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Alexander McDonald (surgeon)

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Alexander McDonald
McDonald c. 1840
Born(1817-09-15)15 September 1817
Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, Scotland
Diedc. 1848 (aged 30–31)
King William Island, Canada
BranchRoyal Navy
Service years1841–1848
RankAssistant Surgeon
ExpeditionsFranklin Expedition

Alexander McDonald (or M'Donald; 15 September 1817 – c. 1848) was a Scottish physician who served as assistant surgeon of HMS Terror on Franklin's lost expedition.

Early life

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Alexander McDonald was born on 15 September 1817 in Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, Scotland, to Robert McDonald and Elizabeth Stiven.[1] His father was a silver snuff-box maker, apprentice to Charles Stiven.[2] McDonald attended The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and graduated in 1838.[3]

Career

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To pay for medical school, McDonald spent his summers serving as ship's surgeon for Captain William Penny in the whaling industry.[4] In 1839, Penny brought an Inuk traveler, Eenoolooapik, back with him to Scotland, and McDonald was introduced to the man and served both as his tutor and as his doctor when he contracted a respiratory infection.[5] The next year when they returned to the Arctic, Eenoolooapik guided them to the whale-rich Tenudiakbeek inlet, which Penny christened Hogarth's Sound (now known to be a rediscovery of Cumberland Sound).[6]

In 1841, McDonald published a biography of Eenoolooapik which recounted the events of their voyage, A narrative of some passages in the history of Eenoolooapik, a young Esquimaux, who was brought to Britain in 1839, in the ship "Neptune" of Aberdeen: an account of the discovery of Hogarth's Sound: remarks on the northern whale fishery, and suggestions for its improvement, &c. &c.[7]

After the publication of his book, McDonald applied to serve in the Royal Navy and was accepted as an assistant surgeon.[8] From autumn 1841 to spring 1845, McDonald served on HMS Belvidera in the Mediterranean.[9]

Franklin Expedition

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McDonald's book caught the eye of Sir John Franklin, and in 1845 McDonald was appointed to serve as assistant surgeon of HMS Terror on Franklin's expedition to traverse The Northwest Passage.[10] He served as assistant to surgeon John Smart Peddie.[11] Terror and HMS Erebus departed from England on 19 May 1845; the ships were last seen entering Lancaster Sound in late July 1845 and were never heard from again by Europeans.

William Penny, McDonald's old captain and friend, went on three separate expeditions in search of him and the other members of Franklin's crew, but no survivors were ever found.[12] Along with the rest of Franklin's men, McDonald was officially declared dead on 31 March 1854.[13]

In 1850, Penny found a scrap of paper at an abandoned campsite near Wellington Channel with the name "Mr. M'Donald" written on it in pencil.[14][15] During his 1854 expedition, John Rae received a fork with McDonald's initials from the Inuit at Naujaat, who reported that it was found at a campsite northwest of the mouth of Back River.[16] Captain Leopold McClintock also recovered items belonging to McDonald on his 1859 search expedition via trading with the Inuit in the area, including silver cutlery[17] and a prize medal McDonald was awarded in 1838 at RCSEd.[18][19]

In May 1869, Charles Francis Hall interviewed an Inuk woman named Ow-wer who told him a story of a meeting between Inuit and Franklin Expedition survivors at a place called Teekeenu. This account mentioned a short, bearded white man who was able to speak some Inuktitut. Hall's interpreters Tookoolito and Ebierbing, who knew McDonald from his time in Baffin Island, were convinced that this man in the story was him.[20] Other Inuit participants in the meeting recalled one of the white men was named "Doktook" (a transliteration of "Doctor"), further evidence that this man was McDonald.[21]

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McDonald appeared as a character in the 2007 novel The Terror by Dan Simmons, a fictionalized account of Franklin's lost expedition with a supernatural horror twist. He also appeared in AMC's 2018 television adaptation of the novel, where he was portrayed by Charles Edwards. Showrunner David Kajganich said at a conference that the writers of the series promoted McDonald from assistant surgeon to head surgeon of Terror due to his prior Arctic experience and his ability to speak an unspecified Inuit language (demoting historical Head Surgeon John Smart Peddie).[22]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Barrie, Ian (June 2009). "Alexander M'Donald L.R.C.S.E (1817 – c. 1848)" (PDF). Arctic. 62 (2): 239–240. doi:10.14430/arctic135.
  2. ^ Fraser, William Ruxton (1880). History of the parish and burgh of Laurencekirk. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood. p. 206.
  3. ^ "Assistant Surgeon, Alexander McDonald (1817- circa 1848)". Royal Museums Greenwich. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  4. ^ Ross, W. Gillies (18 July 2019). Hunters on the Track : William Penny and the Search for Franklin. United Kingdom: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 19. ISBN 9780773558335.
  5. ^ Barrie, Ian (June 2009). "Alexander M'Donald L.R.C.S.E (1817 – c. 1848)". Arctic. 62 (2): 239–240. doi:10.14430/arctic135. JSTOR 40513291 – via JSTOR.
  6. ^ Holland, Clive. "Penny, William". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. University of Toronto. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  7. ^ McDonald, Alexander (1841). A narrative of some passages in the history of Eenoolooapik, a young Esquimaux, who was brought to Britain in 1839, in the ship " Neptune" of Aberdeen: an account of the discovery of Hogarth's Sound: remarks on the northern whale fishery, and suggestions for its improvement, &c. &c. Edinburgh: Fraser & Co. and J. Hogg. ISBN 0665468873. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  8. ^ Ross, W. Gillies (18 July 2019). Hunters on the Track : William Penny and the Search for Franklin. United Kingdom: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 20. ISBN 9780773558335.
  9. ^ Barrie, Ian (June 2009). "Alexander M'Donald L.R.C.S.E (1817 – c. 1848)" (PDF). Arctic. 62 (2): 239–240. doi:10.14430/arctic135.
  10. ^ Barrie, Ian (June 2009). "Alexander M'Donald L.R.C.S.E (1817 – c. 1848)" (PDF). Arctic. 62 (2): 239–240. doi:10.14430/arctic135.
  11. ^ Woodman (2015), 329.
  12. ^ Holland, Clive. "Penny, William". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. University of Toronto. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  13. ^ Cookman, Scott (2000). Ice Blink: The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin's Lost Polar Expedition. New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-471-37790-0.
  14. ^ Ross, W. Gillies (18 July 2019). Hunters on the Track : William Penny and the Search for Franklin. United Kingdom: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 206. ISBN 9780773558335.
  15. ^ Freebairn, Alison (20 August 2019). "Beechey Papers rediscovered in The National Archives". There Stood No Friendly Finger-Post to Guide Us. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  16. ^ "Fork". Royal Museums Greenwich. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  17. ^ "Silver fiddle-pattern teaspoon belonging to Alexander McDonald". Royal Museums Greenwich. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  18. ^ "Prize medal, Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh". Royal Museums Greenwich. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  19. ^ Ross, W. Gillies (18 July 2019). Hunters on the Track : William Penny and the Search for Franklin. United Kingdom: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 453. ISBN 9780773558335.
  20. ^ Woodman, David C. (2015). Unravelling the Franklin Mystery: Inuit Testimony. Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 127–128. ISBN 9780773545410.
  21. ^ Woodman (2015), 134-135.
  22. ^ Kajganich, Dave (12 September 2021). Terror Camp Conference Keynote Presentation. Terror Camp 2021.

Further reading

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