John Rae spent his thirtieth birthday, September 30th, 1843, paddling up the Abitibi River. He portaged over to the Ottawa River and then travelled by coach to Hamilton, where he spent time with his older brother Richard and his younger brother Thomas, who ran a dry goods store there.
Rae spent Christmas at Simpson’s stone mansion in Lachine, visited nearby Montreal, then snowshoed the almost one thousand kilometres back to Moose Factory. There Simpson sent Rae a detailed outline of the proposed Arctic adventure. It was Rae’s plan, but the arrogant Sir George, who was known as the Little Emperor, worded it as if it were his own idea. One good suggestion was that Rae learn how to operate navigational instruments so that he could determine his position in the Arctic. Over the course of the next two years, Rae did just that.
One of the major problems Arctic Explorers had was knowing where they were. Close to the Magnetic North Pole, their compasses were useless. Atmospheric refraction made the sun appear higher in the sky than it was, so readings commonly put explorers many kilometres away from their actual location. Hours of complex readings and calculations were needed to determine, even approximately, where one was. But it was vital work. There was no point in going if you didn’t know where you were when you got there.