Long Strider Rae
Clestrain Hall looking towards Hoy
by Fiona Grahame
The loss of 129 men was the worst disaster for the Royal Navy’s Polar Expeditions
Known to the Inuit people as Long Strider, Dr John Rae should be famed for his exploits not only as a hero of the Victorian Age but also today and yet this Orkney born Arctic explorer was vilified in his own time.
As an explorer of the Canadian Arctic North during a mini Ice Age John Rae:-
• Mapped around 1,750 miles of Arctic coast either on foot or in small boats
• Explored the Gulf of Boothia discovering that it was a peninsula and not an island
• Discovered that King William Land was not a peninsula but an island