{"id":16683,"date":"2016-05-27T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T07:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-hakamagwp.pantheonsite.io\/news\/book-review-franklins-lost-ship"},"modified":"2019-03-20T10:25:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T17:25:25","slug":"book-review-franklins-lost-ship","status":"publish","type":"custom_quick","link":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/article-short\/book-review-franklins-lost-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Franklin\u2019s Lost Ship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Franklin\u2019s Lost Ship: the Historic Discovery of <\/em>HMS <em>Erebus<\/em> tells the tale of the discovery, in September 2014, of the remarkably well-preserved wreck of Sir John Franklin\u2019s flagship, HMS <em>Erebus<\/em>. The find is a major underwater archaeology achievement that promises answers to an Arctic mystery that has fascinated people for over a century and a half. Also, as former Canadian member of Parliament Leona Aglukkaq says in her foreword, \u201c\u2026 Inuit oral history has been validated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Franklin\u2019s Lost Ship<\/em> is lavishly illustrated with spectacular double-page spreads of Arctic land and seascapes, familiar historical images of Franklin and his ships, beautiful pictures of the ghostly wreck and artifacts from it, and portraits of the people, vessels, and technology employed in the six-year-long search. It is hard for John Geiger and Alanna Mitchell\u2019s text to match this visual feast.<\/p>\n<p>Chapters alternate between outlining the historical background and telling the story of the modern discovery. The history is solidly told, from Franklin\u2019s jubilant departure from London in 1845 to the tragic deaths of the entire crews and the immense 19th-century search for an answer to what went so horribly wrong. The authors do not, however, say anything that is not well known to a reader who has dipped into any account of Franklin\u2019s doomed attempt to transit the fabled Northwest Passage. Ironically, the authors even present the traditional theory that Franklin\u2019s men all died on the trek south from the ships in 1848, despite this being called into question by the very Inuit oral testimony that was instrumental in leading the searchers to the site of the wreck.<\/p>\n<p>The text outlining the modern search and discovery captures the excitement of first seeing the ship on sonar and of diving on the wreck to find the bell, and intrigues the reader with a multitude of questions that may, or may not, be answered in future seasons of work. Unfortunately, sections too often read like a government report and the flow is further broken up by multiple listings of Parks Canada\u2019s partners and nods to former prime minister Stephen Harper\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n<p><em>Franklin\u2019s Lost Ship<\/em> is an attractive coffee-table book. It is to be hoped that future discoveries on HMS <em>Erebus<\/em> will match the drama of the historical narrative.<\/p>\n<p>Franklin\u2019s Lost Ship: The Historic Discovery of HMS <em>Erebus<\/em><br \/>\nBy John Geiger and Alanna Mitchell<br \/>\n201 pp. HarperCollins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Arctic mystery is explored through lavish illustrations and narrative that bring\u00a0the discovery to life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12961,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":{"hero_video_url":null,"hero_video_caption":"","deck":"An Arctic mystery is explored through lavish illustrations and narrative that bring\u00a0the discovery to life.","authors_group":[{"by_group":"by","contributors_group":[15583]}],"word_count_override":"","podbean1":"","podbean2":"","redirect":"","geolocation":null,"related":[16681,16961],"twitterimage":19672,"facebookimage":19264,"twitterdescription":"","edited":"","factchecked":"","code":"","no_old_story_flag":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/custom_quick"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20603,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16683\/revisions\/20603"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/16961"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}