In Baffin Bay Where The Whale Fish Blow...
Aug. 5th, 2015 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloProgramme on Channel 4 last night about the history and archaeology of the Franklin expedition- prompted by the discovery- in September last year- of the wreck of HMS Erebus.
Erebus turned up 100 miles away from where she was officially supposed to have been abandoned- which requires explanation. The most plausible theory is that survivors reoccupied her and sailed her south before abandoning her again and disappearing into the snowy wastes- thereby- though they may not have known it- navigating the North West Passage and successfully completing the mission.
The archaeologists found the wreck thanks to Inuit oral tradition. The Inuit turn out to have been right about everything- including the cannibalism that some of the lost sailors were reduced to (archaeologists have found cut marks on human bone at one of the camp sites,) Dickens was one of those who bloviated about this when the information first came through, accusing the Inuit of being primitive idiots incapable of appreciating the mettle of true-hearted British tars. The word "blubbery" occurs in his article. I adore Dickens this side of idolatry but he was capable of being a right plonker at times. One can imagine him- in a later incarnation- writing columns for the Mail.
Erebus turned up 100 miles away from where she was officially supposed to have been abandoned- which requires explanation. The most plausible theory is that survivors reoccupied her and sailed her south before abandoning her again and disappearing into the snowy wastes- thereby- though they may not have known it- navigating the North West Passage and successfully completing the mission.
The archaeologists found the wreck thanks to Inuit oral tradition. The Inuit turn out to have been right about everything- including the cannibalism that some of the lost sailors were reduced to (archaeologists have found cut marks on human bone at one of the camp sites,) Dickens was one of those who bloviated about this when the information first came through, accusing the Inuit of being primitive idiots incapable of appreciating the mettle of true-hearted British tars. The word "blubbery" occurs in his article. I adore Dickens this side of idolatry but he was capable of being a right plonker at times. One can imagine him- in a later incarnation- writing columns for the Mail.
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Date: 2015-08-05 03:51 pm (UTC)Being right got him socially ostracised by Lady Franklin's powerful friends, including Dickens. From being one of the UK's finest and most important explorers and the first to use snowshoes and inflatable boats (he was an Orkneyman- a man who deeply respected the Inu and Cree and set out to learn their ways) he was deliberately written out of history and is only just now being written back in.
There's now (quite rightly) a statue to him in Stromness
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Date: 2015-08-05 08:11 pm (UTC)Dickens was usually in the right about things, but in this instance he was not only an ass, but a bigoted ass.
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Date: 2015-08-06 07:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-06 08:05 am (UTC)As for Dickens, he was, I believe, sensitive to the charge and tried to make amends for Fagin with the "good" Jew Riah in Our Mutual Friend.
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Date: 2015-08-06 11:28 am (UTC)He does send a 'godly man of his own persuasion' (ie a Rabbi) to try to pray with Fagin in the condemned cell without much success.
I have to admit that I find Fagin a complex character.