

I am enjoying stopping to study the facial features. It gives me a lot of information. Undoubtely this man was a veteran sailor, his clear eyes show experience. This man seems to be a whaling captain. It seems that the Royal Navy normally takes this kind of  people for guiding the vessels among the icebergs or ice floes in the northern seas. Whalers have been allways familiarizated with the navigation in arctic seas.

 I haven´t found any additional information to put here. Only that in 1854 John Rae obtained from the Inuit a gold watch engraved with his initials. This probably is the only remain of him that will be recovered ever.


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2 comentarios:

  1. Noeliamartes, 14 agosto, 2012

    I don't think it's that bad actually. ^^ Have you ever drawn Fitzjames or Crozier?

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  2. Andrés Paredesmiércoles, 15 agosto, 2012

    Hello Noelia!, Thanks and welcome.

    OF course I´ve tried to do it, at least the drawing of Fitzjames, but I´d want to know more about him reading the book of William Battersby to give more value at the post. However I am going to put it just now, because I don´t think that I can finish it till the end of the summer ans I am very impatient.

    About James Reid I know now that he was in fact a rough man, as you can expect from a whaling sailor of the time, but also an intelligent and cheerful man.

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