Showing posts with label exploration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exploration. Show all posts

August 18 - The Wilkes Expedition Sets Off

Posted on August 18, 2021


This is an update of my post published August 18, 2010:



On this date in 1938, the Wilkes Expedition launched from Hampton Roads in Virginia.

Nineteenth-century science and the U.S. science establishment got a huge boost from this expedition, which used U.S. Naval ships to explore the world, primarily the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii, Fiji, and the coastlines of Oregon and Antarctica. More than 60,000 plant and bird specimens were collected, and many of these formed the bulk of the original collections of the Smithsonian Institution.





Formally called “the United States Exploring Expedition,” the venture was nicknamed the “Ex. Ex.” After years of planning, the Ex. Ex. finally weighed anchor on this day in 1838.

There were six ships, but in the four years of the expedition, one sank. In addition to ship pilots and crews, the expedition included naturalists, botanists, engraver/illustrators, a mineralogist, a conchologist, taxidermists, an interpreter, and a philogist. Match the job titles in this list with the descriptions below:


  1. naturalist

  2. botanist

  3. engraver / illustrator

  4. mineralogist

  5. conchologist

  6. taxidermist

  7. interpreter

  8. philogist


A. one who stuffs dead animals for exhibition

B. one who studies plants

C. one who studies rocks and minerals

D. one who creates pictures through printmaking techniques

E. one who studies mollusks and their shells

F. one who translates from one language to another

G. one who studies plants and animals

H. one who studies languages and linguistics

Answers below!













ANSWERS: 

1.G

2.B

3.D

4.C

5.E

6.A 

7.F

8.H


 

Also on this date:

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April 20 - Jacques Cartier begins a “Voyage of Discovery”

 Posted on April 20, 2021

This is an update of my post published on April 20, 2010:



On this date in 1534, Jacques Cartier set sail from France, attempting to find for his king just what so many other explorers were trying to find: a westward passage to Asia, to lands filled with gold and spices.

He didn't find these things.

What he did find was the mainland of Canada, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island.


He found what he called the "Islands of the Birds," and his crew slaughtered around 1000 birds, most of them great auks. (Great auks are now extinct, but presumably not entirely because of Cartier's men!)


And of course, he found people already living on the land!


He engaged in some trading, but he also planted a 10-meter (30 foot!) cross in the ground and declared the territory the property of his king.


That was a prequel to kidnapping two Iroquoians. (Yikes!)

This event may not have been quite as violent as the word “kidnapping” suggests, because (after they had the native chief's sons in their possession), Cartier apparently bargained with the chief, Donnacona, for the right to take them back to Europe. Donnacona at last agreed on the condition that they return with European goods to trade.

On Cartier's return the next year, he brought back the two Iroquoians and things to trade.

Cartier and his men ended up staying the winter that year. Scurvy broke out among the Iroquoians and the French, but one of the men he had previously kidnapped paid a friendly visit to the French and told them of a medicine they could make from a local tree. According to Wikipedia, the remedy probably saved the French expedition, with 85 of the 110 men surviving the winter. (Cartier guessed that perhaps 50 of the Iroquoians died from scurvy, despite the medicine.)

At the end of Cartier's second voyage, he kidnapped
Chief Donnacona, his two sons, and at least six others
and took them all back to France! Horrible stuff -
but Donnacona (and I hope the others?) was at least
treated well in Europe.

Cartier ended up describing and mapping the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, and he gave Canada its name.

Cartier is usually given credit for "discovering" Canada,
even though (1) there were already a lot of people living
there - people whose ancestors must have "discovered"
Canada long before Cartier was born! and (2) Cartier
only explored a teeny portion of Canada. On the map above,
Cartier's route is depicted in green.





Learn about Canada.


Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories, and
Cartier only explored a wee bit of three or four provinces.

Canada is the second largest country in the world, after only Russia. (We're talking area, not population.) Also, the border it shares with the U.S. is the longest in the world.

Canada is a bilingual nation, with both English and French as official languages. As you might guess, this is because both England and France laid claims to parts of Canada. France let go of its claims to the land in 1763, and soon Canada became a federal dominion of the United Kingdom (which is made up of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).

Canada never fought a war of independence against England. Instead it slowly-and-steadily became more and more independent, until 1982 when the Canada Act ended the nation's dependence on the British parliament. Even now, however, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is considered the head of state of Canada is pictured on some of its money!

Play a simple Sudoku-style game with Canadian symbols.

Zoom School is a cool place to learn about Canadian animals, geography, flag, culture, and more.
Play a game about explorers. Here is a matching game, and this is a version of concentration. 
Yukon 
British Columbia


 

Alberta




 

Canada is one of the most beautiful nations in the world. When I think of the nation's natural beauty, I think first of rugged Yukon, gorgeous British Columbia, and - my personal favorite - the Canadian Rockies, in Alberta.

But of course there are many beautiful landscapes and seascapes in eastern Canada, as well!


Prince Edward Island


Newfoundland and Labrador


Saint Lawrence River



Also on this date:



















 

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June 24 - Discovery Day in Newfoundland and Labrador

(Monday closest to June 24)
Posted on June 24, 2019


June 24 is St. John's Day - honoring John the Baptist (see Jāni, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, and Joninės in "Also on this date," below).

But Newfoundland and Labrador's Discovery Day honors another John altogether:

John Cabot.

John Cabot is credited as being the first European to land on the portion of North America that is north of Mexico since the Vikings explored Vinland (probably Newfoundland) some 500 years before Columbus. 

Historians believe that, on this date in 1497 (about 5 years after Columbus's first New World landfall), Cabot landed in what is now Newfoundland, Canada. However, it's possible that his landing was actually in Maine, or Nova Scotia, or Labrador. 
This is the location of the province of Labrador (on the mainland
of Canada) and Newfoundland (islands off shore).

Cabot and his crew just didn't do much where they landed, only staying long enough to discover a few signs that people lived there (such as the remains of a fire and a human-made trail) and to take on fresh water. So Cabot and crew didn't end up leaving any physical evidence of their landing. Also, whatever Cabot wrote about the journey, while on the journey or afterwards, vanished long ago. (Some historians think it's possible his son destroyed the records out of jealousy.) The crew left no writings. So historians have to rely on stuff that others wrote about the journey.

It's strange to think that we actually have more evidence of the Norse landing, so many centuries before!

This picture glorifies the explorers.
Also, I saw no account that Cabot
posted an English flag in the soil
of what would become Newfoundland,
although one account did mention
him erecting a cross there.
John Cabot was sailing for England when he "discovered" Newfoundland, but he was an Italian navigator and explorer. His birth name was Giovanni Caboto. Just as Cristoforo Colombo was actually Italian, but was sailing for the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella when he explored Central America and the Caribbean islands, Giovanni Caboto was sailing for Henry VII of England.

We have a LOT of uncertainty about Cabot / Caboto. We aren't sure when and where he was born (best guess is around 1450 near Naples OR Genoa), nor when and where he died (some evidence points to his death on his final voyage to the New World, in 1498, but there is some evidence he may have returned to England and died somewhere in Europe, by 1501.

Some 30,000 people descended on the
small town of Bonavista (around 4,500
people) for Cabot-500 Day. Queen
Elizabeth II attended - as did First Nation
representatives (aka Native Americans),
who were protesting the celebration
because Cabot's "discovery" brought
devastation and misery to their ancestors.
The 500th anniversary of Cabot-and-crew's landing, June 24, 1997, was BIG-time celebrated! Especially in Bonavista, Newfoundland (since we cannot know for sure exactly where Cabot landed, one likely site was selected as the official landing site). 





Ever since then the Monday closest to June 24 has been celebrated in Bonavista and in other towns in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well.

Here are some of the features of Bonavista's Discovery Day:

Kids Walking Parade

A motorcade of about 100 cars

Visits to the Matthew legacy site. Cabot's ship (a caravel) was named Matthew, and a replica was built in England and then sailed to Newfoundland in time for the 500th anniversary. During that 1997 voyage, the same number of crew members (18) sailed the replica ship and took the same amount of time to make the voyage (6 weeks)!

I assumed that the replica ship was still in Newfoundland, at the legacy site - but that particular ship returned to England. Folks in Newfoundland built their own caravel, however, which resides at the legacy site along with other exhibits.


In case you are wondering if there are beautiful sights to see in this far-north province of Canada...









...the answer is yes!



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