Northern Lights: The Arctic Scots

The search for a Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific was one of the great maritime challenges, and it was not until the 1850s that the first one-way partial transit of the passage was made. Previous attempts had all failed, and some, like the ill-fated attempt by Sir John Franklin in 1845, ended in tragedy with the loss of the entire expedition comprising two ships and 129 men.

This book charts the remarkable contribution to Arctic exploration made by the Scots – whose role has often been overlooked because they were identified as English by modern writers. It includes many significant names: John Ross, an eccentric hell-raiser from Stranraer, veteran of three Arctic expeditions; his nephew, James Clark Ross, the most experienced explorer of his generation and discoverer of the Magnetic North Pole; Dr John Richardson of Dumfries who became an accidental cannibal and deliberate executioner of a murderer as well as a most engaging natural historian; and Orcadian John Rae, the man who first discovered evidence of Franklin’s demise. But it also pays tribute to many others too, the Scotch Irish, the whalers and not least the Inuit, with whom the explorers cooperated and generally enjoyed good relations, in many crucial cases depending on their knowledge of the environment.