"FROZEN IN TIME - UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION," BY OWEN BEATTIE AND JOHN GEIGER - A BOOK YOU SHOULD READ!
NOW! THIS MINUTE! THE PLANE WAS TO LEAVE IN TEN MINUTES. GOSH, WHAT FEAR OF FLYING? IF I WAS OFFERED THE OPPORTUNITY TO JOIN THE SEARCH CREWS IN THE ARCTIC, TO WRITE ABOUT THE SCENE UNFOLDING, REGARDING TODAY'S NEWS OF "DISCOVERY", THAT A WOODEN SHIP HAD BEEN LOCATED UNDERWATER, IN PRETTY GOOD SHAPE, BELONGING TO THE LOST FRANKLIN EXPEDITION, I WOULD DISMISS, IN A REPORTER'S HEARTBEAT, MY FEAR OF FLYING; FOR A GOOD CAUSE OF COURSE. MANY HISTORIANS WOULD LIKE TO BE IN THE GREAT WHITE NORTH AT A TIME LIKE THIS, WHEN SO MUCH HISTORY HAS JUST BEEN VALIDATED BY PLAIN OLD, PAINSTAKING, NO-DETAILS-OVERLOOKED, "SEARCH AND DISCOVERY". WE HISTORICAL TYPES, LIVE BY THIS STANDARD OF OPERATION, TWENTY-FOUR SEVEN, AS THEY SAY. OF COURSE, IT DOESN'T HURT TO HAVE A LOT OF EXPERTS ON SITE, AND SOME OF THE MOST HIGHLY DEVELOPED, CUTTING EDGE, UNDERWATER DETECTION GEAR AVAILABLE. WOW! YUP, I COULD FLY TO SEE SOMETHING LIKE THIS IN ACTION. IT'S A PROUD MOMENT FOR CANADA. FOR ALL CANADIANS. IMPORTANT TO THE FOUND AND CONSERVED RELICS OF THE ENTIRE BRITISH EMPIRE. FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION ISN'T "SO LOST" ANYMORE. THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT!
MAYBE I'M BEING PRESUMPTUOUS TODAY, BUT I THINK MY OLD MATE, ARCHIVIST / HISTORIAN, HUGH P. MACMILLAN, WOULD HAVE BEEN THRILLED BY THE BREAKING NEWS, FROM OTTAWA, THAT ONE OF THE SHIPS, FROM THE ILL-FATED ARCTIC EXPEDITION, OF BRITISH NAVAL OFFICER, SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, HAS BEEN DISCOVERED BY A TEAM OF UNDERWATER SPECIALISTS, BEING FUNDED AT LEAST IN PART, BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. THIS IS A BIG MOMENT FOR ALL CANADIANS AND NATIONAL, PROVINCIAL AND EVEN REGIONAL HISTORIANS, WHO GET OFF ON THIS KIND OF NATIONAL DISCOVERY. IT'S A VALIDATION OF THE BRITISH PROGRESS, AT THAT TIME IN HISTORY, TO FIND, MAP, AND NAVIGATE THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE, RIGHT OUT OF THE LYRICS FROM THE SONG, BY CANADIAN FOLK MUSICIAN, STAN ROGERS. YUP, I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE HEARD HUGH MACMILLAN TEARING-OFF SOME OF HIS RELATED STORIES, ABOUT FRANKLIN, AND I'M SURE HE WOULD HAVE HAD SOME KIND WORDS TO SAY ABOUT DR. OWEN BEATIE, AND JOHN GEIGER, FOR THEIR WORK PRODUCING THE BOOK, "FROZEN IN TIME." THERE'S A LOT OF CREDIT TO BE PASSED AROUND TODAY, AMONGST THOSE HISTORIANS, WHO HAVE, FOR LONG AND LONG, BEEN LOOKING FOR ANY TRACE OF HIS SHIPS. THEY FOUND SOME OF THIS CREW, FROZEN IN THE PERMAFROST OF THE ARCTIC, BUT NOT THE BOATS, BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN CRUSHED IN THE WINTER SEASON ICE, AND SUBMERGED IN THE DEPTHS OF WHAT HAD BEEN DISCOVERED BY THIS POINT, OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE. SO NOW YOU KNOW WHAT MAKES HISTORIAN'S HIGH-FIVE ALL OVER THE PLACE. DISCOVERIES JUST LIKE THIS. HUGH MACMILLAN, AS BANDY-LEGGED AS HE WAS, IN KILT AND VEST, WOULD HAVE GIVEN A LITTLE HOP AND HIGHLAND FLING, TO KNOW THAT THIS GREATEST CANADIAN MYSTERY HAS BEEN, IN PART, RESOLVED, AND HANDED ON A SILVER PLATTER, TO MODERN DAY HISTORIANS FOR ANALYSIS. EVERY HISTORIAN WANTS TO BE PART OF SUCH AMAZING DISCOVERY. EVEN THOUGH MOST OF US WEREN'T IN THIS AREA OF THE COUNTRY, AT THIS TIME, DAMN RIGHT WE'RE GOING TO SHARE IN THE GLORY, BECAUSE IT'S WHY WE GET UP IN THE MORNING. POSSESSING THE KNOWLEDGE THAT WE CAN ALWAYS FIND SOME MISSING LINK IN HISTORY, THAT CHANGES THE WAY WE STUDY OUR FOUNDERS, OUR LEADERS, OUR COUNTRY, AND OUR WORLD SPINNING ON ITS AXIS.
FOR CANADIAN HISTORIANS, THE MOST POPULAR SONG TODAY, IS STAN ROGER'S "THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE." THE MOST POPULAR BOOK IN CANADIAN HISTORY, AT THIS MOMENT? "FROZEN IN TIME - UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION," BY OWEN BEATTIE AND JOHN GEIGER. THE MOST POPULAR PRIME MINISTER? HEY, DESPITE POLITICS ENTERING INTO THIS HISTORIC MOMENT, PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER DID GOOD! WITH NATIONAL FUNDING, I'M ASSUMING, ONE OF THE SHIPS OF THE ILL-FATED FRANKLIN EXPEDITION, IN QUEST OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE, HAS BEEN DISCOVERED, AFTER LENGTHY UNDERWATER SCANNING. THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT? THERE'S BEEN NO RESPONSE YET. APPARENTLY, FINDING THE SHIPS, WILL HAVE SOME VALIDATING INFLUENCE ON ARCTIC OWNERSHIP. THAT'S GOOD TOO! BUT AFTER CENTURIES OF LOOKING FOR THIS LOST BRITISH EXPEDITION, UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF THE BRITISH NAVY'S, SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, AT LEAST ONE OF HIS SHIPS HAS BEEN SITUATED. I HAVEN'T HEARD YET WHETHER IT WAS THE "HMS TERROR," OR "HMS EREBUS." THIS IS BIG NEWS, AND I'VE BEEN HOLDING ONTO BEATTIE AND GEIGER'S BOOK SINCE 1987, WHEN "FROZEN IN TIME," WAS FIRST PUBLISHED. I WATCHED THE FILM DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE DISCOVERY OF TWO GRAVES EXHUMED, HOLDING THE REMAINS OF THREE OF FRANKLIN'S CREW, INCREDIBLY WELL PRESERVED IN THE ARCTIC ICE. I EVEN HAVE A SIGNED COPY SET ASIDE, BECAUSE I WAS SO EXCITED BY THIS AMAZING STORY, I HAD TO HAVE A SIGNED BOOK FOR MY OWN ARCHIVES. I HAVE HAD A NUMBER OF OLD AND RARE BOOKS DEALING WITH THE RECOVERY ATTEMPTS, MADE BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT, (AMERICAN AS WELL) TO LOCATE THE LOST SHIPS, PLUS OTHER VENTURES THAT ALWAYS ENDED IN FAILURE; AND IN SOME CASES, HIGH RISK AND TRAGEDY TO THE EXPLORATORY MISSIONS.
"THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED ON SIR JOHN FRANKLIN'S ILL-FATED ARCTIC EXPEDITION OF 1845-48, HAS BEEN SHROUDED IN MYSTERY FOR NEARLY 140 YEARS. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF FRANKLIN'S LAVISHLY EQUIPPED SHIPS, HMS TERROR, AND HMS EREBUS, TOGETHER WITH THE ABSENCE OF ANY WRITTEN ACCOUNTS OF THE JOURNEY, SAVE ONE TRAGIC NOTE FOUND BY A NINETEENTH-CENTURY SEARCH EXPEDITION, HAD LEFT ATTEMPTS AT A RECONSTRUCTION OF EVENTS SKETCHY AND INCONCLUSIVE." THIS OVERVIEW IS PUBLISHED ON THE BOOK'S DUSTJACKET. "THEN, ON JUNE 29, 1981, PART OF A BLEACHED HUMAN SKULL WAS FOUND BY THE TEAM WORKING WITH ANTHROPOLOGIST DR. OWEN BEATTIE. THIS LED, THROUGH THREE FURTHER SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITIONS OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS, TO THE QUITE EXTRAORDINARY REVELATIONS OF THIS BOOK. UNRAVELLED HERE ARE THE CIRCUMSTANCES BY WHICH THE SURVIVING MEMBERS OF FRANKLIN'S ELITE NAVAL FORCES CAME WITHIN SIGHT OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE, WHICH WAS THEIR JOURNEY'S GOAL, ONLY TO SUCCUMB TO THE HORRORS OF STARVATION, SCURVY, AND CANNIBALISM. MOST REMARKABLE OF ALL ARE THE CONCLUSIONS WHICH TWENTIETH CENTURY FORENSIC AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO REACH, FOLLOWING EXAMINATION OF THE ASTONISHINGLY WELL PRESERVED BODIES OF THREE VICTORIAN SEAMEN, EXHUMED FROM THE PERMAFROST OF BEECHEY ISLAND, OVER 138 YEARS AFTER THEIR DEATHS. 'IT'S AS IF HE'S JUST UNCONSCIOUS,' MARVELED BEATTIE AS HE LIFTED THE SLIM BODY OF TWENTY-YEAR OLD CHIEF STOKER, JOHN TORRINGTON, TO THE SURFACE OF THE ICE, THE YOUNG MAN'S HEAD LOLLING ONTO HIS SHOULDER. THE VERY COLD THAT HAD BROUGHT ABOUT THE DOWNFALL OF FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION HAD ALLOWED THE SECRETS OF THE MEN'S DEATHS TO BE STORED UNTIL A FUTURE GENERATION OF EXPLORERS WAS ABLE TO DECODE THEM."
AS FOR THESE TWO FINE CHAPS, DR. OWEN BEATTIE AND JOHN GEIGER, "FROZEN IN TIME," IS A BOOK RENEWED TO CONTEMPORARY TIMES. IT WAS PUBLISHED BY WESTERN PRODUCER, PRAIRIE BOOKS, IN SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN, IN CASE YOU WOULD LIKE TO GET A COPY, TO FOLLOW THIS BREAKING STORY OF DISCOVERY, HAPPENING NOW IN THE ARCTIC. YOU CAN CHECK OUT THE OLD BOOK COLLECTIVE, OF THE ADVANCED BOOK EXCHANGE, TO SEE IF THERE ARE ANY COPIES AVAILABLE. YOU JUST HAVE TO TYPE IN THE NAME OF THE BOOK AND AUTHOR, AND IF YOU WOULD LIKE A SIGNED COPY, JUST CHECK THE APPROPRIATE BOX. I LOVE THE BOOK AND THIS STORY OF DISCOVERY. I'M GLAD THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA DECIDED TO PURSUE THIS, RUSSIAN INSPIRED OR NOT, BECAUSE THIS IS, IN MANY WAYS, THE KIND OF DISCOVERY I'VE BEEN WRITING ABOUT, DELVING RECENTLY INTO THE LIFE AND WORK OF WELL KNOWN CANADIAN ARCHIVIST, PAPER-SLEUTH, HUGH P. MACMILLAN. AS A DIRECT RESULT OF HIS WORK, ON BEHALF OF THE ONTARIO ARCHIVES, A GREAT MANY CRITICALLY IMPORTANT HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS WERE PRESERVED, FOR PUBLIC INFORMATION, INFILLING MANY HOLES IN OUR CHRONOLOGY. ALTHOUGH HUGH COULDN'T CLAIM TO HAVE FOUND THE REASONS WHY THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION WAS LOST, SEEKING THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE, HE HAD A PRETTY GOOD IDEA WHAT TRANSPIRED. I'M PRETTY SURE, HE ALSO MAY HAVE OWNED THE BOOK, "FROZEN IN TIME."
THE THRILL OF DISCOVERY AND RECOVERY, KEEPS HERITAGE SLEUTHS PUMPED
"Hugh (MacMillan) had a nose for documents," wrote Ted Cowan, a professor of Scottish Studies at University of Glasgow, Scotland, in the introduction to the 2004 biography, "Adventures of a Paper Sleuth," published in hardcover by Penumbra, of Canada.
"He was incredibly lucky, some might say, in encountering people in different places, and not always in Canada, in possession of material with which he persuaded them to part, if not immediately, then over a period of years, as he gradually, but persistently, wore down their resistance. On occasion, Hugh operated by hunch. I have been with him on trips across the country when we would suddenly pull off the main road, and be charging along a dirt track, because he vaguely remembered a possible connection with somebody-or-other, who was thought to live on a farm somewhere in the vicinity. Sure enough, he would strike gold. We would end up spending the night and Hugh would further add to the nation's heritage. In this regard, his contribution was truly massive and will never be replicated."
He writes, "All Canadians are in Dr. MacMillan's debt for his initiative concerning the reconstruction of the routes of 26 and 36 foot voyageur canoes, which began in 1967. I was fortunate enough to become involved some ten years later. I can honestly say that these represent some of the best times I ever enjoyed in Canada. The numerous good folk who accompanied Hugh on these trips, over the years, would say exactly the same, and are equally in his debt. The expeditions would last months, weeks, or a few days. The paddlers would stop at various places en route, for public displays, tutorials on the canoes and how to build them, and talks on the fur trade. The history of the latter surely represents the most heroic period in Canada's past. Hugh easily convinces us that human achievement, the spirit of adventure, and the desire of explorers, to push through to the west coast should not be obscured by what is now deemed to be politically correct. Like it or not, the fur trade made Canada. It created a much better than average relationship with the Native peoples and eventually led to the opening up of the Asian trade across the Pacific. MacMillan and his voyageurs would tell all of this to anyone who was prepared to listen."
Back on the paper trail, Hugh had another mission to undertake, one source at a time. In Hugh's words, as relates to other of his paper-hunts, some yielded far less than others, "but another that proved to be extensive, was the Bethune-Mackenzie saga, which spans the continent and abroad. Both the Bethune and MacKenzie families produced many super-achievers, including the famous Dr. Norman Bethune of China, and his great-great grandfather, Rev. John Bethune (1751-1815) chaplain to the Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment, in the Revolutionary War. Rev. John Bethune founded St. Gabriel's Church, the first Church of Scotland congregation in Montreal, followed by the first Church of Scotland Parish in Upper Canada, at Williamstown, Glengarry. Rev. John Strachan, the arch-Tory of York (Toronto), then lured two of Rev. John Bethune's sons into the Anglican Church, where they both became bishops.
"In the pleasant Central Ontario community of Gravenhurst, stands a house which for years has been a venerated shrine for officials and other visitors from the People's Republic of China. When diplomatic relations between Canada and the People's Republic were established in the 1970's, delegations of Chinese began visiting Canada. It was a puzzle to find these groups didn't want to see the CN Tower, or Niagara Falls first. Instead they wanted to see Gravenhurst, Ontario, home of their great Canadian hero, Dr. Henry, Norman Bethune, who would blaze across the medical and political firmaments of several continents before succumbing to blood poisoning, in North China in November of 1939," writes Hugh MacMillan.
"The Presbyterian manse in Gravenhurst was the birthplace, in March 1890, of Dr. Bethune. Most Canadians, including the wife of the minister who lived in the house where Bethune was born, had no idea who Bethune was. One morning, she answered a knock at the door, and was startled to see a very large delegation of smiling Chinese tourists. With the help of an interpreter, she was finally enlightened about why they wanted to look through her house. A 1991 film about this icon of the history of the Chinese Communist Revolution, entitled 'Bethune,' starred Canadian actor, Donald Sutherland. Eventually Prime Minister Trudeau had the house designated a National Historic Site, and the Canadian Government bought it for Canada. It is now a major tourist attraction and the Gravenhurst Chamber of Commerce may bless the day Bethune was born in their town."
He adds to the story, suggesting, "But I did not take a personal interest in rounding up Bethune family papers until I began researching another family, the McKenzies, who had been prominent in the North West Company. Nor'Wester documents are scarce, because after their merger in 1821, with the Hudson's Bay Company, many of the earlier records were lost. During the North West Company's short lifespan of less than forty years, four brothers of the particular McKenzie family, that I was probing, were highly active. One of these, Donald, was the subject of 'The King of the Northwest,' a book published in the 1930's by his grandson, Cecil McKenzie. Huge as a bear, famous over half the continent as a dead shot, and with an Indian country wife, Donald McKenzie was rumoured to have turned down the offer of a knighthood from King George III because that obdurate English monarch refused to recognize Donald's wife as Lady McKenzie. 'But if Your Majesty wouldn't mind,' McKenzie is claimed to have retorted, 'I'll take a pair of dueling pistols instead.' The matched set of pistols became the proud possessions of John McKenzie of Mayville, New York, a great-grandson."
According to Hugh MacMillan, "Donald McKenzie left the North West Company and joined John Jacob Astor's fledgling American Fur Company in 1809. On July 4, 1810, Donald McKenzie was aboard the first American Fur Company Montreal canoe, to leave Lachine for the grueling run to Michilimackinac. He recruited a skilled crew of tough local voyageurs from among his personal friends. A passenger on the trip was 27 year old Washington Irving (responsible for the name of Bracebridge, Ontario), who later wrote disparagingly of the voyage. 'Some (of the voyageurs) were able-bodied but expert; others were expert but lazy; a third class were expert and willing, but, broken down veterans, incapable of toil.' Irving also claimed they 'balked at their work, every ready to come to a halt, make a fire, put on the great pot and smoke and gossip, and sing by the hour.' The heavily loaded craft reached Michilimackinac on July 17th, having completed the 900 mile upstream run in barely two weeks. Donald McKenzie took part in the first overland journey to Astoria, Astor's headquarters on the Pacific Ocean. When Astoria was captured by Nor'Westers during the War of 1812, he returned to his former employer as a partner. After the merger, he became a chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, and later Governor of Assiniboia."
"Donald McKenzie's younger brother, Henry, duly serving his North West Company apprenticeship at Kaministiquia, later Fort William, became the McKenzie family's master of all trades. Back in Montreal, in 1804, on the death of Simon McTavish, the first head of the North West Company, Henry McKenzie took over the management of McTavish's mills in nearby Terrebonne. Their famous kinsman, Sir Alexander McKenzie, had been a North West Company explorer of overland routes to both the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, at least ten years ahead of Lewis and Clark, thereby proving the long sought water passage from the Atlantic to the Indies did not exist. I acquired a miniature on ivory of Henry from a descendent, Mrs. Aubrey McCallum," notes the paper sleuth, Mr. MacMillan. In 1815, "Henry McKenzie married Ann Bethune, the 17 year old daughter, of Rev. John Bethune. This strengthened the Mckenzie-Bethune connection. Bethune's eldest son, and Ann's brother, Hudson's Bay Chief Factor, Angus Bethune, had already married Louisa MacKenzie, the half-Indian daughter of Henry's older brother, Roderick McKenzie. Louisa, whom Angus affectionately called 'Mrs. Green Blanket,' bore him five sons and a daughter. The second son of Angus and Louisa Bethune, was Norman, born in 1822, who became a famous physician and surgeon. Norman's first born, Angus, tragically drowned in his late 20's in a ship collision off the coast of Florida. Second son Malcolm Nicholson Bethune, became a minister in the Presbyterian faith. Their cousin, Anglican priest, Charles Bethune, was an entomologist and the headmaster of Port Hope's Trinity College School for 30 years. The Rev. Malcolm Bethune's marriage to Elizabeth Ann Goodwin produced a daughter, Janet, in 1888, and two years later, a son, Henry Norman Bethune. Like his namesake, Norman Henry made his mark through medicine."
Hugh concludes, "My search for the papers making the MacKenzie-Bethune connection began in 1966, and is still going on. A lead from the proprietor of the Downtown Gun Shop in Buffalo, New York, proved fruitful, but another tip about a mass of valuable documents allegedly stolen from a house in Mayville, New York continues to tantalize me. In the 1970's, while attending an architectural conference in Ottawa, I men Hazen Sise, who had been with Dr, Bethune in the Spanish Civil War. When I discovered Sise's connection to Bethune, I showed him the Bethune genealogy as it appeared in a small book called 'Prelude to Norman,' written by another Bethune descendent, Mary Larrat Smith of Vancouver. Hazen Sise looked at the family chart, and pointed out an error where it showed a Donald Bethune having no issue, though he actually did have a family, one of his descendants being Robert Bethune, an architect in Buffalo. I went to Buffalo and checked through the society of architects and found that Robert had a son, Charles, who became a danger in New York. His only child, Zena, was an actress and led a dance troupe for disabled people in California. Through Actors Equity I was able to acquire for the Ontario Archives, an unpublished history of the Bethune family, written by her great-great grandmother, Louise (Mrs. Robert) Bethune. I have had several interviews over the past 20 years with Zena Bethune, who had roles in the Gunsmoke, and Bonanza TV series, among many others. Despite two artificial hips, she continued to be active in a special project helping disabled artists cope with their afflictions. Zena is made of the same tough stuff as the Nor'Westers themselves."
"To my great embarrassment, I missed acquiring the library of Rev. John Bethune. In 1965, I was in touch with the Smart family, who then owned the 1784 Bethune house. I made a search of the house and out-buildings, but obviously missed this rare collection of books," he notes. "Rev. John Bethune lived in this house until his death in 1815, when it was sold to David Thomson, mapmaker of the North West Company (who also mapped much of Muskoka). David Anderson, indefatigable researcher and curator of the Bethune-Thompson house, bow owned by the Ontario Heritage Foundation, discovered my chain of errors because of his investigative nature. Ontario Heritage held a sale when they acquired the property in 1977, but failed to examine the contents of a large dirty wooden crate. It contained Bethune's library. The box was knocked down to Daniel Alguire as a junk-lot for two dollars. When he got these books to his home in Cornwall, Mr. Alguire discovered that they were all dated 1815, or earlier, and all signed by Rev. John Bethune. Not being a collector himself, Alguire did the correct thing, albeit ten years later, and took the books to the Rev. Fred Rennie, of St. John's Presbyterian Church, Cornwall. Fred Rennie, who used to be on the Presbyterian Church History Board, with me, sent them to the Presbyterian Church Archives in Toronto. The entire contents of this rare library should have been kept together but unfortunately this did not happen. As usual in the collecting game, we have to chronicle some mistakes along with the successes."
I remember standing with Hugh and his friend Tom, of Ottawa, in the square of the Gravenhurst Opera House, studying the newly installed bronze statue, of Dr. Norman Bethune, and him telling me he knew a lot about the Bethune family. It took getting his book, before I realized the true extent of his knowledge about the doctor. I had access to this information whenever I wanted, and he encouraged me to consider my own heritage publication, on the modern day relationship between the Chinese and Bethune, and the Town of Gravenhurst. I may consider this in the future, based on Hugh's confidence I could handle such a project.
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