Hudson Bay Company Documentary

The Hudson Bay Boys will be shown on BBC2 at 9pm on Wednesday.

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In the 1960s the Inuit abandoned their nomadic existence and formed communities around Hudson’s Bay posts. Every outpost had a general store from which a Hudson’s Bay Boy traded basic supplies for furs brought in by Inuit hunters. These were “anything that moved”, mostly sealskin but could also be white fox or polar bear – in creek country further south it would be muskrat, mink or beaver.

Jimmie did not find the life too different from that of a crofting community in Shetland. He said: “I adapted fairly easily. People helped one another.”

Life was tough, however, with days between incoming flights and no planes at all from September to February.

“The north tends to weed you out. Running a store, you have to be self-reliant. You couldn’t pick up the phone, there were no phones.”

Provisions were shipped in once a year, food was dehydrated or canned and milk was powdered. Communication was by radio, using Morse code. But, he said: “Being remote is just a figment of the imagination.”

Over the years a relationship of mutual respect and inter-dependence with the Inuit developed. They needed the store – which also provided financial services, there are still no banks in the area – and the provisions. But, Jimmie said, but “we needed the Inuit far more”. They would provide food – seal, whale, walrus, duck or the fish of choice, Arctic char – and clothing made out of skins or acts as guides.

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His most memorable posting was to the remote island community of Sanikiluaq in Nunavit in 1968. At only 19 years old, his duties as a Bay Boy included ordering all that was required for the community, clothing, food, and ammunition.

He also had “extra curricular activities” which saw him take on the role of doctor in the community and delivered four babies. He pulled teeth, looked after dogs and gave rabies shots with nothing but a manual to guide him – and the manuals could leave him “more confused than before”.

Jimmie said: “There was no training – you were it. The responsibility was very heavy. There were no aircraft coming in for months [this has now changed]. It stretched you. But the north teaches you you’re not invincible.”

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In this working life Jimmie has seen many changes and fears that the Inuit way of life is threatened. There is no economic base of the community, he said, due to the furore over the seal trade stirred up by Greenpeace. “The mainstay of their life and culture has been taken away. The market has been killed.”

Sealskins, were worth $32 one day, $8 the next. The Inuit, he said, are good stewards of wildlife and now there are too many seals and not enough fish.

This has serious implications and communities are in “great despair”, with the highest suicide rate among young men in Canada.

Coupled with that is a burgeoning birth rate – 75 per cent of the Inuit are under 25 – low literacy and numeracy and problems with drugs (the internet and more frequent flights make this possible).

Changes have taken place in 50 years that would have occured in hundreds of years anywhere else, Jimmie said, but he hopes that the “resilient” people will find a way through the uncertain times.

Chez

Sounds interesting.

marigold

If you enjoy the programme you might like to read The Last Gentleman Adventurer by Edward Beauclerk Maurice Amazon linky.

Chez

I've got a 'thing' about 'the frozen north'. It's always fascinated me.

marigold

Me too. And the frozen south Smile

crofter

If you enjoy the programme you might like to read The Last Gentleman Adventurer by Edward Beauclerk Maurice Amazon linky.

"Fatal passage" is another good one...

http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Passage-Story-Arctic-Forgot/dp/0786709936

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In April 1854, Rae had heard from an Inuit that a group of 40 white men had been seen four years previously.

Going on the native accounts, Rae concluded the men had perished in the winter of 1850, after ice had crushed their ships.

Some time later, Rae learned that the Inuit had discovered around 30 bodies and a number of graves. Some of these were on the mainland, with five on an island which Rae wrote was: "about a long day's journey to the north west of a large stream, which can be no other than Great Fish River".

The men had died of starvation.

Rae wrote: "Some of the bodies had been buried (probably those of the first victims of famine); some were in a tent or tents; others under the boat, which had been turned over to form a shelter, and several lay scattered about in different directions."

He added: "From the mutilated state of many of the bodies and the contents of the kettles, it is evident that our wretched Countrymen had been driven to the last dread alternative - cannibalism - as a means of prolonging existence."

John Rae later acquired some of the dead men’s possessions from the Inuit. Items such as cutlery, watches and a medal that had once belonged to Franklin proved the expedition had perished.

Going solely on the accounts of the Inuit, Rae did not actually visit the site, saying that the Inuit were reluctant to make the 10 or 12 day trek to the site of the lost expedition.

This "failure" to visit the site led to considerable criticism after Rae’s report was published. The document damned the doctor in the eyes of Victorian England.

Rae’s conclusions as to the fate of the Franklin Expedition stirred up a hornet’s nest.

The establishment condemned the document’s contents and Rae's integrity was immediately called into question.

How dare this man, who dressed and mingled with Canadian natives, suggest that men of the Royal Navy indulged in cannibalism? And more to the point imagine accepting the word of the natives without verifying it!

Particularly vitriolic in her attacks was Franklin's wife. Lady Jane Franklin sought to glorify the memory of her husband as the man who found the Northwest Passage, so unsurprisingly Rae's discoveries did not go down well.

Aiding Lady Franklin was the writer Charles Dickens.

Dickens published articles rejecting Rae’s conclusions and the manner in which he had reached them. According to Dickens, it was unthinkable that the English Navy "would or could in any extremity of hunger, alleviate that pains of starvation by this horrible means".

But Rae refused to back down. He stood by the content of his report and the circumstances surrounding the fate of the Franklin Expedition.

The full story was only revealed when an expedition sent by Lady Franklin found a small cairn at Point Victory, on the north west coast of King William Island.

Here, one Lieutenant Crozier, second in command, had left a message confirming that Sir John Franklin had died on June 11, 1847. Franklin had been the 25th man to perish on the expedition.

The cairn was found in May 1859, 11 years after Crozier had written that the survivors were starting out for Great Fish River. Skeletons of some of the last survivors appeared to confirm that the men had resorted to cannibalism.

But following the Franklin controversy, John Rae, and his exploits, began to slip from the pages of the history books. His achievements were ignored or, at best, grudgingly acknowledged.

Although they had failed to find the North West passage, Franklin and his officers were posthumously knighted. Aside from his other achievements, Rae had found the Passage but received no recognition or award. He was the only major explorer of the era not to receive a knighthood.

Dr John Rae died in London on July 22, 1893, aged 80.

marigold

Thanks crofter - I'll see if the library have that one.

alice

He's buried at the cathedral in Kirkwall. He was Orcadian so there's a memorial to him inside St. Magnus'. It's rather touching actually.
The Company liked employing Orkney men - they worked harder than the English and didn't get drunk as often as the Irish. Laughing

gai

I can vouch for Fatal Passage. Read it a few years ago, fascinating stuff.

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