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.



domingo, 6 de septiembre de 2020

POLAR EXPEDITIONS INTERACTIVE MAP: FROM THE BEGINNING TO NOWADAYS

I will be known when I die like the man who started one thousand projects and didn´t finish any of them...

Another of my most ambitious projects, apart from the Arctic Graveyard, the Polar Museums and  memorials and other polar related maps, is this one on which I am trying to draw the routes, winter quarters, cairns, shipwrecks and everything related with polar exploration since it started to the most modern routes performed nowadays. As you can imagine, this is a neverending work which likely will never end like the others.  It is however a wonderful way to spend my spare time, which by the way, is in fact inexistent, and to share what I am learning from what I am reading in books and social media with other polar enthusiasts.

Please, feel free to look for your favourite polar expedition, see if it is in the map and to suggest me to add any place, route, cairn or prominent place you think would deserve to be located in this map. My way to give thanks to those who have cooperated is to include an acknowledgement in the description of the pin who has been added. I can´t do more but at least is a way to recognise the interest of those who voluntarily wanted to collaborate. 
Enjoy the map!:




miércoles, 12 de agosto de 2020

FRANKLIN RELATED NEW BLOGS-THE STORM IS GROWING IN STRENGTH

The mystery associated to the Franklin expedition drama has haunted many many people since it happenned in the mid nineteenth century, and the storm rised didn´t calm over time but more the contrary, it grew and grew stronger, so much that now, not hundreds but thousands of people, are absolutely intrigued with the matter, the intenstiy of the effect reached its climax  after the releasing of the TV Serie. 

The impact in the general audience of the TERROR serie was so strong, that for a while that I had to become used to answer to this  question  coming from my closest colleagues and friends : 

"Wasn´t this the story you have been always talking (boring us) about?"

And yes, that happened to me some years ago, not sure about when was planted the original seed, I have been asked about this many times but still have not a definitive answer. I have been hooked by polar exploration since I was a teenager, and have crossed several stages at that time. I was originally captivated, like many, by Robert Falcon Scott and Amundsen race to the south pole (tragedy included), almost at the same time I had started to read about Shackleton expeditions and of cours. Then I also read about Amundsen´s life which transported me back in time to Nansen. From Nansen I became interested in Jeannette expedition, Andree´s attempt to the pole. Andree took me to Nobile, Wellman, Bird, etc. The chain reaction had begun.

Once you put a step inside the ninetheenth century there is no way back. My friends were surprised about my interest in early polar exploration, and I used to fascinate them talking about horrible tragedies and other formidable tales about what by the time I thought were "old" stories coming from the beginning of the Twentieth century. That was nothing, and now I know that, that was the mere tip of the iceberg. There is a world underneath, a net of amazing stories weaved together at the bottom of the narrow stairs which lead you to the origins of polar exploration. The discovery of the Northwest passage, Franklin & Co expeditions are only the hall to Dante´s ninth circle, the frozen hell. But I must warn you, BEWARE OF CROSSING THE TRESHOLD or you may not be able to come back to the sunny and warm surface again.

Not few of those people who I mentioned above were bitten so wildly by the Franklin bug that they , at certain point, produced an inmense amount of work of an impressive and excellent quality. Some of them are professional historians who have just stopped in the Franklin expedition for a while to start and finish some specific campaign but others are ordinary people like I am, amateurs who have put apart their rakes and have taken their stronger shovels to dig fiercely on the surface of the Franklin mistery and have reached certain depth in the process. 

I am maybe feeling myself now in the eye of this storm, I am possibly exhausted after some years of such a intense relation with the Franklin expedition. I wouldn´t say I have lost interest, one can´t lose interest in something which has inspired you so strongly, but perhaps I needed to put some distance for some reason... it is wonderful however to witness that when one put the shovel apart for breathing or to rest, new hands, fresh eyes, no matter from where they have come, relieves you frnm the task and keep on digging with renewed strength new galleries and deep wells which haven take them to new findings but also to be surroundend into new darkness.

That´s the case of the wonderful blog by Logan Zachary who humbly describes himself as "Upper Midwest truckdriver, only reads audiobooks, & shoots a Leica Q." but who is maybe now one of the most prolific searchers among others.

https://www.illuminator.blog/p/logan.html

https://www.illuminator.blog/p/logan.html

I have had the opportunity of interchanging some conversations with him and see his work posted in the Facebook group about the subject, and I must tell I am very pleased to see he has  decided at some point to publish all his findings and thoughts in a blog, where all this information will last longer than in a Facebook group, is easier to read and check and can be used for everybody who whant to continue the necessary searching. 

(Note for Randall Osczevski: I am still waiting to see your thoughts in the shape of a permanent website....)

Another excellent researcher is Alison Freebairn, she also started a new adventure the past year and shared with all of us her magnificient work in her blog so appropiately named "Finger post"

https://finger-post.blog/


As in the case of Logan, I also had the chance to chat a bit with her and again I am very satisfied to see that the Franklin mistery is in good hands. 

Of course there are many others, those who some call the Heavyweights (Russell Potter, Peter Carney, etc.), who never stopped digging in the field (unlike me). They were already there when I fell in the trap and they will be there if I ever got free. They are the Croziers of the Franklin mistery. I hope and I am sure that people like Logan and Alison will also stand together with them while the interest of many of those who were initially captivated is fading out.