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This is the memorial to John Rae in St. Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall. To John Rae, limits were not an issue, he was an Arctic explorer. In the days when exploring was done by big groups of officers and men who tried to force their way through and take all the comforts of home with them, John Rae took small groups and learned to live in the environment like the natives. John Rae was the man who found the final link of the Northwest Passage which showed that ships could navigate round the top of Canada rather than traveling all the way down and around Cape Horn. John Rae's exploits are not more widely know due to a report he gave the Admiralty about the fate of the Franklin expedition. He had been sent to try and find the lost expedition but found that they had all perished and that there was evidence they had turned to cannibalism before the end. This report was leaked to the press and Franklin's wife set about destroying Rae's reputation.
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