Dr. Rae vs Mr. Dickens

Dr. John Rae (1813 – 1893)
Scottish Arctic explorer, surveyor, surgeon

During the early 1840s, Dr. John Rae led four major Arctic expeditions and discovered the legendary Northwest Passage. But Rae’s contributions were ignored by his countrymen as punishment for revealing a truth too horrifying to be believed. In 1845, after Sir John Franklin and 128 sailors disappeared in the Arctic, Rae was appointed to investigate.

Combining physical evidence and accounts from Inuit natives, Rae officially reported in 1854 that Franklin’s expedition team had resorted to cannibalism in a futile attempt to survive. Outraged, Lady Jane Franklin and novelist Charles Dickens succeeded in a vicious campaign to discredit him. John Rae was ostracized, his accomplishments denied, and his name purged from official history.