Beechey in Presentation Only

WOW! We certainly rock n’ rolled last night.

In his wake-up announcement at 7:15a, Christian, our Expedition Leader, said that the waves overnight were in the 15 to 20 feet range … with winds topping out at about 70 knots. He went on to say that the swells were not too bad this morning … the wind, however, was still a-blowing … at sustained speeds of 40-47 knots.

Christian’s next words came as no surprise. There would be no off-ship operations this morning. No kidding! Nor would we be going to Beechey Island as planned. I had figured this out for myself. After all, when I checked the ship tracker on the TV earlier, it was showing Ultramarine on the east end of Devon Island … nowhere near Beechey on the west side. C’est La Vie.

The plan now was to ride out the storm until the wind dropped to levels that would allow the captain to turn the ship around so that we could seek shelter in an inlet.

What to do in the meantime? Going out on deck 5 to walk around the ship wasn’t an option. Not much of a scenery outside to entertain us either. A good time to write and download photos between listening to a fascinating lecture? Sounded good to me.

I haven’t been writing much about the various lectures we’ve been attending on the ship. I’m going to make an exception in this case as the topic was directly related to what we’d had planned for today.

The presentation by Ken, our expedition historian, was entitled “Frozen in Ice.” He was to have given this lecture after our proposed landing at Beechey Island … after we’d seen for ourselves the graves of three of the men from the Franklin Expedition. Instead, he brought history to life in words and images.

The presentation, which came with the warning that there would be images of the dead, was based on a book in which the author, Owen Beattie, writes about how he and his team exhumed the bodies in an effort to determine the cause of death for the men … men who died well before the expedition met trouble … men whose remarkably well-preserved bodies allowed for scientific study after their families gave permission.

I’d read the book, “Frozen In Time.” Ken’s presentation solidified what I remembered was Beattie’s conclusion. These three men had died from pneumonia and tuberculosis, which was common back in the mid-1800s. But there was also high levels of lead in the three bodies … lead that was suspected to have come from the tinned food with which the expedition was partially provisioned.

Yes, these men died in the quest of Arctic exploration. Yes, that is tragic. But at least they did not have to endure the long-term sufferings of their shipmates … who eventually met their demise as well. The bones of those shipmates have been scattered across the Arctic tundra. These three men were carefully buried when they died. In fact, many books refer to them as “the lucky ones.”もっと詳しく