This is what I knew about the Northwest Passage before I started watching the new AMC miniseries The Terror.
Ah, for just one time
I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin
Reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line
Through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea
Westward from the Davis Strait
‘Tis there ’twas said to lie
The sea route to the Orient
For which so many died
Seeking gold and glory,
Leaving weathered, broken bones
And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones
And as soon as I learned that the “Franklin” in the song is in the show and played by Steppenwolf Ciarán Hinds I was immediately more excited. I thought the story was going to be about a doomed sea expedition filled with madness and monsters. Turns out it is a story about a doomed sea expedition filled with madness and monsters but MAYBE IT WAS IN THEIR HEADS!
From what I gather so far, the two ships, the Erebus and the Terror were trying to find the sweet sweet way through the Arctic to the Pacific. Since it is 1846, everything is lavish AF on the ships. The Captain’s quarters are better than your house, they eat off of fancy china plates, etc. The fact that they are on boats in the middle the Arctic seems incidental, which brings me to what I find distracting about the show.
Mind you, I KNOW this is my ignorance, but how the heck do they have enough stuff on the ships to feed everyone? I mean, they are already sailing forever long and then they get stuck in the ice for (so far) EIGHT MONTHS. Are they eating snow? I go to the store to buy stuff for a week and it takes up 74 bags. Times that by the whole crew and then add on a million weeks and it makes no sense to me.
Ciarán Hinds as John Franklin, Jared Harris as Francis Crozier – The Terror _ Season 1, Episode 2 – Photo Credit: Aidan Monaghan/AMC
Maybe it will get explained later, but as far as I can tell, about a week into the whole thing they would be making snow soup on a fire made out of their fancy Captain’s table so I guess I am saying that the show is not scary enough yet for my mind to not wander off and start trying to figure out how big the “lemon room” was on the ship.
That or someone with a degree in maritime history needs to explain it to me because honestly it is a real bother! I am sticking with the show, though. I didn’t read the book it is based on (obviously) but the song sure helped. I will let you know how it goes. For right now, I am giving it three out of five masks!
I got up early and watched it this morning. I liked it. I was wondering about the grub too. Lots of cats maybe? They’ve got all those barrels up in deck, my money is on them being full of salty potatoes or pork. And there’s always ice fishin’, (unless it’s summer, or Florida).