John Rae

John Rae (Inuktitut: ᐊᒡᓘᑲ, [aɡluːka]; 30 September 1813 – 22 July 1893) was a Scottish surgeon who explored parts of northern Canada. He was a pioneer explorer of the Northwest Passage.

Rae explored the Gulf of Boothia, northwest of the Hudson Bay, from 1846 to 1847, and the Arctic coast near Victoria Island from 1848 to 1851. In 1854, back in the Gulf of Boothia, he obtained credible information from local Inuit about the fate of John Franklin and his lost expedition, which had disappeared in the area in 1848. Rae was noted for his physical stamina, skill at hunting, boat handling, use of native methods, and ability to travel long distances with little equipment while living off the land.

Early life

Rae was born as the sixth of nine children at the Hall of Clestrain in Orkney in the north of Scotland with family ties to Clan MacRae. His father managed up to 300 tenant farmers for a local nobleman, Sir William Honyman, Lord Armadale and worked for many years as the chief representative of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Orkney islands when it came to hiring workers amongst the Orkney men that had a reputation of being hardy and skilled labourers. Already in his childhood the young John Rae learned many skills that would become useful to his later explorations. By the age of fifteen, Rae had become an excellent musket hunter, rock climber and hiker, enjoying hobbies like fishing and boating.

After studying medicine in Edinburgh, he graduated with a degree from the University of Edinburgh and was licensed by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh at age 19 in 1833. Two months after graduating he accepted a post for a season as the ship's surgeon aboard the Prince of Wales, a supply ship for the Hudson Bay fur trading settlements. During his first voyage the ship was kept from its return home to Great Britain by an early winter 1833 and pack ice closing the route. The ship's crew had to spend the winter on the deserted Charlton Island. Rae's skills as a hunter and doctor, as well as his knowledge about fauna and its pharmaceutical merits managed to keep most men alive throughout the winter despite heavy cases of scurvy, which took two lives among the crew.