Capsized on Lake Ontario!
It makes sense to clear up, as early as possible, a misconception about a sailing ship named the R. H. Rae – namely the source of its name. One maritime attempt made at this feat in the modern era suggests that the ship was “named after and owned by a well-known Arctic navigator of the time.” Although close, this statement wins no cigar.
Mr. Richard Honeyman Rae (1811-1874), his younger brother, John Rae (1813-1893), and his youngest brother, Thomas Rae (1817-1868), were all born in Scotland’s Orkney Isles and were all, as young men, employed by the Hudson Bay Company, as had been their father, John Rae, Sr. (1772-1834), who was the company agent in that part of Scotland. The brothers, however, attracted to the promise of exciting work in a challenging, new land, left the place of their birth and worked at various outposts, some more remote than others, of the Hudson Bay Company in the northern wilds of what would one day become Canada.
After several years with the HBC (R. H. Rae, for example, worked for the company from 1830 until September 1837), the brothers Rae went their separate ways, with Richard and Thomas eventually settling, in 1843, in the city of Hamilton, Canada West (which was renamed Ontario in 1867), and establishing a shipping company together at the western end of Lake Ontario.
Richard and Thomas Rae constructed some vessels and owned several others – all sailing ships -- over a span of time covering more than two decades, and, generally, they did very well at their business. However, between 1856 and 1858, the brothers encountered a series of unfortunate events that threatened to sink their livelihoods, beginning with their 98-foot (29.7-metre)-long schooner, Maid of the West, built in 1849 at Port Credit, Canada West, springing a leak and sinking with its cargo of salt and lumber on Lake Michigan on September 2, 1856, fortunately with no lives lost.
The next family and HMS , in an attempt to find a northwest passage across the Arctic to Asia. But both ships and all the men disappeared, and by 1848, Lady Franklin (Sir John’s wife) pressed the British government to launch several searches. Nothing was found. A reward of 10,000 British pounds (approximately $50,000 US in 1850, but at least 40 times that much today) was offered to anyone who could provide evidence of the expedition’s fate. Through native connections, John Rae found the remains of about 30 members of the expedition who had starved to death over the winter of 1850-51 in the frozen Arctic. With them, he found a small, silver plate engraved with Franklin’s name. Evidence, such as human bones cut by knives and axes, indicated that cannibalism had taken place. Back in England, the thought of British explorers turning to cannibalism was abhorrent and impossible to believe, particularly by Lady Franklin. Only after she learned that her husband had died long before the cannibalism took place did she warm to Rae, who finally was given the huge monetary prize that was offered for discovering the expedition’s fate.
