Book : Ancient Mariner

Author Ken McGoogan.

A book charting the life and times of Samuel Hearne.

18th Century British explorer of Canada because of his employment within the Hudson Bay Company.

Again a book I was turned onto via Ray Mears Northern Wilderness series shown in 2009.

Ken McGoogan also wrote Fatal Passage, telling the tale of John Rae, subject of another episode in Northern Wilderness series.

Ray started the TV program by showing us a lump of natural copper which now resides in the Natural History Museum.  An artifact as remarkable as it is unremarkable.  What a story weaves around it.

The book charts Hearne’s life, from start to finish, but of course the bulk is all about the 3 expeditions he made to find the Coppermine River.

His journey was based on false information and mis-understanding.  The natives spoke of a copper mine and drew up a map, the English imagined a copper mine.  The HBC, a company that only an empire could create, as it was pretty much given Canada to exploit, was keen to get it’s hands on this potential revenue.

Throughout the book are examples of First Nation’s people and Europeans failing to understand each other’s mindset but somehow they kept moving forward.  The First Nations simply did not comprehend the Europeans were so dependent on them.  The Europeans seemed unable to adapt to prevailing conditions and were continually surprised the Indians, who were “employed” too look after them failed to actually do so.

Hearne was set on his task by Mosses Norton, governor of the HBC fort at the time.  Mosses is not liked by Hearne or the author, probably rightly, but it makes even his brief appearances in the book difficult to judge.

The First Nation treats their women in a mind-boggling fashion to modern thinking.  Men wrestle for them, but not too hard.  Mosses if anything holds them in lower regard and they do not make up part of the party that heads out to the Coppermine.

Women are their knowledge are integral to making a travelling party work.  Not surprisingly the first two attempts to reach the coppermine fail.  It is largely down to damaged equipment, but it is also clear the travelling party is a shambles.  Hearne is determined and resourceful, he needs to be.  He is stripped of most of his belongings in the 2nd expedition and has to return.

This is a watershed moment for Hearne.  Without all the “essentials” of a European traveller he finds life a lot easier.  Hearne is learning from those that have learnt to live in the environment so successfully.

He also meets Matonabbee.  They make a great team and the book paints a picture of two people that are the best of friends.  Hearne could not have done what he did without Matonabbee.

The third expedition solved the problem of travel by remaining within the treeline and following the animal migration as much as possible.  Rather than carry all the food they needed, they followed it.

Feast and famine is a theme.  Hearne complains the Indians are slaughtering so many animals just to eat just their tongues he fears there will be none left soon.

Most certainly this is not the Native American of schoolbooks/Disney and tree hugging liberals.  These people leap from the page, living harshly in a harsh world.

It became clear to Hearne that the Indians were not sharing his same motivations, they were taking him to the Coppermine River but had killing on their minds.  The Innuit were a traditionally enemy of the Dene and killing a few Innuit was well worth the trek.

The author keeps the book within its context, there is no modern day moralising regarding events.

Apart from this nasty surprise for Hearne, the other surprise was the Copper Mine itself, it did not exist in the European model.  The “mine” was a river.  After a good deal of searching the lump of copper that now sits in the museum was found and carted back to the fort.

Three years work and really Hearne’s lifetimes work, the first European to see the arctic coast of America, at least 3500mile round trip.  It is a fabulous adventure yarn and creates a vivid picture of events and the characters that took part.

The book does not end here, but continues on to the end of Hearne’s life.  His promotion, his “country wife” and her secret.  The loss of his command to the French, the near destruction of his priceless manuscript.  Hearne’s imprisonment by the same French and how he negotiated his release.

His return to Canada is a watershed for Hearne, things were never going to be the same again.  Hearne sets up HBC’s first inland trading post but somehow seems to lose his way in company favours.

Ken paints the picture of a broken man only driven forward by the desire to get his book into publication.  I leave you to read the book, or do the legwork to find out why.

Hearne faced critics then and subsequently.  Those seeking to question if the events described occurred (Hearne has previous for embellishment) and pointing out the surveying could have been better.  The author quells these doubts and leaves the reader with little reason to have mis-givings, events did happen as Hearne described.

The reason for the title is throughout the book is the authors idea that Coleridge Ancient Mariner was no other than Samuel Hearne.  They did meet, Hearne did tell the young Coleridge the tale of his life.  Coleridge did base other works on Hearne.  It is quite  a convincing argument made and no harm done in doing so.