Gallant, stout-hearted, patient, she is the uncrowned queen of the Arctic, and she has a history unparalleled in northern navigation. Some day her story will be written, and it will be worth reading.
The Beaver, March 1938
Someone should write up the Nascopie. She was a real ship.
James G. Wright, Chief of Eastern Arctic Patrol, 1947
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"As faithful as the seasons," and lifeline to the isolated trading posts and Inuit communities that formed the northernmost reach of The British Empire, Nascopie carried the post "factors," missionaries and "mounties" who came to depend on her once a year calls, irrespective of weather or war, for provisions, coal, mail and medical care. She was the linchpin of a unique barter system between the Inuit hunters, trappers and whalers who made the Hudson's Bay Co. the longest surviving of the chartered companies that formed the commercial foundation of the Empire.
The company and vessel were British yet with her mostly Newfoundlander crew, participation in the annual seal fishery and long association with St. John's (where she was initially registered), Nascopie was every bit as much Newfoundland's whilst having equal claims as Canada's Ship of State performing the annual Eastern Arctic Patrol from 1933-47 which maintained and defended the Dominion's "True North, Strong And Free," and even rating a mention in the seminal portrait of Canada at war, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The 49th Parallel (1941) starring Laurence Olivier and Leslie Howard. Nascopie even pioneered Arctic pleasure cruising in the 'thirties.
This, then, is the story of the modest yet stalwart little ship that more than earned her place in the history of the remote regions she served and in the hearts of those to whom she was indeed The Lifeline of the Arctic...
H.B.S.S. NASCOPIE 1912-1947
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| Nascopie by John Ellison, The Beaver, Autumn 1980. |
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| Nascopie at Port Burwell in 1934. Credit: Max Sauer, Jr. photograph, The Beaver. |
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| Nascopie sails from Montreal in July 1939. Credit: Archives of Manitoba |
Year by year the 'Honourable Company' had pushed out its frontiers and established new posts in the far north. Year by year it was on the Company's ships that our men were entirely dependent for their year's supplies of food and equipment, and also (so important in that life of exile) for their mail.
Patrick Ashley Cooper, Governor of Hudson's Bay Co., 1931-1951
Arctic Command.
To put the Company's transport on a proper footing, and to avoid the necessity of chartering extra tonnage to carry the increasing quantities of provisions and stores year by year, your directors have entered an agreement whereby the Hudson's Bay Company will own a majority interest in a steamer which is being constructed for Arctic navigation. This will ensure sufficient suitable tonnage to the Company for some years to come.
Lord Strathcona, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, 10 July 1911.
"For some years to come" indeed and this understated announcement would produce a vessel that not only would go on to serve the Hudson's Bay Co. for 35 years, but in doing so, create a True North legend, ranking her as not only one of truly great Canadian and Newfoundland ships, but among the most successful of all Edwardian liners yet the smallest and humblest of them all… H.B.S.S. Nascopie.
The fancy of French and English dandies of the mid 17th century for felt hats was good a reason as any to inspire the exploitation of North American wildlife especially in what is now Canada and where Inuit and Indians had long engaged in hunting and trapping of an abundance of furry animals populating the virgin wilderness. The demand for felt was especially strong in France and two French traders, rebuffed by their own government, got the backing of Prince Rupert, cousin of England's King Charles II, for their first expedition. From the onset, watercraft of all description, from sailing vessels to canoes and kayaks, were integral to the enterprise, providing not only the means to transport the pelts home but to reach into the hinterlands of the vast expanses of North America, laced by rivers, creeks and with lakes and bays as large as inland seas.
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| Nonesuch returns to London with the first "return" of fur hides from Rupert's Land, 1668. Credit: www.hbcheritage.ca |
So it was that Nonsuch and Eaglet were dispatched from London on 5 June 1668 to the mouth of what was called Rupert's River where it enters James Bay. The entire expanse of what is now known as Hudson Bay was named Rubert's Land and in 1670 of the "Governor and Company of Adventurers of England" which formed the foundation of what came to be known as the Hudson's Bay Co. was created.
From the onset, HBC was organised as a joint-stock company with government-like central bureaucracy. "At the annual General Court (Annual General Meeting in today’s terms), shareholders elected a governor and committee to organize fur auctions, order trade goods, hire men and arrange for shipping. The London-based governor and committee set all the basic policies implemented in Rupert’s Land, basing their decisions on annual reports, post journals and account books supplied by the officials on the bay. The General Court also appointed a governor to act on their behalf in the bay area. In Rupert’s Land, each factory (trading post) was commanded by a chief factor (trader) and his council of officers." (Canadian Encyclopedia).
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| Map of the extent of the posts of Hudson's Bay Co. extending right across Canada and north to the Eastern and Western Arctic. Credit: www.hbcheritage.ca |
HBC was for most of its initial 250 years essentially a trading company built on barter between the local Indian and Inuit trappers who, in exchange for pelts, obtained manufactured goods like tools, guns, textiles (which began the company's famous range of blankets and clothing) and food. HBC even minted its own currency to facilitate the barter arrangement, the Made Beaver coin having the value of one male beaver skin. The nomadic populations would come to local trading posts, established by the HBC usually at the mouths of rivers that fed into James Bay and Hudson Bay. These isolated posts formed the network which defined the Company and which was wholly dependent on watercraft to serve. Moreover, posts were added or abandoned as demand warranted and into the 20th century HBC expanded ever northward to encompass Baffin Land. Nor was HBC confined to the eastern Arctic and its network of trading posts extended right across to the Pacific and western Arctic Ocean.
Hudson's Bay Co.'s network of trading posts in the Eastern Arctic began in 1909 with the establishment of that of Wolstenholme by Ralph Parsons, Fur Trade Commissioner, who went on to create 28 posts in a remarkable 40-year career including along the coast of Hudson Strait and Baffin Island, among them Lake Harbour (1911), Cape Dorset (1913), Stupart's Bay, Frobisher Bay (1914), Pangnirtung (1921), Pond Inlet (1921), River Clyde (1923), Arctic Bay (1926) and re-established in 1937 and Fort Ross (1937).
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| The heart of HBC: The Trading Post, c. 1888, stocked with "The Outfit"... the consumer goods bartered with native hunters and trappers for pelts. Credit: Frederic Remington illustration, Wikimedia Commons. |
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| "The Returns": bales of white fox skins being loaded aboard a barge to take out to Nascopie anchored in the bay, 1938. Credit: Lorene Squire photograph, The Beaver. |
The core of HBC yearly business was "The Outfit" which constituted the entire annual import of the necessities to keep each post supplied, fed and fueled as well as stocked with the consumer goods and provisions bartered with the native hunters and trappers in exchange for "The Returns" which were the exports of furs, seal and whale oil, ivory (mainly walrus tusks) etc. A typical c. 1910 "Outfit" might cost the company $90,000 ($2.8 mn. c. 2022) and the "Returns" worth $400,000 ($12.7 mn.) These were the profits which made trading in such remote and difficult places worth it to the Governors and shareholders.
In this, HBC was no different than what formed the foundations of the British Empire: private companies regionally based and wholly dependent on maritime trade and transport. What was different, unique even, was the region, seas and climate in which they conducted their business. At the height of the company's northern operations, Nascopie was trading just 800 miles south of the North Pole and with the exception of Chesterfield Inlet, all of the ports visited were above the tree line. There was no wood and save for hunting and some fishing, no grown food and few domesticated animals other than husky dogs. Everything to sustain a post for an entire year had to be brought in on a single annual voyage encompassing 10,000 miles.
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| Working cargo Hudson Bay style: Inuit women and children hauling ashore a large crate landed by boat from the anchored Nascopie, 1925. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Moreover, except for Chesterfield Inlet where a ship could go alongside a rather extemporaneous wooden jetty, all the calls... 15 or so per season... involved working all manner of cargo at anchor and many of the "ports" were just a stretch of beach with a 20-40 ft. tide and with no lighterage available, the ship had to use two of her lifeboats lashed together and with timbers athtwart to form a deck and towed by the ship's own steam launch. Nor were there any stevedores... HBC deck crew, even the officers, did the unloading themselves aided by Eskimo labour, mostly women.
At the fringes of Empire, the Arctic regions of British North America were poorly charted and largely bereft of navigational aids, the already challenging route made worse by the ever expanding number of posts in Baffin Land whose coasts were beset with uncharted rocks, many the pinnacles of underwater mountains. Indeed, Nascopie would, like Bayrupert, be ultimately be claimed by rock not ice.
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| Nascopie "in the ice" at Port Burwell, 1920. Credit: Frederick W. Bercham photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
The main danger to navigation was still ice even during the summer months, the only time the Hudson Strait was passable. Even then, HBC ships might encounter dozens of bergs whilst growlers and field ice were common. The real barrier were the epic expanses of heavy pack ice, often five-foot thick. These packs moved with the swift tides and currents and could envelop a ship which once "nipped" could literally be crushed. In addition, encased in a moving icepack, the ship, too, was transported unwilling along with it, risking crashing into reefs or against shorelines. On one occasion, Nascopie travelled 40 miles off course without turning a screw when trapped in a moving ice pack off the Button Islands, north Labrador.
All this meant that the essential give and take of the Company business, the "outfit" and the "return" were concentrated in a tight July-November time frame and accomplished in one or, at most, two voyages originating in Montreal in mid July and usually ending in St. John's, Newfoundland in late September. There, the ship would usually proceed to England with its valuable fur cargo. The "outfit" of 2,000 or more tons, resulting in a "return" of 45 tons worth three or more times in value.
There were few "milk runs" in the British merchant service c. 1910 but none as challenging as taking HBC's yearly "Outfit" into the northern reaches of the Empire where, appropriately enough the HBC houseflag was a defaced Red Ensign and the Company's officers and men-- British, Newfoundlander and Canadian-- owed nothing to any other in the Merchant Navy for seamanship, steadfastness and resourcefulness.
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| Starting with Nonsuch in 1668, ships were integral to the operations of Hudson's Bay Co. whose house journal The Beaver featured this photo feature on some of the more famous company ships over the years. Credit: The Beaver, April 1921. |
Almost from the onset, HBC's unique specific marine requirements mandated special designs including their own designed and made canoes and famous Scottish-built "Peterhead" whalers, so named for where they were constructed. Deep sea vessels, including schooners and steam assisted barques, were usually built of ironwood and exceptionally strong forward to withstand being "nipped" in the ice. But in the steel and steam era, HBC built few deepsea vessels specifically for the purpose given their employment was but one round voyage a year, and, instead would either charter ships or purchase suitable ones from previous owners.
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| Almost as legendary as Nascopie, Pelican (above sailing from Montreal for the North in 1920) was originally built as HMS Pelican, an Osprey-class sloop, in 1877, and sold to HBC in 1901. She soldiered on until 1920. She was extent as late as 1953. A truly great ship! Credit: Frederick W. Bercham photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
In 1910, the principal HBC ships delivering "the outfit" were the wood steam-assisted barquentine Discovery (1901/751 grt) and the wood steam-assisted barque Pelican (1877/638 grt), the later having been originally a Royal Navy warship and the former had been engaged in south Polar exploration before being acquired by HBC.
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| The first of a new type of icebreaking cargo-passenger ships, Adventure of 1905, in the ice of Hudson Strait in 1909 under charter to Revillon Freres. Credit: Hugh A. Peck photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Here, HBC's great rival in the fur trade, Revillon Freres, stole a march on them by chartering the pioneering Adventure (1906/1,761 grt), the first of a new type of steel icebreaking merchantmen designed for Newfoundland's annual seal hunt and general trading in the northern latitudes, for their own annual supply run to Hudson's Bay in beginning in summer 1908. She proved ideal for the purpose and was chartered each succeeding year up to The Great War.
In 1910 I remember, there were rumours among the crews of the Pelican and Discovery that a new ship was being built for the Company. In 1911 it was an accepted fact. Many were the discussions as to what she would be like. Would she be as good and powerful like the Adventure? The Adventure had once or twice passed the Pelican in the ice on the Labrador Coast. She used to be chartered each summer by Revillon Freres to supply their posts in Hudson Bay. To be passed in the ice by a ship carrying the opposition posts' supplies was like searing the soul with a red hot iron. The Pelican would do her best, but low power and sails and wooden walls had no chance against modern engines and steel. All we could was to heartily curse the Adventure in one breath, and pray no ice and a good fair wind with the other.
Captain G.H. Mack, The Beaver September 1938
Amid booming business, there was clearly a need by HBC for their own specially built, steel icebreaking cargo vessel large enough to accommodate the entire annual outfit delivery and have the structural capabilities to do so in almost all conditions. She would be designed and constructed along the lines of Adventure and prosecute the annual seal hunt from Newfoundland March-April and then underake the annual supply trip north July-October. Indeed, there were other similarities with this seasonal employment and HBC's requirements as Adventure had already proved for Revillon Freres and here the complimentary operational needs would lead to corporate cooperation as well.
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| Credit: Wikipedia |
Not only was the sealing season compatible in the calendar of the HBC's annual "outfit" delivery, but its requirements as far as vessel were the same. Finding employment for sealers out of season had always been a challenge and thus a marriage of convenience between HBC and Job Bros. was arranged, the offspring of which would be the new ship which reflected the compatible requirements of both. Job Bros. (dating to 1750) of St. John's, along with Bowring Bros., dominated the island Dominion's traditional maritime trades of fishing and sealing.
A new joint enterprise, The Nascopie Steamship Co. (NSC) was formed in August 1911 with HBC holding 117 shares and Job Bros. 103 with a working capital of $200,000. In addition, Job Bros. would act as the agents for the new ship and use their considerable expertise and contacts to find charters and odd employment outside of the July-November HBC "outfit" voyage and Job. Bros. March-April sealing. HBC, Job Bros. and others would, in effect, charter the ship from NSC on a monthly basis as per their needs.
From her inception, the ship was called Nascopie after the "people beyond the horizon" who inhabited the sub-Arctic regions of what is now northern Quebec and Labrador. The association between the Nascopie and the HBC dates from establishment of the first trading post at Fort Chimo in 1831. Ironically, given the dutiful qualities of the ship named in their honour, the Nascopie initially were resistant in adopting to the commercial hunting and trapping enterprises of the HBC.
Messrs. Job Bros. & Co., are building a big sealer, twice the size of the Beothic, and about the size of the Florizel.
Harbour Grace Standard 2 June 1911
St. John's, Nfld., papers announced that orders have been given by local firms for the construction of two new sealing steamers. Hon. W.C. Job, of Job Brothers, placed an order with Swan & Hunter for a steamer to be finished by December 31, and reach St. John's during January next. She will be called the Nascopie, after the tribe of Indians of that name. The Nascopie will be fitted with electric searchlight, and her hatches will be specially constructed for the loading and discharging of cargo. Capt. George Barbour, who has been so successful in the Beothic, will have the new steamer, which will be about the same size as the Florizel.
Gazette, 6 June 1911
Job Bros. have placed an order for a whaling steamer to be called Nascopie. "She will be equipped with electric searchlight, and be fitted with special hatches for the quick loading and discharging of cargo. The contract calls for completion Dec. 31, so that she may reach Newfoundland in January 1912."
The Railway and Marine World, July 1911
If officially announced during HBC's July 1911 annual meeting, the news of Nascopie's order and most of the details of the vessel that were released prior to her completion, were widely circulated in the Newfoundland and Canadian press, although almost all in the context of her sealing role for Job's.
The order went to Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Newcastle upon Tyne, which like most British yards, was enjoying a halcyon era and although most famous for Mauretania (1907), was then building Franconia and Laconia. The little steamer they would build for HBC/Jobs would outlive all three in commercial service, but today is one of the most overlooked of all Tyne-built ships.
Job's new sealing steamer, Nascopie, which was launched at Newcastle-on-Tyne yesterday will be one of the finest ships of the sealing fleet leaving this port. She will have a speed of 14 knots, is over 2,000 tone register, and was built by Messrs. Swann, Hunter & Co. She will be one of the finest ice boats of the fleet having been specially built to resist the Arctic floes, and in the summer season will ply in Hudson Bay. Capt. George Barbour, of the Beothic, will command her at the seal fishery, and Captain W. Wineor will take the Beothic. The ship will leave for this port early in January to get ready for her spring's work.
Evening Telegram, 8 December 1911
Her final plans inked on 28 April 1911, the date of the laying down of no. 870 at the Neptune Yard, Low Walker, of Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson is obscure, but she was most likely under construction before the month was out. Little time and even less publicity was invested in her building and subsequent launch on 7 December with nary a mention in the press. If no. 870 was afforded a christening or if even anyone other than the shipyard manager and workers was in attendance, is not known. It was all rather a desultory beginning and HBC seems to have treated construction of the ship as they would another Peterhead whaler.
As an example of the shipbuilding activity prevailing on both banks of the Tyne at the present moment the output for Messrs. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson from their Wallsend Shipyard and Neptune Shipyard, Walker, last week may be cited. From their Wallsend Shipyard they despatched two large twin-screw steamers for Liverpool owners:, viz., the Indrapura liner and the Cunard liner Laconia, together representing nearly 29,000 tons, as well as H.M. torpedo-boat destroyer Sandfly, taken over by the Admiralty after a successful acceptance trial on Wednesday. The week was also marked by the launch of the first of three floating docks building for the British Government. At the company's Neptune Yard the sealing steamer Nascopie, a vessel 285 ft. long and with a speed of 14 knots, was launched to the order of Messrs. Job Brothers, Liverpool, in conjunction with the Hudson Bay Company; and the mail and passenger steamer Jaquislsco, bult at the same yard for the Salvador Railway Company, ran a successful trial trip burning oil fuel. Six vessels, of so varied a character, in a single week must be surely a record.
Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 14 December 1911
Messrs. Job Bros. & Co. yesterday had a wire to the effect that the s.s. Nascopie had made her trials trips on the Tyne and that they were eminently satisfactory. The ship developed fine speed, averaging nearly 14¼ knots, which is a good deal more than the contract called for… The ship having such fine speed should make a good run out here.
Evening Telegram, 26 January 1912
On the trial trip, although the sea was rough and the weather decidedly unfavourable, she attained a speed of over 14 knots, considerably in excess of the contract requirements.
Page's Weekly, 2 February 1912
Little time was wasted in completing Nascopie even by Edwardian shipbuilding standards and on 24 January 1912 she ran her trials in the North Sea. The official party aboard included Mr. A. Hamilton and Mr. Adamson of Messrs. G. S. Goodwin and Co, Messrs. R. and T.B. Job, of Liverpool and Newfoundland, and Mr. Ingram, of the Hudson Bay Co., and the builders by their directors, Mr. Christie and Mr. G. F. Tweedy. Nascopie cranked out an impressive 14.10 knots, a good two knots over her service speed and one over her contract speed.
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| Built for strength not speed, Nascopie still managed a respectable 14.10 knots on her trials. Credit: Page's Engineering Weekly, 2 February 1912. |
Capt Waite is delighted with her and believes her to be a superior ship to the Beothic. The apartment of the Marconi operator and the wheel house are on the upper bridge, and the chart room and captain's room are immediately below this and are comfortable and fitted with every modern convenience. The rooms of the other officers are on the main deck, on the starboard side in the amidships section of the vessel, and the engineers' rooms are on the opposite side, while those of the firemen and sailors are forward and are also very commodious and comfortable: her cabin is fine, large and excellently equipped. She is lit with electricity; her engines are of a very powerful type, and all who have seen her believe the ship will give a good account of herself. She is a fine vessel in appearance, and we congratulate the owners. Messrs. Job Bros. & Co. on possessing such a splendid boat.
Evening Telegraph, 19 February 1912.
Work there was aplenty for Nascopie and all who manned her for all her 35 years for what was indeed a pack mule of a vessel that owed nothing to any other for strength and steadfastness, an exemplar of Edwardian naval architecture and English shipbuilding craft no less than a Mauretania. These were the ships that maintained the commerce of the greatest world economy-- The British Empire-- at its zenith and Nascopie's Red Ensign flew in its northernmost reaches.
One of the most overlooked innovation of Edwardian marine engineering and naval architecture was the icebreaking cargo-passenger vessel and the only one specifically originated in British North America. Hulls strengthened for navigation in loose ice, be they built of wood or steel, were not uncommon but one specifically for icebreaking, by designing the bows so as to rise over the floes and crush heavy ice packs with the sheer weight of the hull and power of the engines yet still function as a practical and economical cargo and passenger carrier, was something entirely new. The design was evolved in the oldest of all England's overseas colonies, Newfoundland, where the annual seal fishery put ships and men where others might avoid... right into the heaviest ice packs and floes and tested the stoutest ships and seamen to accomplish. The "hunt" lasted but six-seven weeks a year so the ship would have to find more conventional employment the rest of the year.
If Russia became the birthplace of the icebreaker and still has priority in the matter, Canada (or rather, England, because the ships operating in Canadian waters were built at its shipyards by overseas order) became the “mother” of icebreaking ships. It cannot be said that there were no such ships before at the end of the 19th century in the ports of the Baltic, America, and Russia there were many ships capable of operating in ice. However, there were very few specially built for permanent cargo and passenger operations, taking into account the ice factor.
The Canadians needed a fleet of medium-capacity steamers capable of almost year-round independent operation between Newfoundland and the mainland, in areas where encountering ice was common. Moreover, these ships should have been able not only to cross light ice (the hulls were reinforced), but also to carry a large amount of cargo and work freely at other times of the year in the Caribbean Sea or even across the Atlantic. The most powerful English shipyards solved the problems of their Canadian partners without any problems, and by the beginning of the First World War, such a fleet exceeded a couple of dozen ships operating in the waters of northern Canada.
Northern icebreaking ships of Tsarist Russia, R.V. Lapshin, https://naukatehnika.com/
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| Adventure, ordered in April 1905 by A. Harvey & Co., St. John's, from Dundee Shipbuilding, was the first of an entirely new class of strengthened icebreaking merchant ships and the first to be chartered for seasonal Hudson Bay service by Revillon Freres in 1908. Credit: McCord Stewart Museum |
In 1906, however, an enterprising ship owner of St. John's determined upon the construction of a steel ship of about 2,000 tons, of novel design and unusual strength, which he was convinced would prove even more effective amid the icefloes than the wooden crafts, the bow of this new boat being so contrived that she would slide gradually on to an icemass and break it down by her weight, instead of attempting to split it by attacking it with her stem, as was the usual practice previously. This ship, appropriately enough named the Adventure, proved a complete success and every year since her first season (1906) has prosecuted this industry with highly gratifying results. So complete, indeed, was the triumph of the experiment that the next year the same concern built two other steamers of similar class the Bonaventure and the Bellaventure, while another concern built the Beothic of the same type. Coincident with these accessions of the new ships, unfavorable seasons caused the loss of several of the wooden fleet, and whenever one of the latter vanished she was replaced by a steel fabric, for it now came to be realized that these new-type 'sealers' are destined to dominate the industry in the future.
A still more radical departure was made in 1909, when a ship of more than 3,000 tons--the Florizel--was constructed on the same lines, for the purpose of plying in the passenger trade between St. John's and New York all the rest of the year and engaging in the seal fishery during March and April. She cost $320,000 and in her second season broke all records with her catch, which was nearly 50,000 seals, or a third larger than the best previous total. Her owners, inspired by this, constructed a consort of the same size last year and for the same service--the Stephano--which is making her maiden trip to the ice fields now.
The owners of the Beothic, in conjunction with the Hudson Bay Company, developed yet another novelty--the Nascopie of 3,500 tons, intended for the present to operate in the seal fishery annually and to convey stores to the fur posts in Hudson Bay every summer and bring out the stock of peltries accumulating there, engaging in general transport work at other times with the idea, however, that when the Canadian Government builds a railroad to Hudson Bay she will be put into the work of freighting grain from Churchill to Europe and general merchandise back through Hudson Strait during the period of open navigation. She has been specially provided with sufficient bunker accommodation to enable her to make the transatlantic voyage, and will probably serve as the type for other ships of the same class in future years.
Journal of the Canadian Bankers Association, Vol. 12, Issues 3-4
In all, nine of these "steel sealers" were built-- Adventure (1905/4,000 grt), Belladventure (1909)/3,217 grt, Bonaventure (1909/2,800 grt) for A. Harvey, Beothic (1909/2,800 grt) for Jobs Bros.; Bruce (1912/3,000 grt) and Lintroz (1913) for Reid & Co. and Florizel (1909/3,081 grt) and Stephano (1911/3,449 grt) for Bowring Bros.-- the first commercial steamships built with icebreaking capability with the cutaway bows and extra heavy scantling and plating forward that characterised the type. And... Nascopie of 1912.
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| Bowring Bros. Florizel (1909) was the first ship designed for passenger service and the seasonal seal hunt and had a full icebreaking hull and construction. |
Most of these had been designed by Messrs. A. Goodwin-Hamilton & Adamson, Ltd., Liverpool, who can be rightly be credited with the concept and the successful dynasty of such vessels that carried on through to the Red Cross liner Nerissa of 1926.
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| The longest lasting of all the Newfoundland icebreaking sealing ships, Beothic (1909/1,538 grt) was the first built (by D&W Henderson, Glasgow) for Job Bros. Sold to the Russians in 1916, she remained in service as Georgiy Sedov until broken up in January 1968. Credit: www.clydeships.co.uk |
So it was that a Newfoundland inspired design formed the basis for something hitherto unique in the Hudson's Bay Co.'s 235-year history: a vessel purpose-built for their yearly "outfit" to regions and waters even more challenging than those at "the Front" of the Newfoundland seal fishery. They entrusted the design of the new ship to Messrs. A. Goodwin-Hamilton for all the right reasons and what was produced would prove among the most enduring and successful of them all.
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| Nascopie on trials showing her light, graceful lines that gave no hint of what a tough little ship she was. Credit: Gijsha, shipinghistory.com. |
Goodwin-Hamilton & Adamson gave Nascopie light and lovely lines and minimal superstructure and in her handsome Job Bros. livery of light grey hull, white upperworks and black-topped buff funnel bearing their twin houseflags, she might be mistaken for being a tropical banana boat more than a seal hunter and Arctic supply ship. No one could mistake her quite extraordinarily tall funnel which was the first thing spotted miles distant on "Ship Day" at the HBC posts. "My first impression was what a long funnel she had. After looking around, I saw she was a very fine ship indeed…" Capt. Mack, The Beaver, September 1938. She had a very long fore deck which would prove much used for accommodating the often quite remarkable flotilla of boats, barges, cutters, whaleboats etc., some of considerable size, for transport to some of the posts.
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| An impressive photo of an even more impressive funnel as well as Nascopie's bridge and the covered deck space reserved for passengers. This photo dates from her 1927 voyage. Credit: John M. Kinnaird, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Measuring 285 ft. 5 in. in length and 43 ft. 6 in. beam with tonnage measurements of 1,870 (gross) (as built, rising to 2,521 by 1928) and 1,520 (nett), Nascopie drew 17 ft. 6 in. forward and 21 ft. 10 in. aft when loaded, but was later listed as 21 ft. 7 in. forward and 24 ft. aft. That was about the draught limit for safe navigation off the coast of Baffin Land. Nascopie was only 20 ft. shorter than Florizel but had six inches more beam giving her a length to beam ratio of 6.8:1 reflecting the compromise between a true icebreaker and cargo-passenger with a fair turn of speed. Her displacement was an impressive 2,800 tons and Nascopie was a big strapping steamer for her dimensions and ideal for punching her way through whatever the Hudson Straits and Labrador front had for her.
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| Nascopie's forward superstructure as she gets underway from Montreal for The North, July 1927. Credit: John M. Kinnaird photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Nascopie's midships superstructure and that wonderful funnel. Note how low in the water she is... there was a nary a load line number in sight when she cast off with the annual Outfit. Also note the launches and boats stacked on her fore deck. Date: July 1927. Credit: John M. Kinnaird photograph, Stewart McCord Museum. |
In her construction special attention was given to strength to fit her for forcing through the Northern ice floes, and she is the equal of any of the modern ships prosecuting the voyage. Her beams, knees, girders and staunchions are of unusual strength and thickness, her plates are of the best kind and are particularly heavy at the bows.
Evening Telegraph 19 February 1912
The toughness of Nascopie was legendary but it was accomplished by specification, engineering, plates, riveting and castings rather than hyperbole. By any standard, she was one of the heaviest-built merchantmen of her era and Newfoundland newspapers said she was "as tough as a Dreadnought."
The specifications tell the story: her scantlings or frames were spaced 12 inches apart from the stem to 100 ft. and then 16 inches aft, her plating was ⅝ inch thick but doubled from the stem to the engine room and she had an "ice belt" of one-inch plate right around the hull at the load line. One of the consequences of the icebreaking bow was often broken masses of ice flowing aft and damaging the screw and or rudder. Consequently, Nascopie's rudder post casting, 6½-ton four-bladed screw and shaft were 50% thicker and stronger than Lloyd's requirements. She broke screw blades just once... on her first sealing voyage... and not again in the ensuing 35 years.
She is excessively strongly built of steel, and her form, strength, and details of construction embody the latest practice for vessels intended to work amongst thick ice. Her stem is so formed that when she charges the ice she will glide upon it and crush it under her weight. The machinery, shafting, and propellers have all been made specialty heavy in order to cope with the shocks that she must receive amongst the ice.
Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 27 January 1912.
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| Builder's model of Nascopie. Credit: HBC photograph. |
More than materials, Nascopie had the same type of icebreaker bow profile that had been introduced with Adventure in 1905 and a lot of her lines were similar to Florizel of 1909 which she approached in size although being about 50 ft. shorter. This angled the underwater profile of the bows sharply back from the stem at the waterline to let the bow ride up over and on top of an icepack and crush it with the weight of the vessel as well as the forward thrust of the engines. This put enormous strain on the stem which was fitted with a very tough solid cast "shoe" riveted to the stem, as sort of ice battering ram. How any of her crew, berthed traditionally in the forecastle, got any sleep with the relentless pounding and shuddering of Nascopie punching her way through ice, is difficult to ponder.
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| Nascopie rolling in the Atlantic off Newfoundland, 1930. Credit: John M. Kinnaird photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
She was built like a yacht. She couldn't keep on an even keel because she had no bilge-keels. She was design to slide over and past the nice and a bottom like a racing shell... She had to be a wallower, but she rode like a yacht in a gale, even though she often threw everyone out of their bunks. I slept on the floor more often than I can remember.
Captain Thomas Smellie
quoted in Arctic Command.
Nascopie was a real sailors' "seaboat" which could cleave high seas or thick ice and yes, roll. It was said she could roll even at dock or at anchor and a consequence of her flat slab sides quickly transitioning to a flat bottom which had to kept smooth to let her cleave ice floes and precluding the provision of roll dampening bilge keels. This also accounted for her occasional surprising showings of speed without the drag of bilge keels. Southbound when she was lightly loaded and low on bunkers, Nascopie could roll with the best of them especially on the final leg from Fort Chimo and down the Newfoundland coast to St. John's.
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| Midships Section Plan of Nascopie, dated 8 May 1911. LEFT CLICK for full size scan. Credit: lrfoundation.org.uk/ |
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| Deck Plan and Profile of Nascopie, dated 8 May 1911. LEFT CLICK for full size scan. Credit: lrfoundation.org.uk/ |
Nascopie had three holds (no. 1 15' x 12') and (no. 2 26.8' x 16' forward) and no. 3 (26.8' x 16' aft) with a total capacity of 129,779 cu. ft. or 2,500 tons. In the Second World War she carried in excess of 3,000 tons of cryolite from Greenland to Canada on a single voyage when no one was worried about load line certificates. Even on her regular voyages north, her load line markings would be often be submerged on departure from Montreal and later Capt. Smellie admitted he would tell concerned inspectors that Nascopie was just "listing"-- the only ship in the world that could assume an alternating list from one side or the other for the benefit of surveyors.
The Nascopie, in the ordinary course of her annual journeys, was subjected to treatment that would foundered any ordinary ship. New engineers, in fact, wondered at the wicked punishment suffered by the engines until they became familiar with the refinements of her construction and the sturdiness of her engines and rudder post. At first, however, they were resigned to the loss of the propellers and the fracturing of her shaft as the man on the bridge sent her shuddering into a solid wall of ice. 'She was frequently brought to a complete standstill from ten knots and over,' the Captain says. 'That meant a hundred revolutions to nothing in one second. The engineers were scared, but she never suffered. Every piece of crockery on board might be smashed, but her engines and shaft were sound.'
Arctic Command.
Complimenting her Dreadnaught tough hull was supremely reliable and capable machinery-- few ships had better nor put more strains on it. The nature of working in heavy ice, often in effect battering through it, required constant stops and starts and the kind of maneuvering that only a proper set of reciprocating engines can give. Nascopie was powered by a single triple-expansion engine with cylinders of 25½", 35½" and 58" with a stroke of 42" turning a single steel shaft (which was like everything else in the ship, impossibly overbuilt with a 14½" dia. instead of the usual 11⅞") and 6½-ton four-bladed screw turning at 110 rpms. Steam was generated by two single-ended boilers, each measuring 16½ feet in diameter and 12 ft. long, each with three fire boxes, working under Howden's forced draught at 180 psi. Her rated output was 2,500 bhp but she could turn out 2,700 bhp if needed.
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| Nascopie's engine room detail. Credit: Archives of Manitoba |
Nascopie was, of course, a coal burner and would remain so throughout her long career. There were no bunkering port en route (until the opening of the railway to Churchill in 1930), indeed she carried coal to each of her posts, and had to have 2,500 tons of it for her own needs, burning 20 tons or more a day. Coal had the advantage over oil in in that it could be carried anywhere there was room for it in the ship beyond her nominal bunker capacity and had to be. Nascopie developed a reputation for being rather picky about her coal, preferring Welsh steaming coal and Cape Breton coal was a hit or miss under her boilers. Several times she had to have her entire bunkers changed out when inferior coal burnt out her grates. Many of her ensuing adventures revolved around the burning and the getting of coal on her extended voyages were rebunkering was impossible or uncertain.
Not only did Nascopie have to carry all of her fuel for the round voyage, but with no repair facilities en route, she carried a complete kit of engine spares: "2 top end, 2 bottom end, 2 main bearing, set of coupling bolts, one set feed and bilge valves, bolts and nuts, four propeller blades and mounting, 6 air pump valves, 1 air pump, 4 main feed check valves, 3 piston rings for HP and MP pistons,1 propeller shaft, 1 slide valve and one HP piston valve complete," according to her Lloyd's inspection report.
H.B.S.S. NASCOPIE
Profile & Deck Plan as built
Credit: https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/_images/ww1blog/2015/2015-06-15_full.jpg
LEFT CLICK on image for full scan.
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| Nascopie profile and rigging plan (note the schooner rig and sails). |
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| Nascopie flying bridge & wheelhouse |
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| Nascopie Saloon Deck (Captain's cabin and Chart Room) |
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| Nascopie Shelter Deck (officers accommodation aft and passenger accommodation forward) |
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| Detail of passenger accommodation forward on Shelter Deck. |
As built and for most of her life, Nascopie was not a commercial passenger ship. Indeed, she did not possess a passenger certificate until 1933. As a sealer, 1912-1916 and 1927-1930, she accommodated 250 seal hunters in addition to her normal crew, but they were signed on as crew and on her annual "Outfit" voyages for HBC, she carried company staff and wives, RCMP men and missionaries who were "signed on" as supernumeraries for the voyage.
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| Nascopie's dining saloon as built. Credit: Archives of Manitoba. |
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| Nascopie's dining saloon. Credit: Archives of Manitoba. |
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| The Captain's table in Nascopie's dining saloon, 1938. Credit: Loren Squire photograph, Archives of Manitoba. |
The accommodation for sealers was:"portable beds for them after the style carried in the steerage by all first class passenger boats" and 'tween decks were fitted with steam heating. For her HBC passengers, Nascopie originally had four staterooms forward on Shelter Deck, all outside, and two-berth with an additional settee berth. The dining saloon was adjoining, nicely panelled and used by the officers and passengers. The accommodation was inadequate by 1921 when the house on Saloon Deck was expanded forward and to the sides of the captain's cabin and chartroom to accommodate additional cabins. In 1933 the accommodation was further expanded with cabins built forward on Shelter Deck and she could carry 36 passengers in eight four-berth and four single berth cabins. Her saloon was expanded as well to sit 26 diners per sitting and the old fashioned swivel chairs replaced by free standing ones.
After the majestic liner which had carried us so smoothly across the Atlantic, the Nascopie seemed very small and insignificant. Her decks only just rose above the level of the wharf, whereas the liner had towered up above the dockside. Her paintwork was dark and workmanlike whereas the Duchess had gleamed and dazzled in white. None the less, many of us were, in the years to come, come to form an affection for the little ship which no ocean liner could ever have inspired. Sometimes she was naughty. In rough weather there were few tricks that were beyond her, particularly when coming down the Labrador coast with only a few light bales of furs in her holds. She would then creak and groan in the most alarming manner, but survived the worst hammerings the North Atlantic and the Arctic seas could serve up, to return each year, like a faithful friend, to keep us company for a few hours or a day or so in our northern solitude.
The Last Gentleman Adventurer
The officers and crew, for such a ship, had to be men of iron with an affection for the ship and the North. They were Newfoundlanders, accustomed to hard living, hard tack and diet of fish and potatoes if they could grow them. They liked the good food of the Nascopie, and could afford to rest and fish all winter after their six months back-breaking tour of duty. They slept in ten bunks in the forecastle, with the worst noise in the world a few inches from their heads. In rough weather even the Captain and passengers wedged themselves in blankets on the floor. In good weather, when the ship was driving into the ice and shuddering to a stop, it was a miracle that any man could sleep with his ear against the steel plating which continually cracked into unrelenting ice.
Arctic Command.
Nascopie's compliment consisted of the following (as built):
Deck Dept: Captain, First, Second,Third and Fourth Officers, Bosun, Carpenter, Donkeyman, Greasers (2), Able Bodied Seamen (8)Engine Dept: Chief Engineer, Second and Third Engineers, Firemen and Trimmers (9).Steward Dept: Purser, Chief Steward, Chief Cook, Second Cook, Cook Apprentices (2), Steward, Steward Apprentices (2)Wireless operator
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| Some of Nascopie's officers during the 1920s: left: Chief Engineer J. Ledingham; centre: Fourth Officer Frederick W. Bercham and right: Chief Steward Arthur Reed. Credit: E.G. Mack photographs, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Some of Nascopie's crew on the 1925 voyage. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
A tough ship with a crew to match, no other vessel was better built or manned to take on the toughest climate and conditions any merchantmen would encounter on her regular duties and beyond. H.B.S.S. Nascopie was ready to go to work and embark on a 35-year career like none other.
An interesting expedition will start from the Tyne shortly, when sealing steamer Nascopie will sail for the Labrador coast to engage in the seal hunt. The crew number about 250 men who are specially trained in the work trekking many miles over ice to capture seals. Nascopie is constructed as a powerful icebreaker in the event of becoming icebound.
Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 26 January 1912
Best known for "that" other maiden voyage, the year 1912 would see Nascopie's safely and efficiently accomplished with nary a press mention. Yet it would be the beginning of one of the greatest records of any British merchantman, carrying the Red Ensign to the furthest northern reaches of the Empire and, as Hudson's Bay Co. had done since 1668, forge the Eastern Arctic into the chain of British world commerce and trade. But before True North, Nascopie went seal hunting at "The Front"...
1912
One of Nascopie's best known commanders, Capt. G.H. Mack, was also both a keen photographer and an excellent writer, pursuits which uniquely documented much of Nascopie's career, starting from her earliest days with Mack, then Second Officer, aboard for her delivery voyage which he recounted in the September 1938 issue of The Beaver:
Next January, I joined the Nascopie at Swan Hunter's Yard. Capt. Smith was already there, also the full crew from Newfoundland who were to take her to the seal fishery. My first impression was what a long funnel she had. After looking around, I saw she was a very fine ship indeed; and, thank goodness, she had wooden laid above her iron decks-- a blessing among the ice and snow when the iron decks get too slippery for safety.
We left the Tyne one afternoon, and started down the North Sea. Captain Smith was ill with a bad cold. We were bound for Penarth in the Bristol Channel to bunker with Welsh coal for the seal fishery.
The Nascopie steamed well, and we went down the North Sea in great shape. The crew had considerable trouble with steering with the steam steering gear. They had been used to steering schooners and the hand gear of the old wooden sealers. Their style was 'hard up and hard down and steady.' When we arrived off the Newarp and Cross and Light ships, the traffic was very heavy. We just met the colliers bound north from the Thames and we swung and yawed like a drunken man. We passed the Newarp amidst a blowing of whistles from indignant collier skippers who were quite sure on which side we meant to pass. It looked at one time as if we were going to ram here. I tried my hardest to explain we were not in the ice pack, and to give her as little helm as possible. A mere second mate had to use diplomacy with that crew, who were all skippers and captains among themselves.
Passing Dover we nearly rammed one of the Cross Channel boats which had just left the harbour. Captain Smith's cold was worse, and he kept to his bunk.
We picked up the pilot off the Nash lighthouse, and duly docked at Penarth Dock. The doctor I got said Captain Smith had pleurisy. Captain Wayte took charge of the ship, and I took Captain Smith across England to Lincolnshire to his home at Eagle Vicararge.
The Beaver October 1938
Nascopie left the Tyne on 25 January 1912, immediately after trials, bound for Penarth, Wales, where she took aboard 1,500 tons of coal for St. John's and also the shipwrecked crew of the Newfoundland brig Bella Rosa which was lost in mid ocean the previous year.
Departing Penarth the morning of 7 February 1912, Nascopie was expected at St. John's on the 13th but on the 17th had still not arrived, the Evening Telegram that day reporting that "the offing is full of the heaviest kind of slob ice and no steamer of the ordinary kind can penetrate it, as it land locked, inside the Cape is rafting on the shore and offers an insurpassable barrier to shipping either coming or going from port. The Nascopie will likely negotiate it, but it will take her some time to do so."
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| Credit: Evening Telegraph, 19 February 1912. |
Nascopie finally came into St. John's the evening of 18 February 1912, and the next day's Evening Telegraph wrote that "To-day crowds flocked to Job. Bros. premises and inspected the new Dreadnought, Nascopie. Her tonnage is 1870 gross, 1004 nett and she carries 2600 tons deadweight. She has triple expansion engines and her builders turned out the mammoth ships Mauretania and Lusitania [sic]."
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| Credit: Evening Telegraph, 19 February 1912. |
The delivery trip was as arduous and testing enough as could be desired of a vessel that was designed and built tough and was proven on her very first voyage. The Evening Telegraph described the voyage in admiring detail:
Messrs. Job Bros. & Co.'s new sealer Nascopie, Capt. Waite, steamed into port shortly after 7 p.m. yesterday, after a voyage of 11 days from Penarth, Wales. She left there on Wednesday week, the 7th inst., and on the run out had very stormy weather all through and this tested the ship's qualities as a sea boat. She was more than up to expectations in this respect. Gales raged continuously from S.S.W. veering to N.W.. with a heavy sea but no special incident occurred. About 300 miles due east of St. John's, before the vessel came to the edge of the Banks, and the ship's qualities as an ice breaker were tested in butting and forcing her way through the heavy floes which covered the ocean. The floe consisted of the heaviest kind of slob which was rafted in some cases, the ship, however, with her superior speed and ice breaking qualifications bored her way through it, and Wednesday last at noon, as reported by a Marconigram transmitted by the Cunarder Carmania. Was 526 miles east of St. John's, and 200 miles off at 10 a.m. Friday, so that she progressed at the rate of 7 knots an hour in coming along and covering the distance of 326 miles. She would have made a fine run to port but for meeting so much ice. Saturday at 5 p.m. Motion Head, Petty Harbor, was sighted and shortly after as a thick snow storm raged the ship bore away to the E. by S. to avoid the coast which now could not be discerned owing to the storm. Yesterday morning at 8 o'clock the ship was again headed for the shore and by 11 a.m. she was off Red Head, near Torbay. At 5 p.m. after forcing her way up through the slob she was headed for the Narrows. Here the slob was rafted on the shore and several feet thick, and the ship had her work cut out for her. After an hour's hard butting she got a lead off the North Head and came full speed through the Narrows. The weather having momentarily cleared and she later berthed at the owner's piers. Capt. Waite was on the bridge from 4 a.m. yesterday until port was reached and was pretty well used up.
It was added that "The ship is speedy boat and several days rolled off 240 miles, her lowest run being 128 knots." One of Nascopie's passengers was Capt. Jas. Joy who was returning from Tyne after supervising the construction of the ship.
Nascopie was moved on 20 February 1912 to A. J. Harvey & Co. south premises to discharge her 1,500 tons of coal. On the 24th Nascopie made her first visit to Canada when she left St. John's for Louisbourg, Sydney, NS, to load coal for Job's sealing fleet and also had three passengers for the voyage. When she sailed from Louisbourg on the 28th, she had 15 passengers and 200 bags of mail, "she should arrive here to-morrow evening as she is a very powerful boat and will get through the ice which is now on the coast." (Evening Telegraph, 1 March 1912). Nascopie arrived at St. John's at 10:00 a.m. on the 3rd, "and made a fine run down to Cape Race. When in that vicinity heavy slob ice was met, but did not retard the progress of the ship." She brought 2,500 tons of coal, 200 bags of mail and eight passengers.
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| Credit: Evening Telegraph, 6 March 1912. |
Nascopie was now made ready for the seal trade. Sealing was a brutal, bloody business, not for the faint of heart ashore or afloat, hazardous in its pursuit and subject to the vageries of weather, ice and luck in the amount of success and profit it gave to the tough men who pursued it. Sealing ships, their paintwork worn off by the ice, streaked with frozen salt spray and coal ash strewn on their icy, bloody decks covered with planks to give some footing to the spiked boots of their crews, looked as bad as they smelled and it was grim first employment for a brand new vessel.
Indicative of the rigours of sealing "at the front," even the staunchly-constructed Nascopie had 2 ft. square "ice beams" fitted athwart her open holds as further strengthening. Instead of a crew of 46, she went sealing with 275, almost all seal hunters, who were accommodated in portable steerage like open berths in her 'tween decks. She had galley facilities built in her forward 'tween deck for the purpose. Planks were fitted over her teak decks to protect them from the spiked ice boots and bloody seals. She also took aboard extra lifeboats and cutters.
New, too, to the ship were her captain and crew. So specialised was the sealing trade that Nascopie, except for her engine room officers and firemen, changed her entire crew to one signed on locally by Job Bros. including the captain. Seal captains were a breed apart from high sea commanders, driving their ships hard into the ice packs of the Labrador Front, often "in the barrel" (as the crow's nest was called) spotting seal packs on the ice flows, and the finesse of navigation and ship handling played a secondary role. Indeed, on her sealing voyage, Nascopie only carried one deck officer in addition to the captain. During her pre-war sealing years (1912-15), she was commanded by one of the legendary skippers in the trade, Capt. Geo. Barbour.
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| Capt. Geo. Barbour. Credit: Newfoundland Quarterly, July 1914. |
The late winter/early spring of 1912 produced an exceptional amount of ice and St. John's, quite exceptionally, was ice-bound by early March and Nascopie and Bruce were the last enter to leave the harbour on 2 March and later inbound steamers had to put into Bay Bullis and been icebound for days.
Conditions improved to permit the sailing of that season's sealing fleet from St. John's on 14 March 1912 with Bellaventure, Bonaventure, Florizel, Adventure, Nascopie and Beothic sighted in order passing Cap Bonaventure.
It proved to be a difficult first sealing season for Nascopie and on 15 March 1912 she wirelessed that she had lost three of the four blades of her propeller and the remaining one had lost two feet, after hitting submerged ice. "All crew shifting cargo to bring boss out of water if possible. Good sign of seals, judging about 15 or 20 miles off. Very sorry, anxious time, nobody to blame. Ship carefully handled, Boethic and company gone on for the patch."
Nascopie carried a spare propeller blades for such eventualities By flooding the forward hold, her stern was raised up and the screw boss exposed and using the ice floes which surrounded her as floating platforms on which to work, the replacement blades were bolted to the boss. On 18 March 1912, she wired that three blades had been replaced and reshifting cargo and would be underway by noon. It was a remarkable example of resourceful and skillfull work on the part of her Chief Engineer James Ledingham and his small crew.
Mr. Ledingham proved as adept as recounteur as he did an engineer and like Capt. Mack, contributed extensively to The Beaver with accounts of the early days of the vessel including this account of her days sealing accompanied by his own photographs in the March 1925 issue:
The annual seal hunt from St. Johns takes place each year during the months of March and April. Early in March the ship is being made ready.
The decks are covered over with one-inch boards first. As the sealers wear boots the soles of which are studded with spikes to prevent slipping whilst on the ice, these boards are to prevent the permanent wood decks being cut up by the spikes. Bunks to hold some 250 men are built in the ‘tween-decks, the full complement of men on board being 270. Extra store-rooms are also built. For the use of the men solely a large cooking galley was built into the ship during her construction.
About forty extra boats are taken on board, and many rope ladders to assist the men climbing up and down the ship’s sides, also coils of small ropes to be cut up into suitable lengths and used by the men as hauling lines when hauling a tow of 'fat' to the ship. Each man is provided with a gaff to help him over the ice.
All the sealers are shipped on a share basis. If the trip is successful, a man’s share may be $100, and—no seals, no money. The owners advance each man an equipment, which is deducted from wages when paying off.
By March 12th all is in readiness, and on sailing day, which is March 13th, some twenty ships are moving out of the harbour amidst much excitement and blowing of whistles, each ship trying to make more noise than her neighbour. After getting outside the narrows we steam along in open water with a full head of steam, racing madly down the shore, jockeying with each other to get the lead.
Ice is next encountered, when the big ships have the advantage of being able to force their way through the pack. ‘The smaller ships try to keep in the 'wake'’ or else follow the “‘leads’’ or cracks in the ice.
Perhaps, after a day’s steaming, the first 'whitecoat,' as the young seal is called, is sighted. A sealer scrambles over the side, clubs the young seal and hauls it on board. It is taken to the captain (an experienced seal killer) and his officers. Discussion takes place as to whether this particular seal is one of the northern or southern patch of seals. After judgment is given, the tail is cut off and hung up in the saloon and success to the voyage is drunk in the usual time-honoured way. Then the ship is headed where it is thought the seals are likely to be. A good look-out is kept from the masthead and perhaps soon the cry of 'seals ahead!' is heard. Every man gets his line, knife and gaff ready and is just waiting for the order 'all hands overboard' Killing commences as once. Men drag their seals to a pan of ice, and when there are a hundred or more on it a flag is put up showing the ship’s recognized number or initial. Then another pan is made up and flagged, until for miles the ice-field may be dotted with flags.
The ship follows the men and picks up the seals on each pan in rotation. When night begins to come on, the pans have lights put on them to facilitate picking up after dark. It is often necessary to use the searchlight at night-time picking up.
About midnight the ship is stopped; the men try to snatch what sleep they can and also stow the seals on deck during the night watches. Up before day-break next morning, the same procedure is gone through until that particular patch of seals is cleaned up. Then away to hunt for another patch! If the seals are plentiful and not scattered too much, the ship may pick up a good catch in a few weeks or less.
If the young seals are not struck within a few weeks of their birth, they take to the water, when it is almost hopeless to get a load, as they have then to be shot. A young seal in a few weeks averages about fifty pounds in weight.
When a good patch of seals is struck, only enough men remain on board to work the ship along. Often I have seen the captain in the look-out at the masthead, the doctor at the wheel and chief engineer on the bridge. The cooks are generally on board and, in the midst of getting meals ready, they have to jump on the ice, ‘strap on' and drive winches. The doctor is sometimes kept very busy bandaging wounds, as most men happen to cut their hands when skinning seals, and the cuts, if not attended to, develop into nasty sores.
The fat of the young whitecoat makes the purest oil, so that it is the ambition of every ship’s crew to get as many young as possible. If a family of seals happens to be together when a sealer approaches, the 'old man' will slide into the water immediately, but the mother will stay and defend her young, often attacking and tearing a man’s clothes.
Arriving back at St. Johns, discharging takes place immediately. The skins are laid out in the sheds, the fat cut off and sent away to the culling machinery, then passed on to the vats to be rendered down. There are steam vats and sun vats. The sun vats make the purest oil, almost as clear as a glass of water.
They are generally a happy crowd, the Newfoundland sealers, playing all kinds of pranks on one another. They are very strict in their observance of Sundays at sea; I have seen the ship stopped at midnight Saturday and not started again till midnight Sunday.
Very often serious accidents occur, when ships and men pay the penalty—the wooden ships getting crushed in the ice; men getting astray the ice in snowstorms. Only a few years ago some forty men lost their lives in this way. Another ship, homeward bound, with a full load, disappeared without leaving any trace. The Nascopie herself did not come scot-free. One day, amidst the ice, the four blades were stripped from her propeller. After three days’ strenuous work, new ones were put on by the engineers and the ship managed to get a paying load.
Stowaways are always at the seal fishing, sometimes boys just beginning their teens, and when put to work take themselves very seriously. One lad, while the ship was homeward bound, happened to be down in the stokehold when the mate sent for him to come and polish brass-work. Quick as lightning came his answer: ‘You go and tell the mate polishing brass-work won’t get the ship along. I’m firing.'
It’s not always possible for even the powerful ships to force a passage through the ice, especially if fishing within sight of land with a strong in- shore wind and the ice jammed and rafted up. In company with three other steel ships, the Nascopie was held fast for sixteen days. The weather vas generally fine and the men played all kinds of games, even to pitching buttons. Mock trials are held and suitable punishment given to the unlucky offenders.
All the ships are fitted with wireless and keep tm touch with the coast stations. Lately an aeroplane has been added, and it takes a flight out over the ice to try to locate the seals, when it transmits the news to the ships.
By the end of April the last sealer is generally in and the seal fishing is over for another year.
Back on the hunt, Nascopie reported she had 6,000 seals to her credit by 22 March 1912, but on 2 April in the Belle Isle Straits, she lost another propeller blade and with the ice breaking up and stormy weather, Capt. Barbour decided to bring her home and she arrived at St. John's early on the 5th. When she finished discharging, her catch totalled 17,057 seals, the gross value being $36,000 and on the 9th her sealing screw of 270 was paid off, each receiving $43.71; "it was indeed gratifying, as the owners remarked, to see the men make such a bill considering that the ship was crippled at the early stage of the voyage" (Evening Telegram, 10 April 1912). Capt. Barbour's share of the voyage amounted to $1,421.60.
During the hunt, instead of the nice clean cargo of supplies for the Company posts, she became full of seal, hides, meat and guts. The ship became a smelly mess, and it took a thorough cleaning job with caustic soda to make her fit again for her northern voyage.
R.M.S. Nascopie, Ship of the North
Nascopie was not to remain spruce for too long and Jobs then put her to work carrying coal from Sydney, Nova Scotia, leaving there on 24 April 1912 for Botwood (north Newfoundland) where she arrived on the 29th. On 16 May she was reported at Placentia Bay discharging another cargo of coal from Sydney and on the 23rd at St. John (NB) also with coal.
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| Capt. A.C. Smith who commanded Nascopie on her first trip north for HBC and again in 1914. Credit: Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia |
Her collier duties completed, Nascopie arrived at St. John's on 13 June 1912. During her discharging, she got a new captain for her first Hudson Bay season, Capt. A.C. Smith, formerly in command of Pelican, who arrived from England to succeed Capt. Waite who went on the Beothic. On the 19th, Nascopie underwent her first drydocking and overhaul in preparation for sailing for Montreal whence she would undertake her voyage north on account of Hudson Bay Co. through September. This included a complete repainting and her Job. Bros. houseflags on her funnel were overpainted in buff when sailing for HBC.
Meanwhile, Second Officer G.H. Mack and some of the regular crew of Pelican including the boatswain and cook, left Liverpool in Allan Line's Pomeranian in May 1912 for St. John's to join Nascopie on her upcoming HBC voyage north, as he recounted years later in The Beaver, September 1938:
Arrived at St. John's, we found the Nascopie off to North Sydney for a cargo of coal. On her return, there was plenty of cleaning to do. The ice beams were put in again: these were twelve by twelve-inch pitch pine logs squared off right across the ship, in case of heavy ice dam. The ship still smelled of blubber from the seal fishing, and we had many arguments as to whether this would affect the food. However, the ship was scrubbed out with strong caustic soda by Job Brothers' shore gang.
The crew were signed on; the engine room and stewarding staff came from Newfoundland, except the cook, who had come over with use from the Pelican.
We left St. John's with many people to see us off. A voyage north in those days was still an event, and this was the Nascopie's first trip.
The trip to Montreal was uneventful; fog as usual rounding Cape Race, but it cleared up at Cape Ray. It was evening when we reached there, and the Nascopie finally let go and we had a splendid passage up to Fame Point and on to Montreal.
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| Nascopie on her maiden call at Montreal. Credit: Robert Reford photo, Archives of Manitoba |
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| Nascopie at Montreal. Credit: Flickr, Donald Gorham. |
Nascopie arrived at Montreal on 3 July 1912 and began loading for her maiden voyage "Up North" and sailed on 2 August. Second Officer G.H. Mask recorded in detail this important first trip, one of the 33 Nascopie would undertake, for The Beaver, September 1938:
The passengers started to arrive. Among them were the Fur Trade Commissioner, Mr. Hall, his daughter and sister, and with them, Captain Freakley. Ralph Parsons was returning to the Hudson Strait district, just being opened up. Mr. & Mrs. C.T. Sheppard were going to Wolstenholme. Two apprentice clerks, Chalmers and Mitchell, were destined for the Strait and York Factory. Two priests were off for Chesterfield Inlet to build a mission there. Fathers Turquetil and LeBlanc and Rev. J. Bilby were bound for Lake Harbour, Baffin Land.
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| Some of Nascopie's passengers on her first voyage North. Credit: Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia |
This was the first time all the goods for the Bay had gone up in one ship. Large as the Nascopie was, we had a very full load and a tremendous deck cargo.
After we left Father Point and dropped the pilot, we ran into fog which continued right through the Straits of Belle Isle and last up to the South Wolf Islands. There were plenty of bergs about-- not nice travelling.
We call at Cartwright and Rigolet. We had fine clear weather on the coast, and the Nascopie made good time. Leaving Cartwright for Rigolet, we went round by the Dog Rocks and inside the Puppy Reef through Packs Harbour and the Horsechaps, Tub Harbour, then into Hamilton Inlet and thence to Rigolet. From there, along the northern shore of Hamilton Inlet, through Cut Throat Tickle and north to Davis Inlet, we had fog and many bergs.
We had plenty of fog after leaving Davis Inlet, and had to go slow because of bergs. The Fur Trade Commission got impatient about this, and reminded us the ship did 14.2 on her trials. I explained that dodging bergs at full speed was unwise, as witness the Titanic affair which had happened earlier that spring. Luckily in the midst of one of these conversations, we just missed ramming a berg.
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| Map showing the route and itinerary of Nascopie on her first HBC voyage, August-October 1912. Credit: The Beaver, September 1938. |
The passengers had much amusement except reading and playing cards. The food was pretty good, and the big ice box supplied plenty of fresh meat.
There was not much ice at the entrance to Hudson Straits. What little there was, the Nascopie walked through.
Crossing to Lake Harbour, the pilot Navolia was picked up off Beacon Isle, and we went up the run through the Narrows to the post. Here S. Sainsbury, who had been wintering with the Church of England missionary, Mr. Broughton, came off. He told us Broughton had been frozen [frostbite] during the winter, and was in bad shape. In those days we had doctor aboard. I went ashore to the Mission with Captain Freakley and Rev. Mr. Bilby. Broughton had been badly frozen indeed. Captain Freakley did what he could do to make comfortable, we could do little without a doctor. Medicines and books there were in plenty, but no surgical skill. After the cargo had been landed, we took Broughton aboard with Sainsbury to help look after him. Rev. Mr Bilby remained to attend to the Lake Harbour Mission. It was decided to take Broughton to the C.G.S. Minto, surveying in Nelson Roads for the terminals of the Hudson Bay Railway then planned for Nelson. At Wolstenholme, Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard were landed, and we picked up Robert Flaherty, who was prospecting for Mackenzie and Mann. He had gone from Great Whale River across country to Fort Chimo in the winter. Leaving Chimo after the break-up, with four Eskimos, he went up the western shore of Ungava Bay as far as Leaf River, up Leaf and across the Ungave Pensinsula out into Hudson Bay, up the Bay coast to Cape Wolstenholme, around it, and then into the post in Erik Cove-- quite a trip when you come to think of it. The four Eskimos and Flaherty's canoe were also taken on board.
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| Navolio, the legendary Inuit pilot at Lake Harbour. Credit: McCord Stewart Museum. |
Churchill and Chesterfield Inlet were the next ports of all. Chesterfield had been established the year before by the Pelican, and we were anxious to learn how they got on during the winter. It had been the same at Lake Harbour. We had speculated too as to whether Navolio would take the Nascopie, a much bigger ship than the Pelican. Navolio never turned a hair not batted an eyelash, but was calm and cool. When it comes to pilots, Navolio is in the same class as old Partridge was for the Koksoak River going up to Chimo-- a pretty high class. To appreciate this, one see these places low, especially the Koksoak River.
We towed a coast boat from Churchill to Chesterfield, one that had come down from Chesterfield earlier in the summer. When we reached Chesterfield, we saw with pride the two buildings the Pelican had erected the previous year. Everything was well, and it had been a good year for fur. It was hard work landing supplies, and those for the new mission had been land in a different place from the post supplies. The post had a particularly bad beach. Humping cargo on your back, in water up to the waist, was cold work till you got used to it. The Nascopie searchlight made a vast improvement on the Pelican.
The new mission was to be one building, church and house combined. Plenty of natives had congregated, so there was lots of assistance. Most of them had been some time with Scottish and American whalers. Some had a smattering of English and well know names like Billy Bedamned, John S. Sullivan, and others not so respectable. They wanted to hold a dance but we didn't have time.
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| A lovely undated study of Nascopie... early in her career and judging from her immaculate condition and deck cargo of boats, early into a voyage at an unidentified port (the well forested hills indicate Rigolet). If you look closely, you can see the Job Bros. flags overpainted on her funnel. Credit: John M. Kinnaird photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Leaving Chesterfield Inlet, we ran into a very heavy north-easterly gale with a nasty sea about on our port beam. The sea was made worse by strong tides running. The Nascopie, having no bilge keels in those days and being a bit light, showed us exactly what she could do in the way of rolling. Furniture shot out and spread clothes on the deck. Pantry and galley were a continual clash of crockery, mingled with curses and tragic appeals to heaven from the cooks and stewards. Hearing a great uproar in the saloon about two one morning, I went down. The large upright medicine chest had been torn from its moorings and crashed over. Medicines, pills and what-nots were all over the floor in one gorgeous mixture, enough to cure and poison a regiment.
We arrived in York Roads, and got in touch by wireless with the Minto, which was surveying off the Nelson Shoal. We hove up again and went poking about that hell-hole looking for her. That afternoon, Broughton was put aboard under the Minto doctor's care, also our fourth engineer, who was very ill. That night just before dark we steamed back to York Roads and anchored.
The Fur Trade Commissioner and his party, with Captain Freakley, left us at York to up the Hayes River by canoe and out to Winnipeg. Eventually, we finished unloading in York Roads, and then loaded the returns. Couch and Shanks came out with us, their two years being finished. We left for Charlton Island. We went into Charlton Sound by going round the Lisbon Rock, and anchored outside the Bar. Miller, the pilot, came out to take us in.
This was Miller's field day. He lived on Charlton Island all winter looking after the depot, and had his wife and family with him. When be came out as pilot for a few hours Miller was boss. He was a marvel, and could handle a ship well under either steam or square-rigged sail.
We went over the Bar with two leadsmen working, and Miller exceedingly businesslike. He could dame the man at the wheel as well as any London river pilot. We went gingerly alongside the wharf, a very rickety affair which fitted at No. 2 hatch and had a home-made railway running along it.
The Nascopie was the longest ship that had ever been there, and we had a job mooring her astern. Wires to the wreck of the Sorine helped. (It was a treat to be alongside again. After work we could walk, and we trout-fishing one Sunday. We used a whiskey-jack for bait until we got trouts' eyes.) One day when I was helping sling cargo down No. 2 hold, I heard a tremendous cracking and general uproar on deck. We climbed out of the hold in time to see the last stern wire parting, a couple of deadmen being torn out by the roots. The strong spring tide had caught the Nascopie's stern and the moorings could not stand the strain. The wharf gave a tremendous heave and collapsed, and the Nascopie swung to her anchor in midstream.
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| This is what Nascopie did to the wharf at Charlton Island on her first call. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
This meant a lot of extra work. The shore gang under Miller re-erected the wharf-- a highly technical operation, but somehow they accomplished it. I had a gang putting down extra deadmen and anchors for the stern moorings for a couple of days. Then we got back to the wharf again.
When we left Charlton, we took on board Mr. Hooker and his wife and family, bound for Fort Chimo. Robert Flaherty left to out by canoe to Cochrane from Moose Factory. We would miss his entertainment in the evenings.
Any fears about the Foxe Channel ice being down were groundless. There was none in sight. Snow was on the hills at Wolstenholme, and the weather was getting colder. George Ford came aboard at Wolstenholme, and we said goodbye to the Sheppards, who were to remain for the winter. A quick trip to the mouth of the Koksoak Rivver. The four natives who had gone to Wolstenholme with Flahery belonged to Chimo: Nikki and Ambrose and Jimmy Partridge, son of old Partridge, the pilot.
When we arrived off the river the tide was exactly right. We had the other natives aboard, so Captain Smith decided not to wait for Partridge but to go on up to Chimo. Crossing the outer bar, we saw poor old Partridge making great efforts to get to the ship. The tide was then running, and we were steaming for all we were worth.
To appreciate going up the twenty-five miles from the mouth of the river to the post, one must do it. The rise and fall of the tide is over forty feet, and there are three bars to get over. The sides of the Narrows are steep. The ship is literally hurled through with the incoming tide, besides going as hard as it can steam, for a time seems to charging downhill.
We reached the post safely, and anchored. The post manager came out, and said we were anchored in the wrong place by the inside buoy. No other buoys were visible. He explained this was because the moorings of the other buoys were too short; they would be visible when the tide went down. Captain Smith's language was a joy. We sounded round, and remoored the ship in the right place.
On the last of the flood, Partridge arrived, a hurt and crestfallen man. After years of piloting the Erik and the Pelican, and perhaps the Labrador, he had been done out of the first piloting of the big new ship.
We did not go to the George River after leaving Fort Chimo, as their returns were brought around in the local schooner Fox. A dance was held ashore, attended by both Hudson's Bay Company and Revillon Freres men. Working your way through one of those evenings without missing a dance was hard work. In closely packed room were many wore native dress and seal skin boots, the air was thick.
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| Nascopie at Rigolet, Labrador, 1912. Credit: Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia |
From Chimo we left for the Labrador posts. We called at Rigolet and Cartwright. At Rigolet we had the usual goose feed in the clerk's quarters. This was the house where Lord Strathcona had lived.
We arrived in St. John's, and the first voyage of the Nascopie was over.
Nascopie arrived at St. John's 31 October 1912 to conclude a four-month, 10,000-mile maiden voyage that had been accomplished in fine style. Capt. Smith told reporters that the number and size of icebergs off the Labrador coast were the most impressive encountered on his 13 voyages to the Bay. No ice was encountered in the Bay except for a field of Arctic ice from Foxe channel which the prevailing northeast winds had driven down the southern coast of the Bay. She landed 10 passengers including Capt. Smith and a number of the crew who transhipped for Quebec to catch the next Allan Line boat to Liverpool while Second Officer Mack supervised the transfer of the valuable fur consignment to Ripon and sailed with them to Liverpool.
Back under Job Bros. management, Nascopie sailed from St. John's on 2 November 1912, under charter to the Reid Newfoundland Company for Sydney, under Capt. Drake, where she would load a backlog of freight there for St. John's. It was reported she would be drydocked on her return "to have a few plates, which were loosened by contact with ice in the northern regions, tightened." (Evening Chronicle, 4 November 1912). She also called at Port au Basques and left there on the 9th and the next day, had to hove to off Petty Harbor Motion in a hurricane "with a mountainous sea running". She docked at St. John's on the 11th, landing one passenger.
On 14 November 1912 Job Bros. announced the pay out of a bonus to Nascopie's officers and crew for their "extra work done in repairing the propeller at the Sealfishery." They were awarded $2.50 each "as a mark of the owner's appreciation."
A large amount of salmon and trout brought down from Hudson Bay by Nascopie was dispatched from St. John's on 16 November 1912 for Liverpool aboard Ripon along with her rather more valuable cargo of furs.
Job Bros. kept Nascopie busy and setting a routine for the vessel, next dispatched her to the Mediterranean with an epic cargo of Newfoundland fish. She departed St. John's on 28 November 1912 for Alicante, Spain, with 22,000 quintals of cod, worth £30,000… the largest cargo of fish yet dispatched from the port. After an "excellent passage," she arrived at Alicante on 4 December and proceeded to Naples for coaling (arriving on the 13th) and thence to Tripoli where landed the rest of her fish cargo, leaving there on the 21st for the Clyde.
1913
Nascopie arrived at Greenock on 6 January 1913 from Gabes and then proceeded to the Tyne where she was reported on the 25th at Swan Hunter for guarantee overhaul work.
Under Capt. J. Meikle, Nascopie sailed from South Shields on 16 February 1913 for St. John's with cargo of coal and arrived there on the 25th with six passengers. "The ship encountered heavy westerly gales but despite this made an exceptionally quick passage," the Evening Chronicle reported, added that the vessel "underwent a thorough renovation and a number of plates and rolling chocks adjusted." On the 28th, the paper reported just how rough a crossing it was:
Though the Nascopie made a quick run across the 'herring pond' she was not without her share of stormy weather. As the vessel began to near the Banks she had very severe weather and sea after sea came on board. A. Whiteway, a deck hand, and son of Mr. Eli Whiteway, was forward endeavoring to cover a ventilator, when one very heavy sea boarded her and swept the man aft. He was driven with force against the fore rigging, was rendered unconscious for a while and one of his legs were so seriously injured that it was thought it was broken. The man was treated by Dr. Andersen on arrival here and is lame from the effects of the injury received. The seas which swept the ship broke in the forecastle door and flooded that compartment with water which for some time was over 4 feet deep there. The men had to leave the place and sleep in other parts of the ship. Another of the crew was thrown down by the sea and cut about the head.
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| Credit: Evening Telegram, 21 February 1913. |
Nascopie (Capt. George Barbour) sailed on the annual seal hunt on 13 March 1913 in company with Beothic. It was another season of very heavy ice and on the 15th, Capt. Barbour reported his ship, Bellaventure, Bonaventure, Diana, Erik, Bloodhound and Eagle were "jammed together, trying to force westward." while Florizel and Stephano, 12 miles eastward, were in a similar position. On the 18th, Nascopie reported she had taken 15,000 seals but the ice conditions remained "terrific".
When Nascopie arrived back at St. John's on 8 April 1913, Capt. G. Barbour, "locally known as the seal hunter," gave a full report of the voyage to the Evening Telegraph:
Capt. Barbour reports a bad spring with frequent storms and gales, often hurricanes. Had not the ice broken up as early as it did the ship would have secured a big trip. The Nascopie was with the Stephano when she struck the first patch of whitecoats on March 15th. When this was cleaned up the Nascopie had 15.000 out of it or 5,000 more than the Stephano. The next day Capt. George went in quest of the main patch. After steaming in various directions for a couple of days and covering an immense area of the ocean the main body of seals was located miles S. E. of the Funks. The Stephano and Newfoundland were in the patch with their men out killing and panning. The Florizel, Eagle and Sagona were in company with the Nascopie. Thick fog prevailed rendering it unsafe to put men out on the ice; next day a terrific storm raged just while the seals were being slaughtered. The ice broke up and the Nascopie lost a number of pans. During the latter part of the voyage the ship struck a patch of hoods and got a couple of thousand out of them. On Friday last a patch of young harps were struck and 4,000 were batted.. Eli Davis, a member of the crew of the Nascopie, died during the spring. He was landed Sunday night at Pool's Inland, the late home of the deceased.
Nascopie's total for the season was 34,805 seals (second only to Stephano's 36,000), netting her 270 men $70 each. She finished unloading on 11 April 1913 and on the 19th, sailed for Sydney to begin her seasonal coal trade. That season she did so, effective with her departure for Bell Island on the 29th, under charter to Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Co. of Wabana and load coal there for Sydney. She left St. John's on the 31th for Bell Island to load iron ore for Sydney and was off by the same evening for Nova Scotia whence she would load coal for Quebec where she arrived on 8 May. She made several more roundtrips from Sydney to Quebec another roundtrip there.
A fine product of Newfoundland shipbuilding would be dispatched aboard Nascopie on her upcoming voyage to the Bay as reported by the Evening Telegraph of 16 June 1913:
Messrs. Wm., Thos. and Isaac Bowring, of Bay Roberts, built a beautiful yacht the past winter at that place and Saturday sailed her over here and moored her in Job Bros. & Co's dock. On the run over she proved herself a splendid sailer and fine sea boat. She is 32 feet long of ten tons burden and her lines are extremely pretty and remind one of the handsome creations of foreign expert builders. The yacht is decked, has a house forward for the accommodation of the crew and is a splendid model. She was built for the Hudson Bay Co., and will be sent along to the stations by the s.s. Nascopie. At Hudson Bay a powerful motor will be placed in the yacht. Yesterday hundreds visited Job Bros., premises to see her and all were delighted at this excellent display of marine architecture.
Her coaling charter concluded, Nascopie arrived back at St. John's on 19 June 1913 with a final cargo from Sydney. Commanded by Capt. Meikle, the ship sailed for Montreal on the evening of the 27th and docked there on 2 July.
The big sealer 'Nascopie' is in port to-day being berthed at Windmill Point. About the last of the week she will clear for Hudson Bay ports with supplies for the Hudson Bay ports in the Far North. The ship was here about a year ago en route to the same port, following the Boethic northward on the service. The voyage and return will require about three months.
Since her last appearance in Montreal the Nascopie has had a chequered career. She returned from Hudson Bay to Newfoundland late last fall. Then she loaded a cargo of cod for Mediterranean ports. Returning from that trip, she cleared in March last for the seal territory. She captured 32,000 skins, and then ra back to St. John's, Newfoundland. The Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company chartered the vessel for a couple of months to carry coal between Sydney and Quebec. Now, she is here to load supplies for the north again.
Capt. James Meikle is in charge of the ship being owned by Job Bros. St. John's, Newfoundland.
Western Star, 16 July 1913
This would be Capt. James Meikle's first voyage to Hudson Bay and James Bay, "but he is taking with him a master mariner who has frequently voyaged there and who will be well qualified to act as pilot whenever required," the Gazette of 13 July 1913 reported. Nascopie would first steamer to the Bay that season, followed by Beothic. After departing Montreal, Nascopie would go directly to Cartwright, Labrador, where she would rendezvous with Pelican from London and transship cargo from her for the north with Pelican proceeding to Ungava Bay and Nascopie to Churchill and other ports in Hudson and James Bays. Originally scheduled to depart on 16 July, this was put back to 18th owing to canoes and lumber still to be loaded.
Nascopie would have two clergymen and two ladies, one of whom was the wife of one of the clergymen, and the other joining her husband, an engineer in the Hudson Bay territory. In all, she had eight "passengers" which for a vessel without a passenger certificate caused a problem whose solution was explained by the Gazette of 18 July 1913: "The secret of this conspiracy and the willingness with which the captain connived at its consummation lies in the fact that the sturdy Nascopie is not licensed to carry passengers, but as she has eight passengers for the northern settlements, the difficulty was overcome by allowing them to sign on as members of the crew. In such predicament there is little room for being 'fussy' about one's calling, though the reverend gentleman on board had a perfectly legitimate calling awaiting them." So two of the clergymen were signed as "chaplain" and "asst. chaplain," the wife as a "stewardess" while Norwegian arctic explorer Christian Leden was listed as "supercargo" and three others as seamen.
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| Credit: Telegraph (Quebec City) 16 July 1913. |
As Nascopie sailed the afternoon of 17 July 1913, the Gazette wrote that she "presented the appearance of a sporting goods store. Her fore and after decks were piled high with canoes, while on board among her cargo were several large boats bearing such names as Narwhal, Ermine, Beaver, etc. Packed away in her hull were stores of all kind for the settlements on Hudson and James Bays, and beads and gaudy cloths for trading with the Esquimaux. " She also had a diary cow for one of the settlements which would be milked every day by the ship's cook so the crew could have fresh milk in their morning coffee.
Among those aboard was the Norwegian explorer Christian Leden, "setting out to make ethnographic studies among the Eskimo tribes living to the west and northwest of Hudson Bay… I had arranged to have the Nascopie take me down the Gulf of St. Lawrence, around the peninsula of Labrador, and across Hudson Bay to its western coast, where I was to be left alone with the Eskimos. After four days of rainy and foggy weather, a magnificent view of the Labrador mountains and icebergs burst through the clouds. As we glided slowly along, the gray sail of a Newfoundland fishing smack or a schooner would now and then streak the blue of the sky, but such signs of human presence grew rarer and rarer, and finally the last sail sank beneath the southern horizon. We had passed beyond the pale of civilization, and nothing but the roar of calving icebergs and the shriek of sea-gulls broke the silent desolation." American-Scandinavian Review, March-April 1918.
Nascopie encountered extensive ice fields in Hudson Strait on 8 August 1913, called at Churchill on the 25-29th and was met with more heavy off the Mansel and Digges Island on 1 October, "requiring considerable bunting to force a passage."
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| Nascopie coming into Churchill on her 1913 voyage. Credit: Hudson's Bay Company Archives, Provincial Archives of Manitoba. John Gregg. |
Indicative of just how lucrative Hudson Bay Co.'s fur trade was, when Nascopie returned from the Bay, her cargo of furs was estimated at $500,000 and was transhipped to London aboard Pelican.
Back at St. John's, Nascopie went into dry dock on 11 October 1913 "to have some plates replaced, and her propeller is also to receive attention."
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| Credit: Evening Telegram, 15 October 1913. |
One again chartered to Harvey & Co. for a big shipment of cod for Mediterranean ports, Nascopie had 20,000 quintals of fish when she departed St. John's on 21 October 1913 for Alicante. Returning home, she passed Gibraltar on 16 November. When Nascopie finally came into St. John's on the 29th, the Evening Telegram reported that she "had good weather until Sunday last when a strong northwesterly gale and snowstorm was experienced. The ship was then 500 miles off St. John's and for the next three days very little progress was made as the weather was terrific. Yesterday morning the Nascopie was seventy miles off port but could not venture to come in owing to the thick snow storm that raged and had to put to sea again. The vessel throughout behaved splendidly and never sustained the slightest damage. She brought a cargo of salt from Santa Polo."
It was briefly back to the Sydney coal run for Nascopie which sailed from St. John's on 4 December 1913. But new horizons seemingly beckoned and on the 8th another charter to Harvey & Co. was announced which would see her dispatched "to Brazil" with a cargo of fish. But on the 24th when she was reported to be loading fish, her destination was "the Mediterranean" and she left on the 27th with a record 30,000 quintals of codfish worth $250,000 and two passengers.
1914
After a "fine run" from St. John's, Nascopie arrived at Alicante on 8 January 1914 and proceeded to Trapani where she was reported on the 23th to be loading salt for Halifax and sailed on the 28th. She arrived the Nova Scotian port on the 18th after "a terrific passage" with heavy seas shipped and damage done to deck fittings. Upon her arrival at Halifax, the Sydney Record had a feature on Nascopie:
With a load of salt from Trapani, Italy, the Newfoundland sealing steamship Nascopie, arrived at Halifax yesterday. Despite the stormy weather prevailing on the Atlantic. It is believed the Nascopie will not be delayed by adverse conditions as she is one of the staunchest ships, afloat. She was built on an entirely new model about tour years ago. She is essentially a sealer and her frames and plates are of unusual strength to enable her to break through the icefields as she must when seeking seals. In fact, the bow and sides of the Nascopie are tougher than those of a dreadnought.
Nascopie proceeded from Halifax to Louisburg to load coal for the sealing fleet and arrived home on 4 March and work had to be rushed to fit her out for the sealing season.
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| Credit: Evening Telegram, 11 March 1914. |
Nascopie sailed on 13 March 1914 and had William Coaker, advocate for the Newfoundland fisherman and editor of the radical newspaper The Fishermen's Advocate, aboard as a correspondent. As leader of the Fishermen's Party in the Newfoundland House of Assembly, he had fought passage of the Sealing Bull to ensure decent conditions aboard the sealing ships. Job Bros. arranged to have Coaker sail in Nascopie, as an exemplar of the sort of ship and conditions aboard, food and accommodation, that he had championed. Yet, as so often with the seal hunt, weather and fortune played more of a part and his daily log was soon devoted to weather when by the 26th, the ships were in heavy ice and that season would witness one of the worst tragedies in Newfoundland history when 132 sealers belonging to the Newfoundland became stranded on a ice floe in appalling weather conditions resulting in the death of 78. This was followed by the sinking of Southern Cross, returning from the seal hunt, with the loss of all 173 aboard. "Out of a total population of about 250,000, Newfoundland had lost 251 men in the prime of life; confidence in the industry never recovered." The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914.
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| Her crew working to free Nascopie from the ice, 17 March 1914. Credit: Newfoundland Quarterly. |
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| Showing the strains of a very difficult and tragic 1914 sealing season, Nascopie photographed on her way back to St. John's. Note the distinctive dual houseflags of Job Bros. at her mainmast. Credit: Newfoundland Quarterly. |
Nascopie returned to St. John's on 8 April 1914, the city reeling from the news of the disasters. One sealer aboard Nascopie learned he had lost his two sons aboard Newfoundland. Nascopie came home with 18,131 seals to her credit, the total take valued at $38,388, earning each man a $46.87 share.
The ship then took up her coaling trade to and from Sydney via Bell Island, Newfoundland, to load ore. Nascopie arrived back at St. John's on 31 May 1914 from Sydney and after she discharged her cargo of coal, was given a "thorough overhaul" before sailing for the St. Lawrence and she was drydocked.
Once again under the command of Capt. A.C. Smith, Nascopie sailed from St. John's on 20 June 1914, and docked at Windmill Point, Montreal, on the 26th.
Though her registered tonnage is only about a thousand, she will carry a cargo of 3,000 tons, including needles, sewing machines, grammophones, tents, all varieties of general provisions, as well as clothing, several pigs and a number of fowls, whilst a good portion of the deck space will be taken with canoes, all of which are consigned to different Hudson Bay posts.
Gazette, 6 July 1914
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| A fine photograph of Nascopie sailing from Montreal on her 1914 voyage Up North: note the pile of canoes atop her poop deck house and that she still flies the dual houseflags of Job Bros. at her mainmast. Credit: Brantford Daily Expositor, 8 July 1914. |
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| Passengers and well-wishers aboard Nascopie prior to sailing. Credit: Brantford Daily Expositor, 8 July 1914. |
When she sailed for the North, Nascopie had six passengers and the only woman was a lady bound for Cartwright, Labrador, to be married and signed on as "a stewardess."
Back home, Nascopie arrived at St. John's on 16 October 1914 having left on 27 June, and came directly from Port Chimo. She left in peace and returned amidst war, although nothing spoke of the absolute dominance of British naval power than Nascopie, like so many British merchantmen, still plying "their lawful occasions" and the True North was resolutely Strong and Free and her operations were initially unaffected by hostilities. But no chances were taken and a German seaman who took passage in the ship from York Harbour, said to have deserted from the German Navy, was arrested and another German national arriving in the ship was "under police surveillance." The ship's officers, crew and passengers did not learn of the outbreak of the war until arrival at Fort Churchill on 20 August. In all she landed 23 passengers including Supt. DeMerca of the North-West Mounted Police and family
Capt. Meikle reports that going north very heavy ice was experienced. On the way to Port Chimo impenetrable barriers were met. Weather conditions were very bad continuously the atmosphere was intensely cold and seldom the temperature was above zero. Occasionally a terrific storm was encountered but did not delay the progress of the ship. Coming south conditions were better but not as favourable as expected and indications point to a very severe winter in the northern region the naecopie brought up a quantity of furs and a couple of Hudson Bay Co. officials who will leave for Montreal in the course of a day or two
Evening Telegraph, 16 October 1914
With Red Cross Line's Florizel taken up temporarily for trooping (she helped take the first section of the Newfoundland Regiment to England), it was mooted in the Evening Telegraph of 18 October 1914 that Nascopie or Bonaventure might be chartered to make one trip on the Red Cross service to New York.
With publication of ship movements now censored, Nascopie's subsequent voyages are less easy to determine but on 30 October 1914 she was reported to have passed Cape Race inbound to St. John's where she arrived late that day from North Sydney with coal.
A charter, however, was forthcoming and on 31 October 1914 it was reported Nascopie would be once again bound for Mediterranean with "the largest shipment of fish for the season."
Pelican arrived at St. John's on 1 November 1914 and would load Nascopie's cargo of furs, adding what she already had from her own Hudson Bay voyage, and take them to London. Nascopie, loaded with a record 33,600 quintals of codfish, sailed for Naples and Piraeus on the 19th, days late owing to torrential rains delaying her loading. The cargo, a new record dispatch from the port, was valued at $250,000. She also took with her one passenger. She reached Alicante on 1 December and left Piraeus on the 14th and proceeded to Torreviega to load salt for the trip home where she arrived on 9 January 1915 after a very rough 16-day passage, Capt. Meikle called "one of the worst trips he had ever made. "
1915
Nascopie sailed from St. John's on 16 January 1915 for North Sydney where she coaled and proceeded to Halifax where she and Beothic would load deals for Britain. Nascopie arrived at Liverpool on 10 February and Beothic at Glasgow after 11-day passages from Halifax. Released from government charter, both were reported headed back to St. John's on the 17th, Nascopie sailing on the 27th from Liverpool laden with coal.
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| Credit: Mail & Advocate, 11 January 1915. |
Arriving at St. John's at 11:00 a.m. on 8 March 1915, Capt. Meikle reported a fast nine-day run and was off Cabot Tower the previous morning when ice was encountered and after "strenuous butting" was able to enter harbour. Putting alongside Job's South Side pier, Nascopie was immediately prepared for her annual sealing voyage.
Putting out on 11 March 1915, Nascopie and the rest of the fleet encountered some of the worst ice conditions experienced in many seasons. During almost the entire period, 13 March to 20 April Nascopie, Beothic and Florizel were within ten miles of Fogo Island most of the time. A northeast wind had driven the ice onto the land and the seals were close to land, making it necessary for the ships to enter the ice and caught in it. All the time the ships were within ten miles of hundreds of seals.
On 17 March 1915 Nascopie reported that "all steel ships in sight jammed five miles south Funks. Light breeze from N.W. tight ice as far as can be seen. Impossible to move without change." In the end, they had to dynamite the ice to get the ships free and on the 19th Nascopie reported she was off Fogo in "thick weather" and this continued for several days when on the 23rd she, along with the other ships, was "jammed all day, tight ice as far as can be seen." On 2 April she wired she had "steamed two miles in a crack." By the 7th, she was finally in the clear. On the 12th, Capt. Barbour reported he and five others rescued seven men from Neptune who became stranded from the ship by lakes of water around the floes . After another crack opened up, all 13 men were left marooned and had to be rescued.
A dismal hunt concluded by another rescue, this time towing Neptune, which broke her propeller, back to St. John's where they arrived on 17 April 1915. Nascopie's take for the hunt amounted to 1,100 pelts and Neptune had but 100. For their efforts, her crew received $2.65 each share of the $2,151.00 net value of the haul.
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| Capt. G.H. Mack. Credit: McCord Stewart Museum. |
Capt. George Edward Mack (1887-1941), who would play such a part in the story of Nascopie (and as recalled, from her inception), rose to Captain in January 1915 and commanded Pelican. In May he was appointed to Nascopie to take her North that year and would remain her commander through October 1917.
Once again chartered to the British Government, Nascopie left St. John, NB, on 6 May 1915 with a cargo of deals, for Browhead, England "where she will get orders" and arrived there on the 17th. On 19 June she was reported having left Newport and in the Bristol Channel, destination: Gibraltar with a cargo of coal where she arrived on the 22nd. She then proceeded to Cadiz to load salt, a vital commodity for Newfoundland's fishing trade and then in very short supply owing to the war, and reported loading there on 3 July. Her departure on the 10th was well reported in the St. John's press, and her "arrival will be eagerly awaited by fishermen generally on account of the salt famine." (Evening Telegraph). After being away for nearly three months, Nascopie returned to St. John's on the evening of the 19th after putting in an exceptionally fast passage and with 2,025 tons of salt in her holds.
It had been rumoured that Nascopie, together with Adventure and Beothic might be engaged to carry a large backlog of 12,000 tons of copper from Tilt Cove, Newfoundland, to New York. Instead, on arrival back, it was stated Nascopie would be again be destined for Hudson Bay.
Nascopie (Capt. G.E. Mack) sailed for Montreal on 24 July 1915. This would be Capt. Mack's first trip up north, and would relieve Capt. Meikle who went to command Neptune during the duration of the Bay voyage. Nascopie docked at Montreal on the 29th and began loading for the North
When the Hudson Bay steamship Nascopie, which arrived in port yesterday afternoon, leaves again it will be with just the varied assortment of cargo which suit Eskimos for utilitarian and decorative purposes and which will please the small but venturous body of whites scattered about Hudson's Bay to teach, preach to and, principally, trade with the northern aborigines. That is, it covers nearly every requirement of the human race, from music and literatures to guns and beads. Passengers will be carried, perhaps a dozen, and in that dozen it is whispered that there will be a small body of missionaries who will devoted their lives or an important part of them, to making or keeping the Eskimos good Christians.
Gazette, 30 July 1915
The wireless officer on Nascopie's voyage north, Douglas R.P. Coats, contributed a three-part account of the voyage to Wireless World and Radio Review, April-June 1917 affording detail on a voyage not well documented at the time.
Nascopie sailed from Montreal at 6:30 a.m. on 2 August 1915, "her decks piled high with canoes and small boats. The latter includes the steam launch Don, which in its better days had been a pinnace in the Royal Navy, and the motor boat Jean."
Aug. 9th.-A dull morning. We awoke to find ourselves crushing through loose-packed ice. On our port side lay a rugged coast, which, viewed through a telescope, appeared to be quite bare of vegetation. We attempted to reach Port Burwell by way of Grey Straits, but finding the ice here too heavy, we forced our way through the more broken field to the northward. The "Buttons," a group of small islands on our port side, now gave us an opportunity of inspecting the land in this region more closely, and we were able to make out straggly patches of moss. Early in the afternoon we arrived off Port Burwell and announced our presence by repeated blasts on our steam whistle, the sound rolling among the snow-flecked hills around the bay. A solitary seal raised its head above the surface, glanced at us, and dived, coming up again some distance away. At last a kayak was sighted coming out to meet us, and then a second and a third appeared, tiny specks on the glassy water of the bay. More followed, until a flotilla of ten in all could be seen.
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| "Nascopie in the ice"... a poor quality photo of interest for showing that she was still in peacetime livery for her 1915 voyage. Credit: Douglas R.P. Coats photograph, Wireless World & Radio Review. |
Nascopie continued to Lake Harbour (11-14 August 1915) where, on approach she came to the aid of powered schooner Darrel which had been drifting for 10 days in the ice and towed her into port. At Wakeham Bay (15-16) " one of our rafts was swamped in the evening, luckily near the shore. The two boats of which it was constructed filled and sank, wetting the cargo and tumbling several passengers into the icy water. All reached shore, however, and managed to beach the raft and bale out the boats." Cape Dorset was made on the afternoon of the 19th and when Nascopie sailed on the 21st, "a big row-boat put out from shore with a varied and highly scented assortment of Eskimo families and dogs, also a white polar bear. Capt. Mack was taking the later to St. John's with the intention of presenting it to Bowring Park." York Harbour proved the most challenging of all with poor weather that kept her there 13 days as she could only work cargo as conditions permitted and a large tug carried as deck cargo, hit the ship's side as it was being unloaded and sank.
At 9:00 pm. on 21 August 1915 Nascopie arrived at Wolstenholme and after she sailed on the 23d, "our white polar bear broke loose in the afternoon, and after devouring several 'tinkers' [an Arctic auk or duck] which had been shot on the previous day by Capt. Mack, it started on a tour of the deck. Our second officer managed to throw a noose about Bruin's next and lead him back to captivity." Arriving at Churchill on the 25th, Nascopie anchored at the mouth of the river and managed to lose one anchor and 75 fathoms of cable when a bad link broke. The steam launch Don was put to work on the 29th dragging for the lost anchor which was found by dusk and hauled back aboard. Nascopie sailed the next morning and came into Chesterfield Inlet the evening of the 31st. "We left Chesterfield at about 5 p.m., steering roughly by the sun, the compass being useless."
Nascopie called at Charlton on 24-30 September 1915, Wolstenholme on the 5 October and although off the mouth of the Kaoksook River on the 8th, tidal conditions did not permit her go up the river to Fort Chimo until the 10th. After 12 weeks, Nascopie returned to St. John's on the 18th.
All that adventure was followed by the usual "filler" in Nascopie's annual routine when she sailed on 21 October 1915 for North Sydney to load a cargo of coal but on this she managed to distinguish herself, putting in a 33-hour run back to St. John's were she docked on the 25th. She then commenced the loading of yet another record shipment (35,000 quintals worth $308,000) of cod for the Mediterranean and sailed on 2 November for Alicante (reached on the 13th after a 14-day run) and Naples (18). She left there for England on the 29th
Nearly all our steel sealing steamers are getting taken up by the Russian Government. The Nascopie is hired and the Beothic is sold. The Bonaventure and Bellaventure are as good as sold and the Adventure will likely also be purchased. $290,000 was the high price obtained for the Beothic and the others will doubtless go for equally large amounts.
Harbour Grace Standard, 12 November 1915
Nascopie, however, would not be returning to Newfoundland with salt as usual and on 23 November 1915 it was reported that she was en route to England and "she is now going on a six months charter for which big freight rates are being offered, and the ship is not expected to return to St. John's before some time in June next." (Daily Telegraph, 23 November 1915).
There were few more consequential military treaties than Franco-Russian Alliance of 1892 which was directly responsible for the outbreak of the Great War 22 years later. It even materially impacted the "steel sealing fleet" of Newfoundland, Hudson Bay Co. and Nascopie. As an ally, Imperial Russia was of value only in number of men on the Eastern Front and lacking in everything else to prosecute a modern war. However, it had almost unlimited gold reserves to purchase what it needed, and France was obligated by treaty to supply, but with its Baltic and Black Sea ports effectively cut off by Germany and Turkey, Russia's only remaining outlet to the sea were the Arctic ports of Murmansk and Alexandrovsk which however lacked rail connections into western Russia. This left Archangel on the Dwina River, at the entrance to the White Sea, which was impassable from late autumn to spring by ice.
France, too, was hard pressed to conduct a global war and aid Russia with almost no merchant marine or chartering experience. So it was that France, bound by treaty to provide Russia with vitally needed modern munitions and equipment as well as needing Russian grain supplies, turned to Newfoundland's unique steel icebreaking merchantmen and Hudson Bay Co.'s organising skill.
Hudson Bay Co. and the French Government inked a contract in 1915 which was one of most far reaching in the logistics of the war and the most unappreciated. Hudson's Bay Co. was appointed the purchasing agent for all of the goods of war for the French military adminstration, exports of arms and munitions to its allies, specifically Russia and Rumania, and the imports of grain and flour and other foodstuffs from those countries to France. From 1915-19, HBC transported 13 mn. tons of cargo carried in the course of 350 voyages, steaming over 2.5 mn. miles in a fleet that totalled 1 mn. tons deadweight, managed by the newly formed Bay Steamship Co. By December 1919. HBC had 143 steamers and 43 sailing ships totalling 940,000 dwt.
All of this was accomplished by keeping the narrow channel into Archangel passable during the long winter and prompted an urgent need for icebreakers and merchantmen capable of navigating in ice.
Using a small portion of its immsense gold reserves, Imperial Russia proceeded to purchase almost the entire Newfoundland steel sealing fleet by the end of 1915. It first acquired the Canadian Govenment icebreakers Earl Grey and Minto, then the Reid Newfoundland Company's Bruce and Lintrose and A. J. Harvey's Bellaventure, Bonaventure and Adventure and Job Bros.' Beothic. Not only were the prices offered irresistible, but in the wake of the Sealing Disaster of 1914 and the poor results of the 1915 season, sealing could wait for better times and better luck. Indeed, the only icebreaking merchantmen that the Russians did not manage to buy were the Bowring Bros.' Florizel and Stephano... and Nascopie.
Mindful of the necessity, war or no war, of supplying their northern trading posts, a capability only Nascopie could satisfy, Hudson Bay Co. resisted Russian offers of $397,000 (later raised to $485,680) for a ship that cost $99,000 to build three years previously, whilst Job Bros. were more than content to part with the ship as they already had with Beothic. Instead, Hudson Bay Co. would charter the ship to the Russians outside the July-November supply run, and buy out Job Bros. 103 shares in the Nascopie Steamship Co. for $118,187.
This left Nascopie entirely owned by HBC, Job Bros. out of the sealing trade for the duration and all the richer for it, and allowed HBC to honour both their commitments to the French and to their northern outposts. It also ensured that Nascopie remained in the care of her owners and original officers and crew during her Russian commitments which was just as well given all of the other "steel sealers" except Beothic were lost by the Russians.
As for Nascopie, after delivering her fish in Spain, she proceeded to Gibralter to coal and then sailed to Swansea. There, her Job Bros. crew, including Capt. Meikle, were paid off, except for Chief Engineer Ledingham and Second Engineer Black, and Capt. G.H. Mack assumed command. Re-registered now under Hudson Bay Co. and her port of registry changed from St. John's to London, Nascopie was drydocked, overhauled and painted grey. She was also armed with a single three-inch gun aft, dating from 1857, and used black powder. It was just as well she would find herself more up against more familar appalling weather and sea conditions not to mention the vageries of British, French and Russian military bureaucracy than the German fleet.
On 16 December 1915 the Evening Telegram reported that Capt. Meike and the crew of Nascopie, "which is now under charter to the Russian Government, are now on their way here from the Old Country, having left Liverpool on the S.S. Pretorian, Friday last." (10th). Her captain and crew returned to St. John's on Christmas Day.
Nascopie sailed from Liverpool for Brest on 22 December 1915, to. load munitions and war materials for Alexandrovsk.Arriving at Brest, Nascopie was readied for war service, so to speak, painted in grey and "armed" with an ancient 4-inch naval gun mounted aft, and commanded by Capt. G.E. Mack with his Chief Engineer and most of the engine room crew remaining.
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| Nascopie at Brest on 28 December 1915 loading munitions and war supplies for Russia. Note that her funnel is half repainted grey and that section seen from the pier is still in the original buff with the Job Bros. flag devices which were eventually removed. Credit: The Beaver. |
1916
On 3 January 1916, Nascopie sailed from Brest for Alexandrovsk, and Capt. Mack soon discovered more frustrations and foes in his British and Russian compatriots than the Germans. Nascopie was challenged off Iceland by a British cruiser thinking she was a German raider and upon entering Alexandrovk Roads, the Russian harbour master who insisted in conning her into the harbour, put Nascopie onto an uncharted rock. Holed and leaking water, she landed her cargo and headed to Cardiff for drydocking by Bute Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Ltd., where she arrived on 22 February and finally left on 13 March.
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| Map showing the region of operations for Nascopie and the other former Newfoundland icebreakers in Russia's White Sea and Arctic with Archangle at the lower right, at the mouth of the Dwina River and the entrance of the White Sea and at the top left, Murmansk and Alexandrovsk on the Barents Sea. Credit: The Beaver, June 1939. |
Russian Admiralty order no. 61, 18 March 1916, put Nascopie at the disposal of the Icebreaker Service, and Capt. Mack and her British crew had new masters. Ice is not just ice, and as the White Sea is almost fresh water, fed by the Dwina and Onega Rivers, it freezes earlier and harder than salt water and Nascopie and her fellow Newfoundland "steel sealers" had a chance to prove their abilities and toughness on many occasions to keep the passage free from Archangel to Cape Orloff. When not so employed, they carried war cargoes between Murmansk and Alexandrovsk.
Nascopie went to work, serving as an ice breaker when needed and carrying munitions and other war cargoes between Alexandrovsk and Murmansk and venturing into the White Sea as far as Archangel. She made two roundtrips from Brest to the White Sea, outbound with munitions and back with grain.
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| Nascopie comes to the assistance of the icebound French auxiliary cruiser Champagne carrying the French Deputy Prime Minister and Armaments Minister in May 1916. Credit: romanovempire.org |
When returning from Archangel in mid May, 1916, she cleared the way through the heavy ice for the French auxiliary cruiser Champagne (the former AMC Oropesa), aboard which French Deputy Prime Minster René Viviani and Minister of Armaments Albert Thomas were returning to France after a conference with the Russian Government as recounted by Capt. Mack in The Beaver, December 1938:
On one trip from Archangel to Murmansk the Nascopie came up to the French auxiliary cruiser Champagne being helped through the ice by the Iceland. We passed on, and then a wireless came from the captain of the Champagne. Would we help him to get through? The Iceland didn't seem to be able to handle the job. We went back and spent about four to five hours cutting out the Champagne. The Bergen route to Newcastle being closed on account of submarines, the Champagne had on board M. Viviani, Premier of France, and Albert Thomas, the French Minister of Munitions. Both men, bundled in coon coats, were interested spectators in the cutting-out operations.
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| Nascopie breaking through the ice alongside Champagne. Credit: romanovempire.org |
The Nascopie was in fine trim, being just more than two-thirds loaded with timber for Murmansk or Alexandrosk, and she handled well. We would come up at full speed alongside the Champagne within a few feet of her sides. We were lucky and never touched her. During this time the Iceland was laying off the starboard bow of the Champagne at right angles to her, about a half-mile off. When we had loosened the Champagne, I worked ahead of her, cleared a way, and when on when all seemed right. I blew for the Champagne to come ahead, which she started to do. This seemed to wake the Iceland up; she went ahead and pushed a large floe right before the Champagne and jammed her in again. All this work for nothing! There are times when the heart is too full for words. The Iceland then took a hand in the game, but didn't have much success. She was light, longer than the Nascopie, with about the same power, but the Russian lieutenant in change didn't know anything about ice-breakers. The Nascopie lay and watched manoeuvres until I thought we had better leave the Iceland to her own job. We got underway, only to have a wireless from the Champagne to go back to here. I went about the cruiser and saw the captain, to whom I explained I was quite willing to try and get them to open water, but it was better that the Iceland leave us alone to do it.
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| Nascopie alongside Champagne with Iceland in the background.Credit: romanovempire.org |
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| Another view of Nascopie alongside Champagne. Note the gun platform aft. Credit: romanovempire.org |
Who was to explain this to the Russian officer? M. Viviani undertook to do this. The Russian lieutenant came aboard and there was a painful interview. I remember feeling horribly untidy in a rather worn sealskin coast that was made at Lake Harbour in Baffinland and given me by Bishop Flemming. My riding breeches were soiled and the sealskin boots had an aroma distinctly their own. The Russian was a superior person, neatly dressed in uniform, with polished boots, and the usual little dinky sword and flowing cape over the lot. He glared at me and puffed and strutted. After much argument in French, the Nascopie was to have a try.
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| Nascopie clearing a lead through the ice ahead of Champagne. Credit: romanovempire.org |
Without going to detail, in about thirty hours we had the Champagne in open water and through the ice. The captain of the Champagne followed us like a lion. I am afraid the Champagne leaked considerably forward on arrival at Brest, but there was no serious damage done. Before we parted, the Champagne captain thanked us formally-- I was a filthy sight, sooty and unshaven from having been the barrel most of the time. Later, in Brest, we saw out pictures in L'Illustration, and were rather conceited.
After discharging her timber at Murmansk, Nascopie sailed from Simeonovo on 29 May 1916. Before it got much later in the season, it was time to get Nascopie back to Britain and then off to Canada for that year's outfit delivery. She proceeded to Brest to load a cargo of flax and then on Cardiff to dry dock, all of which took weeks to accomplish with the delays at Brest waiting for the flax to appear and more time spent waiting for dry dock space in Cardiff. On 16 July she entered Roath Dry Dock at Cardiff for overhaul by Cardiff Channel Dry Docks & Pontoon Co., Ltd.
After a seven-day crossing from Cardiff, Nascopie returned to St. John's on 30 July 1916 in ballast, and in the words of Capt. Mack, "Nascopie did some tall rolling" whilst the Evening Telegraph noted. "She is now flying the flag of the Hudson Bay Co., her present owners."
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All the crew of the Nascopie are elated at the prospect of being once more bound for Hudson's Bay, the chief steward stating that the trip would add five years to any man's life. Unless tied up in the ice, it is expected that the Nascopie will be able to visit Montreal port again before the navigation season closes.
When the Nascopie sails for the northland, she will have a small party of Royal Northwest Mount Police aboard, who, with three years' provisions, special sleds, and a motor boat capable of carrying all the supplies and sufficient gasoline to cover 500 miles without entering a port, are to search for two Eskiimo murderers.
Gazette, 8 August 1916
After coaling, Nascopie also loaded several large boats built in Newfoundland for carrying ashore cargo at Hudson Bay ports and then sailed to Montreal where she arrived on 6 August 1916.
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| Nascopie at Charleton Sound, c. 1916. Note her gun aft. Credit: Archives of Manitoba. |
Nascopie sailed for the North on 11 August 1916, a good month later in the season than customary owing to the extingencies of wartime. Nascopie made "a fairly good trip to Port Burwell where she met the smaller HBC schooners from Fort Chimo to transship cargo. She then proceeded to Lake Harbour, Stupart's Bay, Cape Dorset and Wolstenholme. "On arrival at Wolstenholme, they reported a ship had been seen on fire from the cliffs on the Bay side, about three days before our arrival. I spent a day cruising with the Nascopie around Digges Island, and between Digges and the mainland, to see if any sign could be seen of survivors, but nothing was found. Later, I believe Lofty Stewart told me he had found the bones and clothing of some men and a boat on Coats Island." (Capt. Mack, The Beaver, December 1938).
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| Nascopie at Wakeham Bay, c. 1916. Credit: Archives of Manitoba. |
The weather began to deteriorate and already late in arriving at Churchill where Fort York had been waiting for her to take supplies on to York Factory, a strong northeast wind delayed cargo working for a week. At Chesterfield, Nascopie unloaded the fine motorboat Lady Borden for the RCMP detachment there, but that evening what Capt. Mack called "one of the worst southeasterly gales I have seen in Hudson Bay came on with rain and sleet, and it was with great difficulty the Nascopie hung to her anchor." On sailing, "Nascopie struck her nose into a beast of a sea, which shook the deck cargo up. Around Promise Island, and northwards to the mouth of the Inlet, the sea was breaking like a veritable hell hole." Nascopie made it to York Roads on 28 September 1916 where more excitement ensued as recounted by Chief Engineer J. Ledingham in The Beaver, December 1922:
An Adventure in Landing —
Supplies at York
By J. LEDINGHAM
Chief Engineer, H.B.S.S. Nascopie
TO those in the Service who are not actually acquainted with the transport of goods to the different posts around the shores of Hudson Bay, one of the many incidents which add a little excitement to the trip around the bay might be of interest.
At all the posts the H.B.C. supply ship must drop anchor anywhere from one to fifteen miles from the shore, with the exception of Charlton island, the depot for James Bay district.
Charlton boasts a little pier at which the ship discharges her goods. At all other posts the cargos are loaded on lashed boats and towed to shore by the ship’s steam launch. York Factory had a hundred-ton motor schooner and also an obsolete eighty-ton steam-boat. At York Factory the supply ship had to lie fifteen miles from the post.
In 1916 the season was far advanced when the ship arrived at York Roads.
On District Manager Patterson’s arrival on board, he asked Captain Mack if he and the ship’s engineer would put this little steamer, the Mooswa, in commission to assist the motor schooner Fort York. Captain Mack agreed, and, with the chief and third engineers of the Nascopie, went to York Factory, and in a day and a half had the Mooswa under way. The Mooswa had made two trips from the ship to the post, and on the third day lay loaded alongside the Nascopie at midnight waiting to leave in time to get over the bar of the Hayes river at high water.
It was perfectly calm at that time, but before 2 a.m. a gale sprang up. The Mooswa was bumping heavily against the Nascopie, so we decided to get under way at once.
We had six Indians, and Charlie, pilot, a negro fireman from the ship, Captain Mack, the chief and third engineers and eleven hands. We first managed to scramble on board the Mooswa. She broke adrift. It was blowing very hard. We got the engine started at once. In the heavy rolling the mast- head light went out. We learned afterwards that the people on board the Nascopie thought we had foundered, as it was a very dark night and nothing could be seen. We decided to run before the gale. It was useless to make for the river, as the Mooswa had not sufficient power.
About half an hour after we left the ship a sea tore away the bunker hatches, washed a lot of coal into the bilges and flooded the stokehold.
We could not keep the bilges free and the water gradually rose as the seas were pouring overboard. The negro fireman was at this time feeling in the water for lumps of coal to keep the fire going. The water rose higher and put the fire out, but we still kept the engine going as long as the steam lasted.
Finally we had to leave the engine room and get on top of the boiler. During all this time Captain Mack was at the wheel, drenched to the skin as the water poured over him.
The foremost derrick swung over and knocked him into the scuppers. We managed to get a bit of sail rigged up to keep our craft steady and drove before the gale all night. Old Charlie, the pilot, kept'on sounding with a pole and saying, ‘‘No good, no good, too much water.”
At last we felt a bump, then another, and sighed with relief as we realized we were getting into shoal water. The seas pushed us on until we were hard aground. Not till then did Captain Mack leave the wheel.
All hands stowed in the tiny forcastle until dawn. The Indians said we were then thirty miles to the east of the Hayes river.
We stayed on board until about 11 a.m. when the tide fell. We then made ready to leave the Mooswa, as she was badly smashed up after bumping so long on the bottom. We took a sack of flour, some bacon and tea and the frying pan, also a tarpaulin to make a shelter at night. Fortunately we all had heavy mackinaws, as without them we should all have fared badly.
We had some miles to walk through the soft mud of the shore and muskeg, afterwards wading across rivers up to our waists in icy water with our clothes freezing hard on us. As it got dark early, we could not reach the shelter of the bush and that night had to camp on wet ground under the tarpaulin.
After lighting a fire, getting dried and making tea, we tried to sleep, but a cold wind was blowing and we had only one blanket, under which five of us were huddled. During the night it snowed heavily, covering us with snow.
We walked all the next day, camped at night in the shelter of the bush and kept a big fire going two days and three nights. We pushed on until we came to a river that was impossible to ford, so we stayed on the shore, made camp and sent two Indians out to York Factory in a canoe.
The next afternoon we were delighted to see the canoe returning. Mr. Patterson had sent us skin boots and socks and plenty of provisions, also a mysterious bottle labeled ‘‘Walker.”’ After a good tuck-in, we embarked in the canoe for York Factory. Mr. Patterson and the staff received us with open arms and treated us royally. We were tired and dirty, but none the worse for our experience. After a wash and a good night’s rest we left on the Fort York for the Nascopie and relieved the tension there, as they had not heard any- thing of us for five days. Naturally they were pleased to see us back, but we often wondered if the mate and the second engineer were not a little disappointed, as they might have become captain and chief respectively.
It was now so late in the season that Capt. Mack had real concerns he would meet heavy ice in the Foxe Channel at the west entrance to Hudson Strait and possibly be iced in for the winter. So much so, that he took York Factory's spare winter clothing for his crew just in case. Charlton was reached on 10 October 1916 after encountering heavy snow squalls in James Bay. There, Nascopie transshipped cargo to Inenew for Moose Factory and took on 75 tons of coal and did not leave until the 16th. When one of the main bottom crank ends began to run hot and melted out, Nascopie had to anchor (in 20 fathoms) for seven hours whilst repairs were effected and fortunately she the correct spare aboard. Foxe Channel was not badly iced but Wolstenholme Bay was and it snowed for two days at Lake Harbour where the Inuit Pilot Navolia brought her in as usual, taking his family and dogs in the boat with him. Partridge, another of Nascopie's favoured Inuit pilots, took her into Fort Chimo and the ship got quite a reception as recounted by Captain Mack:
As we rounded Whale Head and came into sight of the post, we blew the siren. The whole settlement seemed to burst into life and go mad. I could even hear the Eskimo shouting Omiaksuak [big ship], as I stood on the bridge. They fired guns, and clambered around the boats to launch into the water. We had arrived, even if late.
We had a good run to abreast of Burwell, struck Grays Straits at the right time of the tide, and shot out into the Atlantic and down to St. John's. Outfit 246 had been delivered in the Bay.
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| Credit: St. John's Daily Star, 13 November 1916 |
An old stranger returned this morning in the form of the job sealing steamer Nascopie Capt Mack which arrived from Hudson Bay she anchored in the stream but capt mack and some of the passengers were quickly on shore delighted to get back to civilisation again
St. John's Daily Star, 13 November 1916
Nascopie returned to St. John's on 12 November 1916, doing the run down from Fort Chimo in six days "during which boisterous weather" was encountered with heavy northeast gales all the way and doubtlesss her 15 passengers, including seven children were happy to land. "The officers of the ship report when leaving the Hudson Bay coast a week ago winter had set in in real earnest. Daily the weather was bad. It was intensely frosty with an occasional storm and that ice had formed to considerable thickness." (Evening Telegraph 13 November 1916). It was reported that she "brought a valuable cargo of furs" and would take on 600 tons of bunkers before sailing for Cardiff with her 150-ton cargo of fur and oil on the 22nd. It further stated that she "would be engaged by the Russian Government again" and that "It is a certainty, we hear, the ship will not prosecute the 1917 seal fishery" (Evening Telegraph). Nascopie also left with 2,000 quintals of fish and 50 tons of oil, and the local press criticized the small amount when 200,000 quintals of local fish was awaiting shipment.
Upon arrival at Cardiff on 6 December 1916, Nascopie was drydocked.
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| Nascopie (now in "dazzle" camouflage) and the Russian icebreaker Kniaz Pojarsky at work in the White Sea, 1917. Credit: The Beaver |
1917
Whilst on passage from Brest to Murmansk, Nascopie was stopped and boarded by HMS Patuca on 10 January, checked and allowed to proceed, and arrived on the 13th.
Capt. Mack contributed his own memories of Nascopie's winter 1917 deployment in the White Sea in the June 1939 issue of The Beaver:
From Brest to Murmansk we have one or two heavy blows in the vicinity of Iceland, and we got fed up with the continual darkness and the snow storms, but one morning we anchored in the Kola Inlet. Things changes quite a bit since our last visit. H.M.S. Albemarle and Captain Nugent had gone home, and the Glory had taken her place. I locked horns with the Principal Naval Transport Officer (a Commander RNR in a brass hat) over a matter of coal. There were seven colliers there with the best Welsh coal aboard, but he ruled that the coal had to be kept for the Glory, and refused to fill up the Nascopie. We went into the White Sea in January 1917, with 250 tons less than I had asked for. The brass hat had the gall to tell me since he had taken charge the ice question was being much better handled.
It took us only eight or ten days to get within eighty miles of the mouth of the Archangel River, but there our luck turned. A heavy blizzard came out of the south-east and lasted five or six days. The snow was like fine, driven glass, and the ice pressure was terrific. The crew had to go over the side with axes, ice chisels and ropes to prevent the floes from coming on deck and flattening the rails. Another worry was that we drifted over the edges of the shoals in the Gourla and at times had only about three feet of water under the ship. It was not very cheerful to go down into Mr. Ledingham's shining engine room and hear the straining and cracking of the floes outside. We speculated on our chances of reaching shore if the ship got crushed, but we were all used to the north and did not worry.
When the blizzard ended we were short on coal, and after a special hymn of hate to His Majesty's Principal Naval Officer at Murmansk, I decided to try to make Yukanski harbour. The Nascopie worked through very heavy ice-- and then I made a bad mistake. Ahead in the right direction was appeared in the darkness to be a considerable patch of open water, and we worked towards it, the ice fairly loose so that the ship gathered quite a lot of way. We hit the supposed edge of the open water a pretty good rate, and before I could get to the engine-room telegraph we were ashore on a large floe, many acres in extent. It had been swept clean by the wind and now looked as black as Satan's riding boots. The Nascopie came to a stop with a sort of helpless flop and settled down comfortably in the nest she had made for herself. There followed two days and two night of hard labour with ice chisels, axes, blasting, and periodic frantic lashing astern with the engines. In the midst of it a telegram arrived from the officer at Murmansk who had refused us coal and now enquiring when we should arrive at Archangel!
Eventually we got ourselves off the ice. Then came a nice gentle snow storm, and the chief engineer now doubted if we had enough coal to reach Yukanski. However, we managed it, and found that the only rock and dangers in Yukanski harbour was well marked because the Canada (formerly the Earl Grey, government icebreaker in the St. Lawrence River) had been draped gracefully across it by her Russian commander. We had scarcely a ton of coal left when we anchored alongside a Russian collier, the Marie Rose.
The Nascopie bunkered up to the hilt, and then we were ordered to wait for the Wrexham, a strengthened British naval transport vessel which was to come up to Archangel with us…
The Wrexham arrived and we left for Archangel with the big Russian icebreaker Ilya Moremetz. After a blizzard or two and plenty of hard butting, we got to the mouth of the Dwina and met the new Russian icebreaker Kniaz Pjarsky, not long out from England. Her captain was a Lett of about sixty years, and he was a man who knew how to handle an icebreaker-- he also spoke good English. We worked up the river cutting, three abreast, the Kniaz Pjarsky in the centre. The middle ship would go ahead and when she came astern, the two side ships went ahead and cut, then coming astern when the middle ship went ahead again. Using this method we were not long in butting through the ice to Econonie where we discharged cargo into the ice, returning to Murmansk and loading again for Archangel.
Off Cape Orloff the first week in March was the largest patch of harp seals I have ever seen. We steamed through them for twelve miles, and the ice was black with seals as far eastward as we could see from the upper crows nest. Dozens were crushed between the ship and the ice, and Newfoundlanders were all for stopping and filling the Nascopie with fat instead of the trimmings of life she had in her.
We arrived off the Archangel River and again the Kniaz Pjarsky worked with us, butting through to Economie.
When Nascopie arrived at Archangel, the port was still recovering from the devastating explosion that destroyed Iceland, when unloading sulphuric acid and 900 tons of dynamite, blew up. The explosion sank the nearby HBC freigher Bayropea and damaged Baymano. It, like the rest of Russia, was still in throes of the Russian Revolution the previous month, Czar Nicholas Alexander was compelled to abdicate on 17 March 1917 but the provisional parliamentary government under Alexander Kerensky vowed to keep Russia in the war. So it was business as usual for Nascopie which made two roundtrips between Murmansk and Archangel during the worst winter conditions.
Determined not be delayed again on her annual voyage North, Nascopie left Archangel on 14 June 1917 for St John's and Montreal via Lerwick. Early into this voyage, she had her most celebrated if exaggerated wartime episode which quickly assumed primacy in HBC lore and legend as recounted by Capt. Mack in The Beaver:
On our first day out, a torpedo passed about fifty yards under our stern. We were near Kildin Island and we fled northward without seeing the submarine. "The next afternoon, when we were steaming among loose ice, the second officer came to my room to say he could see a submarine on the surface working among the ice. I arrived on the bridge just as a shot from the submarine hit the water about two hundred yards short of us. All hands were signalled to their stations, and the Nascopie was turned stern on to the submarine.
Collins, senior gunner, went aloft for the approximate range. Our first shot was short and its greatest effect was to thoroughly frighten my dog Spider who came along the deck legs out straight and ears back. "The submarine's second effort was closer, and the water shot up fifty yards off in the port quarter. There was a fairly solid strip of ice between us and the submarine, but around us was loose ice in which we could manoeuvre. We exchanged a few more shots. The German was working towards us, but when dodging a floe he exposed his broadside.
Collins took what seemed an agonisingly long time to fire, but when he did, it was a shot in a million and landed fair and square on the submarine's gun mounting. The Nascopie stopped. Four more shots from Collins, and there was a big explosion. Black smoke and flame rose high in the air, and there was no more submarine. Colins deserves all the credit for it.
German naval records document that U-28 had indeed been attacked in those waters but suffered only superficial damage. It was, however, sunk on 19 August 1917 after torpedoing the British freighter Olive Branch en route from England to Archangel, it was so damaged by a resultant explosion of the munitions aboard, that it sank.
After calling at Lerwick, Nascopie joined a westbound convoy off Pentland Firth to Cape Wrath and then independently to Montreal.
Nascopie (Capt. G.H. Mack) sailed from Montreal on 26 July 1917, called at St. John's 30 July-3 August) and made the usual calls in the Bay and Labrador, 18 stops in all.
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| Credit: St. John's Daily Star, 17 October 1917. |
When Nascopie returned to St. John's on 17 October 1917, the Daily Star provided a good resume of the trip:
Capt. Mack Made Quick Trip Considering Weather Conditions
Capt. Mack arrived this morning at 9, and looks well after his two months sojourn in the region of Ungava. He left here on August 3rd, so that the trip was a quick one. In spite of the fact that disagreeable weather prevailed at times. There were long periods of dense fog when every care had to be taken, but notwithstanding the drawbacks, the trip was made in safety. All of the eighteen stations were visited and fresh supplies for the winter and spring given the residents. The goods consisted of food stuffs, etc., similar to other years. The residents at every place were delighted to see Captain Mack for he not only brought them, fresh supplies, but news from the outside world. The progress of the war was of the greatest interest to these inhabitants of the lonely northern parts, many of whom had heard very little of it since the previous visit of the steamer last year. The difficulties of civilized life are not experienced much in the far north but even there they they feel the high cost of living. They have had a successful year, however, fish and fur have been plentiful. Weather conditions favourable and no serious accidents. Several passengers came back with Capt. Mack, including Mr. Ralph Parsons, the company's manager here, who visited the stations on business. Rev. Peck, the veteran missionary at' Baffin Land, accompanied Captain Mack on the round trip.
Capt. Mack took Nascopie over to Montreal where she was unloaded and where he signed off as her master. Formerly captain of HBC's Bayerdun, Capt. Thomas F. Smellie, recovering from an illness, took command of Nascopie in October 1917 after she had completed unloading from the north. He found her lying at Montreal and the man who would go to be the most associated with the Nascopie legend and most contribute to it, was apparently not immediately taken what he saw:
He found the Nascopie and suffered an immediate disappointment. The ship was several feet below the top of the dockside. She was not at all impressive. She was dirty and full of cockroaches.
Arctic Legend
Seemingly every time Nascopie prepared for her stint in Russian waters, the situation in that turbulent country changed and no more so than on 24-25 October 1917 with the Bolshevik Revolution which toppled the Kerensky Government, removed Russia from the Allied side in the World War and precipitated a Civil War in Russian between the "Reds" and "Whites." The signing of a separate peace between Russia and the Central Powers, The Brest-Litovsk Treaty of 3 March 1918, precipitated an Allied intervention in the evolving Russian Civil War on the side of the "Whites" who favoured continuing the war against the Central Powers. In the end, Britain alone had 59,000 troops in the country and as before, the only access to the Russia was via the already established supply routes into Murmansk and Archangel.
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| Nascopie in the ice of the White Sea, c. 1918-19. Note her poop deckhouse is now plated-in to the side. Credit: Richard Cox collection. |
1918
With no more of the Czar's gold to pay lucrative charter rates, Nascopie would continue in her White Sea duties but "under new management." She was requisitioned by the Admiralty as a "Stores Carrier" and assigned pennant number Y8.78 as of 15 March 1918.
For Nascopie, it meant a continuation of her familiar route between Murmansk and the new "front" around Archangel carrying supplies for the Allies now and returning with wounded. It was a dismal period for the ship, Capt. Smellie and his crew and the order and utility of delivering the carefully "curated" cargoes of the annual HBC outfit contrasted with the often haphazard "dumping" of cargo at Archangel adding to the heaps of stores that had not already been looted by the Bolsheviks previously.
For Capt. Smellie, the deployment afforded him the essential introduction into the fine art of icebreaking and handling a ship in ice, learnt from Russian pilots and a White Russian controlled icebreaker that worked with Nascopie in the Dwina River during this period. He learned too of the far more severe ice of the White Sea; "White Sea is fresh-water ice. It was piled up twenty feet in front of us, and sometimes we made no progress at all for twenty-four hours, and a matter of 450 miles in one bitter week. Added to that, the Bolshies had destroyed all aids to navigation-- couldn't tell land from water." (Arctic Command). Smellie later recounted to the Governor of HBC the power of ice pressure when once in the White Sea, Nascopie was lifted right out of the water until she lay on the ice at a 45 deg angle and twisted 9 inch iron bars that had been put to hold the rudder in place. "I learned everything I knew from the Russians," he said, "They were fine captains-- Bolshies or White Russians-- and the first thing they me was patience." (Arctic Command).
Even so, it must have been a relief for all hands when the chaos of post revolutionary Russia was replaced by the annual HBC Outfit Delivery for 1918. On 22 June Nascopie sailed from Archangel for Montreal where she arrived on 8 July. She left on the 20th, and calling en route at St. John's where she arrived on the 24th, taking on 300 tons of coal and departing at noon on the 27th for the North. She had 15 passengers aboard including three Northwest Mounted Police constables.
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| Nascopie at Port Burwell 1 August 1918. Credit: The Beaver |
It was another late start and an icy beginning and on 2 August 1918 whilst at Port Burwell, a gale there filled the harbour with ice. Nascopie's crew which had been ashore working cargo off her boats were stranded from the ship and had to return by foot over the ice floes between shore and ship.
Trading conditions were booming owing to an abundance of fur that season, especially the now fashionable white fox which fetched less than £2 in 1916 and now commanded 5 to 10 guineas in London, and the Inuit had so much credit as a result, they denuded the company stores of goods making the arrival of Nascopie eagerly awaited at each stop.
At each place the Nascopie was given a warm reception. Everyone was anxious for letters and to know how the war was progressing. Means of communication are not frequent in that country, as is well known, so that the arrival of the steamer is a big event, and people from far and near travel to the post to take in her visit. A dance or concert is usually arrangged for the night in port and one and make merry. The steamer's company is well known and well liked and they spare no pains to make the event a pleasurable one for those who spend their lives in isolation.
St. John's Daily Star, 9 October 1918
According to the St. John's Daily Star of 9 October 1918 (the day after Nascopie's return there) was "most successful, the weather being all that could be desired… several of those who returned by her have made many trips to the far north and all admit that as far as weather was concerned, the voyage just ended was the best ever made. She left in a gale of wind but after that died down, "the sea was as calm as a pond," but northbound, considerable heavy ice was encountered, unusual for so late in the season and "at times the Nascopie, powerful as she is, was obliged to butt her way through. It was not easy work at times, but the task was accomplished without injury to the steamer. Once out of the ice floe conditions were favorable and continued until the trip ended."
During the trip she visited the various stations of the Hudson Bay Co. in James' Bay, Ungava Bay, and Baffin Land. On the way north some little difficulty was experienced as the ice this year was very late in clearing out of the bays. The arrival of the ship was welcomes with pleasure at the different points visited, as she brought large stocks of supplied for the natives and post officials, who are now well provided for the winter. All were in good health when the ship started southwards and had escaped any outbreak of sickness during the season. The fishery on the whole was very good in Ungava Bay and other points visited the past summer, and part of the catch was brought along by the Nascopie, as well as valuable cargo of furs.
Evening Advocate
It was back to Russia for Nascopie and on 7 December 1918 she was again requistioned upon return to England and arrived at Murmansk on the 21st.
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| Nascopie sails from Montreal in July 1919 on her first post-war voyage North. Credit: McCord Stewart Museum. |
1919
Her Russian adventures finally concluded, Nascopie arrived at Hull on 1 June 1919 from Archangel. Nascopie's armament was removed and she was repainted in full HBC livery for the first time: black hull, white upperworks and yellow buff funnel, cowl ventilators and masts. Her bridge wings received glass enclosed cabs and covers erected between these and the wheelhouse, affording welcome protection from the elements.
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| Capt. G.H. Mead aboard Nascopie c. 1920. Credit: Sue Davies, Flickr. |
Under a new commander, Capt. G.H. Mead, Nascopie left Hull on 26 June 1919 for Peterhead, Scotland, to doubtless a load of the famous Peterhead-built whalers which were so much part of HBC daily operations and lore in Hudson Bay. Sailing on the 28th, otherwise in ballast, Nascopie had a fast passage to St. John's and docked there on 7 July. Capt. Mack came over as cargo super and would continue to Montreal. With a cargo of cod and salmon, Nascopie left St. John's for Montreal on the 9th. With HBC's Outfit no. 240, she sailed for the North on the 21st.
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| Capt. G.E. Mack took this splendid photograph of Nascopie sailing from Montreal on 21 July 1919 for the North on her first peacetime voyage, fully repainted in HBC livery of black hull, white upperworks and buff funnels and masts. Her decks are fairly covered with a consignment of Peterhead whalers she picked up from the builders on the way over. Credit: George E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Nascopie at Charlton Inlet on her 1919 voyage showing some of her deck cargo of various boats and cutters. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum collection. |
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| Capt. Mack photographed an impressive iceberg in the Hudson Straits on Nascopie's 1919 voyage. Credit: McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Wonderful photograph of Nascopie in the ice fields off Wolstenholme, August 1919. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Nascopie returned to St. John's on 26 September 1919 after a record breaking voyage… for its "remarkable short time of sixty-eight days. Considering that this is Captain Mead's first voyage north, that is all the more noteworthy." (Evening Telegraph, 26 September 1919). The paper added that "nothing of very great importance occurred during the trip around the Bay" other than picking up the officers and crew of the shipwrecked Finback (Capt. G. Commer) out of New York that sank after striking a rock at Fullerton, north of the Bay, and the crew rowed in lifeboats to the HBC post at Chesterfield and accommodated there until the arrival of Nascopie.
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| Evening Telegram, 26 September 1919. |
Nascopie sailed from St. John's on 1 October 1919 for Montreal and loaded coal at Sydney en route. And load a cargo of spool wool "from a port in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for England." This was Cape Chatte, Quebec, where she called the 16th and from there for Quebec on the 23rd. Nascopie arrived Hull on 3 November and at Alexandra Dock, London, on 17 November.
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| Loaded to the marks (the stack of boats forward is almost as high as the wheelhouse!) and ready to go North, Nascopie at Montreal on 20 July 1920. Credit: Price photograph, Archives of Manitoba. |
When the razzle-dazzle camouflage paint was stripped off her and she was painted and repaired for her peacetime work again, she looked more like a lady.
'A substantial and practical lady, but a lady,' says the Captain.
The great years had begun.
Arctic Command.
Ships with three and half decade long careers inspire debate as to their heyday or "golden age." For Nascopie, it can well be argued it was the 1920s, the "Roaring 'Twenties," which proved an expansive and profitable decade for Hudson's Bay Co. and for the ship, then at the centre of a booming fur trade arising from a mania for the White Fox in ladies fashions of the era. This adorable creature thrived in Baffin Land and the Arctic reaches and such was the demand for its coat that it reoriented HBC's entire sphere of operations there and ever northwards and the 'twenties saw new posts established almost yearly. So Nascopie's yearly voyage became ever more expansive and port intensive. Such was business, that she got new fleetmates and even was displaced by a new flagship. None survived the decade, however, and if nothing else, the 'twenties cemented Nascopie's "lucky ship" reputation. She started the decade by being a movie star, the ambition of every "flapper" and by its close, Nascopie was already an Arctic legend as much as its lifeline.
The 1920s saw a remarkable expansion of Company trading posts established in Baffin Land including Pangnirtung (1921), Pond Inlet (1921), River Clyde (1923) and Arctic Bay (1926) so that Nascopie's route and duties grew "wider and wider still," and soon exceeded the capabilities of a single ship so that the decade witnessed a golden age of HBC ships.
1920
The year 1920 marked the 250th anniversary of "The Ancient and Honourable Company" which was suitably commemorated in Britain and the Dominion and included a visit to Canada by HBC Governor Sir Robert Molesworth Kindersley, a ceremonial flotilla from Winnipeg down the Red River to Lower Fort Gerry and the release of the feature length film Romance of the Far Fur Country.
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| Nascopie, the film star: cameraman shooting footage during the 1919 voyage for the HBC 250th anniversary film "Romance of the Far Fur Country." Credit: McCord Stewart Museum. |
Produced by H.M. Wyckoff, of the British Educational Films Corp., the "The Romance of the Far Fur Country" highlighted the previous years voyage to the Bay by Nascopie, Moose Factory, Albany and Rupert House, among the original Company trading posts, and Ungava Bay, Wolstenholme, Lake Harbor in Baffin Land as well the inland river operations of the Company. The film was premiered in May in Winnipeg and later screened at Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. This was the first film to feature Inuit syllabics and Capt. Mack was integral to the scenes shot on Baffin Island.
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| Production stills and scenes from "The Romance of the Far Fur Country" (1920) much of it shot during Nascopie's 1919 voyage and Capt. Mack integral to the scenes shot on Baffin Island. |
Nascopie quickly left the glamour of films behind and occupied the first part of 1920 in the mundane occupation of short sea tramping and was recorded as arriving at Leith on 26 February from Dunkirk via Middlesborough, sailing on 22 March for Antwerp and returning to Leith on 19 April from Antwerp, again calling en route at Middlesborough.
But Nascopie was merely biding her time before embarking on one of her more memorable and symbolic voyages, the delivery of Hudson's Bay Co.'s 251st Outfit North. There were few commercial undertakings that could boast of accomplishing anything 250 times over the same period of years let alone one as audacious as what HBC men and ships like Nascopie made seem routine. The 1920 voyage, made in particularly bitter early Arctic winter weather and featuring Nascopie aiding her veteran running mate, Pelican, was suitably gritty and grueling yet accomplished with typical Company efficiency and resourcefulness.
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| Wonderful photo of the venerable Pelican and Nascopie at Montreal's Shed 4 in July 1920, the two would have the honour of taking HBC's Outfit no. 251 up North. Note the beautiful Peterhead boats that Nascopie will be taking north with her. Credit: Frederick W. Berchem photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Nascopie sailed from Hull on 22 June 1920 for Montreal where she arrived on 5 July and joined the Company's venerable Pelican at Shed 4. Her deck cargo, as usual, included a veritable flotilla of boats of all sizes and descriptions including an impressive 40-ft. long sailboat.
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| Nascopie at Montreal in July 1920. Credit: Archives of Manitoba. |
Capt. G.H. Mead, who would command the ship, told The Montreal Star of 12 July 1920, "During some seasons, the ice in Hudson's Bay never clears, and the Nascopie then has heavy work, for the ice in the bay is often three or four feet above the water, which means some twenty-five feet below, so that you have ice thirty feet thick to deal with. But the Nascopie was built for ice-breaking, and is only eight years old, and she can get through anything in reason, in time, and what she cannot get through she can push out of the way… Capt Mead could not be induced to say that there is any ice which the Nascopie cannot win through." When Pelican sailed on the 9th, Nascopie took her berth and begin loading in earnest for the trip north.
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| Deck Officers for the 1920 voyage: front: Capt. G.H. Mead and Chief Officer Benson and standing behind: left Second Officer Scott-Craig, centre Fourth Officer Frederick Bercham, right Third Officer Quick. Credit: McCord Stewart Museum. |
Nascopie sailed from Montreal on 23 July 1920 and called at St. John's on the 28th where she coaled at Harvey's pier and left the following morning.
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| Mrs. Maud Watt (left), who was travelling to Rupert House post with her husband, aboard Nascopie with some of the pet passengers also aboard. Credit: Frederick W. Bercham photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Among her passengers was the Eskimo Ouangwak, accused murderer, who had been apprehended after an extensive search by the RCMP and was being transported back to his native land by Inspector Douglas and two constables to Churchill and then another 400 miles overland to Chesterfield Inlet to stand trial.
That season saw an early onset of autumn weather in the south and an early winter in the Arctic and it proved an eventful and challenging voyage in some of the harshest conditions yet experienced by Nascopie and her crew. En route from Wolstenholme to Charlton Island, Nascopie struck a shoal off Weston Island in James Bay but without sustaining serious damage.
One of the most enduring legacies of HBC's anniversary celebrations that year was the beginning of the publication of the house magazine, The Beaver, which henceforth ensured that the company's actitivies, personnel, mission and especially history was recorded. As we have already seen, some of Nascopie's officers proved excellent writers and raconteurs and contributed regularly to the magazine.
In the December 1920 issue of The Beaver, Capt. Mack provided this excellent accounting of Nascopie's eventful voyage early that year, peppered with poetry from Second Engineer Jack Doherty as well:
THE steamer Nascopie, flagship of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s fleet of supply vessels operating in Hudson Bay, sailed from Montreal, July 23, 1920, on her 9th annual voyage.
Commanded by Captain G. H. Mead, the Nascopie last summer and autumn steamed eight thousand miles into the ice-infested waters of the sub-polar regions and back, provisioning Hudson’s Bay Posts in the Labrador, Ungava and “the Bay’’ districts, completing her round of duty with the return to St. John’s, Newfoundland, October 18th.
Missionaries, police, government Officials and explorers look to the annual voyage of the Nascopie or the Pelican as their only means of transportation from Canada ports to the vast territories lying athwart the Arctic circle northeast and west of Hudson Bay. Such men—scores of whom are called by duty into the land where H.B.C. fur posts are the sole civic and commercial centres of a sparse and savage population are carried thence by our ice breaking ships. And when their work is finished we bring them home again.
Each summer the Nascopie and her sister ships victual the north against the rigors of another winter. They carry the comfort, sustenance, good cheer, letters and news of the great world “outside’’ to the brave men who stand guard at the Company’s lonely outposts on the fringe of the Arctic sea: in winter they busy themselves in other waters until ice-locked straits which bar them from 'the Bay' are open again or until the passage may yield to the 'punch' of their armoured prows and steel-ribbed hulls.
In 1920, as in every other year that I have been with the Nascopie on her round of duty in Eskimo-land, men of the Company’s service and throngs of natives at the posts strain eager eyes toward the horizon, watching for the first sign of Nascopie’s smoke. As she swings to anchor for just once each year in each of these far off ports, men, women, children and dogs crowd the beaches.
Always is the welcome warm and hearts are light when our ship comes in. The H.B.C. ship and her crew are the perennial summer 'Santa Claus' to these people in the land of the reindeer and polar bear.
The arrival at a Post is the signal for the beginning of hard labor unloading food and wares for the Post; but into the period of our brief visit is always crowded a whole season of joy and merry-making. Eskimo women roll barrels and pack boxes from wharf to warehouse; everybody joins gladly in the work of unloading supplies.
Then as we weigh anchor, the people wave farewell and go back to their silent life, to work and wait, with accustomed stolidity, another day of joy and feasting when the Nascopie shall once again show her funnel above the green waters of 'the Bay’s' horizon.
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| The accused murderer, Ouangwak (centre), with RCMP Inspector Douglas (left) and Capt. G.H. Mead (right) aboard Nascopie. Credit: Capt. George E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
The passenger list of the Nascopie on leaving Montreal, July 23rd, included the Eskimo murderer Ouangwak and his intrepid captor, Sergeant Douglas, R.C.M.P., who bore the long arm of British law far into the Arctic regions last year in his search for the man-killing 'huskie.' A magistrate and three other policemen were members of the party escorting the murderer back to Chesterfield Inlet for trial.
Of our departure from the port of Montreal, Jack Doherty, second engineer of the Nascopie, and ship’s poet, sings:
We sailed away at break of day,The sun smiled down as if to say:'Enjoy me now while you've the chance,'For soon I'll hide my countenance;And sure enough next day the fogWell, you'll see it mentioned in the log.
Captain Mead carefully nosed the steamer along through dense fog. For hours, near Cape Race, the blatant shriek of the foghorn came to us from out the void, giving the captain the location of the Cape. Stealing up the coast at low speed, we put safely into St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Here we took aboard Mr. Ralph Parsons, district manager of the H.B.C. Labrador District, and added to the Nascopie’s bunkers her final supply of coal. Well did we know that every pound of steam power might be required to punch our big ice-breaker through the freezing straits of the Northland.
We cast anchor, July 29th, and sailed away to months of duty that were to be tinged with adventure at every turn and yet, withal, flavored with most unromantic, gruelling work. Again, we harken to our doughty engineer as he sings:
A few days’ uneventful tripAnd then the ice gets in its gripCombined with fog; we plough right throughUntil Port Burwell comes in view;We strain our eyes—yes, every man,But fail to see the Pelican.
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| Nascopie in the ice at Port Burwell, August 1920. Credit: Frederick W. Bercham photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Nascopie discharged her cargo on the ice that engulfed her at Port Burwell during her call there in 1920. Credit: Frederick W. Berchem photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
The harbour at Burwell was churningfull of ice, in which it was almost impossible for our steam launch to make headway during the transfer of supplies for the Post. The unloading of a year’s supplies was accomplished with greatest difficulty over the slippery ice. With 'duffles' replacing shoes, however, the men were able to gain a footing on the ice and accelerate the task of removing cargo to the shore. And the second engineer, with light Gaelic heart, chants cheerily:
The cargo finished we start away,And plough through ice for all that day,We see a walrus and a sealDisport themselves—and scarce concealOur glee, to fire a shot o’er water—To hit them ts another matter.We steam along for weary hoursThrough fields of ice, past icy towers,And scan the coast for our landmarks,Which you won’t find upon the charts,And keep the cameras busy, too,Because there’s nothing else to do.
Steaming into Lake Harbour (Baffin’s Land), much to our astonishment we found anchored there the Pelican of the H.B.C. supply fleet.
She was crippled, we learned, having been rammed by an iceberg which wrecked a blade of her propeller. She had fortunately been gotten safely into Lake Harbour under sail, with the further assistance of the men of the Post and a motor boat.
Although now a veteran in the H.B.C. service, twenty years ago sailed the seven seas as a British man-o’-war, sister ship to the famous Condor. With her hull of heavy teakwood, the Pelican is well equipped for duty as an H.B.C. ice-punching supply vessel.
With the aid of reinforcements arriving aboard the Nascopie, Captain R. Bergner and Chief Officer T. W. Jones of the Pelican were enabled to effect repairs to their ship. And here Engineer Doherty chimes in with another stanza of his brave ballad:
The Pelican Beached for RepairsA hurried council formed a planTo put new life in the Pelican;They lightened and towed her on the beach,Where at low tide the nuts they’d reachThat held the broken parts of screw,Removed them and replaced with new.The work was done, ’twas not a dreamAt night they worked by searchlight’s beam;But many an anxious hour they passedEre she was safe afloat at last.As we had further on to goWe sailed away while whistles blow.
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| Pelican undergoing repairs to her screw at Lake Harbour by her crew and that of Nascopie. Credit: Frederick W. Bercham photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
The beaching of the Pelican was rendered extremely difficult and hazardous by the uncommonly great rise and fall of the tide in that region. The difference in the two levels is approximately forty feet. Several times at low tide, during the replacement work on her propeller, the Pelican lurched perilously to starboard, as we had run her stern upon the beach at high tide and the receding waters left her suspended aft in a position which, without dry dock facilities, was hazardous to both ship and repairers.
Putting out of Lake Harbour on August 12th, the Nascopie steamed for Wolstenholme. As the bard of our boat so aptly scans it:
Next Wolstenholme or “Eric Cove,”A place with which we're not in love;The harbour’s open to the sea;On either hand high cliffs you see;The Post lies snuggled in the valley,Down which winds blow continually.
While anchored at Wolstenholme, a nasty blow came on when we were busy with transfer of cargo, towing in the supplies with lashed boats behind a steam launch. While making a trip from shore back to the Nascopie the heavy gale broke the lashed boats from their hitch to the launch and flung them upon the stony beach in sorry wreckage. The crew endeavored to salvage the boats and waded the icy waters until numbed with cold. Night came on and still we labored at the wreck by the beams of a searchlight.
On the following day some of the crew again waded into the breakers and spent some hours in a final desperate attempt to get the cargo boats off the rocks. They were compelled to abandon the lashed boats eventually to the further fury of the waves, though they succeeded in salvaging the steam launch.
August 16th, according to the log, was the date we sailed from Wolstenholme, bound for Coat’s Island with the schooner Nannuck (White Bear) in tow. The Nannuck was to redistribute the supplies allotted her from our cargo to the outposts of the Company among the Eskimos of that district. The Nannuck is skippered and manned by the Company’s Eskimos—and ably handled by them under 'all circumstances.'
As our versatile engineer muses now in satirical vein:Nannuck is dropped at Coat’s Island bleak
A lonelier spot would be hard to seek—
But such like trials will men incurWhen they go out in search of fur.On woman’s dress a part will go,But not for warmth—~just for show.And then romps on with rhymein cheerful tune:So now at last we’re southward boundTo a little spot in Charlton Sound;We steer our course past rocks and shoalsAnd try to find the deepest holes,Past islands called the Bears and Twins,With nerves on edge like needles and pins.But sounds a note of wild alarm:Till Weston Island we draw near,A reef extends for miles from here,Which for the unwary form a trap,It is not marked on any map;With ease the ship a hurdle jumps,And the cook exclaims, 'What ho, shebumps.'
Arrived at Charlton, August 21st, says the log. Here I left the ship and proceeded to Moose Factory to inspect the Company’s schooner Fort Churchill, which was lying-in there. At Moose I found that the mechanical science of civilization had sailed into this first outpost of the wild north in ‘the form of a hydroplane of the Ontario Government. Before the airman took flight for the south I mailed letters home to Montreal via his plane, this mail going out in 24 hours, whereas, ordinarily, twelve days are consumed.
Receiving aboard a new passenger, Dr. R. B. Stewart, of the Indian Department, September lst, we steamed for Churchill. One of those dense fogs which had troubled us for a large part of the voyage, cast a pall upon the coast as we neared Churchill anchorage, completely obscuring the two forts of the Company which, in fair weather, are distinguishing landmarks of the historic place.
For three days we hovered off the port, unable to navigate the Nascopie to her accustomed berth at Churchill.
At last the great fog lifted and, as the second engineer records in his inimitable way:
Gateway, Old Fort Prince of Wales, ChurchillAt last we enter and clear the bar;It’s the most dangerous harbour here by far.We anchor in a certain placeJust clear of that mad river’s race;Its current runs at quite eight knots,Even at half, it’s swift in spots.
Forthwith the year’s supplies for the Post were put ashore. The coastwise auxiliary schooner, Fort York, was filled with cargo for York Factory, Trout Lake and Weenusk Posts, on the west shore to the southward.
Members of the R.C.M.P. whom we had carried from Montreal with their prisoner here found that the motor boat which they had expected to be there for their use, had been wrecked on the way into port.
To our passenger list were added before sailing from Churchill on September 7th, Mr. Chris. Harding, H.B.C. District Manager at York Factory; also Sergeant Thompson.
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| Nascopie coming into Chesterfield Inlet, 1920. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Arriving at Chesterfield, September 14th, the Nascopie landed supplies for Repulse Bay and Baker Lake. The new motor tug, Caribou, was launched to begin her duties in northern waters by towing these supplies to their destinations. Passengers who embarked at Chesterfield were Father Turquetil, Father Puguet and Br. Gerard of the Catholic Mission.
Back to Churchill we steamed on September 21st to put ashore Mr. Harding before starting on the return leg of our voyage.
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| Nascopie navigating ice in Fox Channel, Baffin Island during her 1920 voyage. Credit: Capt. G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Headed for Wolstenholme again, we ran into the great ice floes driving down Fox Channel, September 23rd. We were none too early to avoid being locked in the Bay for nine months. Fox Channel is where the 'choke' comes éarliest. Putting on steam, the Nascopie smashed and butted through the ice and raised Wolstenholme on the twenty-fourth, buffeted by the usual stiff gale off the big Cape.
Here we learned that the Pelican had again disabled her propeller in the ice fields. She was unable to proceed south and perform her allotted duty of erecting a new trading Post to be named Port Harrison. It was decided that the Nascopie should assume the task.
We loaded lumber and supplies, and, as the gifted Doherty runs on in verse:
What cargo she has left we load,And turn back again upon the roadTo erect a new department storeUpon some ill-frequented shore.We can’t just find the place somehow Port Harrison,‘‘Oh, where art thou?’’The cargo’s landed in a tent,The architects o’er plans are bent;To build the stores they have begun,Each day we count them one by one;The dwelling house is a work of artThe swellest mansion in this part.The stores are built, so off we set,We leave some men the furs to get;We wish them luck—our wish sincereAnd hope to call another year.At last we’re on the homeward trackIt’s past the time that we're due back.
We sailed from Port Harrison, Oct.4th, leaving Mr. L. A. Learmouth, a veteran of the service, as manager of this newest H.B.C. Post. Touching again at Wolstenholme, October 6th, we steamed straight for Lake Harbour and took aboard as passengers there the Rev. Fleming, Anglican missionary for Baffin’s Land, and Mr. Melton of Cape Dorset.
On the ninth of October, the Nascopie, in the teeth of a heavy gale, laid her course for Port Burwell. All passengers were miserable from seasickness until we made port.
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| Nascopie at Port Burwell, August 1920. Credit: Frederick W. Bercham photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
At Burwell we picked up Messrs. J.Livingstone and W. McGibbon, bound from Fort Chimo, Ungava, to Scotland, on leave of absence from the H.B.C. service-—their first time ‘‘out’’ in seven years. Rev. S. M. Stuart, of the Anglican church, also came aboard at this port
October 13th we sailed from Burwell and moving through Gray’s Straits breasted the Atlantic. Meeting a heavy sea, the Nascopie pitched, rolled and bucked until sea sickness again overtook many of our passengers.
Steaming into the harbour at St.John’s, Newfoundland, October 18th, the eventful 1920 voyage of the Nascopie into the 'Bay' came to an end.
As we took train for Montreal we saw the last of the Nascopie, ready to sail for Savannah to load cargo for Bristol and Glasgow.
On 8 September 1920 the Montreal Star reported that Nascopie last reported from Charleton in the Hudson Straits, inbound to Fort Church in James Bay, with concern she could clear the Straits before they were closed by ice. On the 11th, the paper reported that Nascopie, arriving in Hudson Bay on the most northern fringe of the Empire, "and now beating her way home towards civilization" had gotten clear and was making a normal passage south and a letter from Capt. Mack carried south by seaplane reported that Pelican made her northernmost call at Port Burwell in the Hudson Strait minus two blades on her propeller.
Two stalwart Canadian/Newfoundland ships arrived at St. John's on the morning of 18 October 1920: Furness' Digby from Halifax and Nascopie from the Far North, the latter with 17 passengers. The St. John's Daily Star reported that she had left Port Burwell four days previously and "was delayed owing to calling at stations which the Pelican now lying up here, could not reach having been damaged by ice. When the ship was coming south winter had set in all along the Labrador coast."
On 4 November 1920, the St. John's Daily Star reported: "During the recent trips of the Nascopie to Hudson's Bay her crew had mail delivered to them at Moose Factory, James Bay, by an aeroplane which flew from Winnipeg, a distance of nearly 600 miles. to say the plane created astonishment among the natives."
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| Nascopie at Bristol in November 1920, under the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Credit: liverpoolmuseums.org |
Owing to her late arrival, Nascopie would not carry on to Montreal, but instead sailed onwards on the 21 October 1920 with her cargo of furs (valued at $737,240 or $110 mn. in 2022 dollars) directly to London via Savannah (29th) and from there on 10 November for Glasgow where she docked on the 24th. On the 29th, she arrived at Bristol.
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| Nascopie featured on the cover of The Beaver April 1921. |
1921
On 18 January 1921 Nascopie drydocked at Mordey-Carney at Newport, Wales for overhaul. There would be no off season tramping for her that winter and a vessel that can land a cargo worth in excess of $700,000 in 1920 on one extended voyage, could afford to "take it easy."
The venerable Pelican finally made it to St. John's after all her adventures the previous year, but the 44-year-old vessel had played out her splendid HBC career and was offered for sale on 31 May 1921. Ever increasing business and network of posts made it impossible for Nascopie to cover them all. So HBC purchased for £15,000, the Swedish-built Angermanaleven (1914/1,670 grt) which had been ceded to the British by her German owners as part of war reparations. Built for the Baltic, she had heavier plating and scantlings for navigation in light ice. The 230-ft. x 36-ft. ship, renamed Baychimo, sailed two weeks later for the north and established Pond's Inlet post during the voyage.
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| Replacing the venerable Pelican, Baychimo (above) was German-built in 1914 for the Baltic for Swedish owners. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
The schooner Barry, built by Butler of Harbour Grace, fitted with an auxilary motor and "especially strengthened to contend with ice" was ready in June for loading onto Nascopie during her call there.
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| Credit: Vancouver Sun, 20 February 1921. |
Nascopie, eight days out from St. Nazaire where she bunkered (not being able to do so at home owing to a coal strike), arrived at St. John's on 23 June 1921 "after a good run across." She left there on the 26th and arrived Montreal 1 July, and the Gazette the previous day noted that "her master, Capt. G.H Mead has the satisfaction of having had wireless apparatus installed. This, he says, will be of material assistance in navigating not the Belle Isle Straits, but will also enable the ship to keep in touch with its outposts in the Hudson Bay territory."
The arrival of the Nascopie or the Pelican is the signal for not only white fur traders but the natives and the shores are lined with Eskimos as well as trappers, miners and prospectors for hundreds of miles away about the time the steamer is expected. Icebergs echo the cheers of all alike when the first sign of the Nascopie's smoke is seen on the horizon. The Hudson Bay Company's boat is the real Santa Claus to the Arctic dwellers and there is unlimited joy in every post when the ship swings to anchor.
The work of unloading these steamers in the Arctic is not easy, owing to the fact that there is a rise and fall in the tide of 40 feet. But the post superintendent usually takes charge of the work and the Esquimeau women take their places besides their men and hum their particular songs as they roll barrels down the planks, sometimes into small boats, other times on the shore. The men of these tribes have a habit of slipping away until the work is over, then coming jauntily out with a look of surprise that so much should have been accommplished in their absence. Recently, however, the white men in charge of the posts have been educating the Eskimo men to do a little more work and not leave to much to the women.
The Vancouver Sun, 21 August 1921.
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| Passengers (and Capt. G.H. Mack in the centre second row) on the 1921 voyage. Credit: McCord Stewart Museum. |
Nascopie's 1921 voyage was recounted by an HBC Apprentice Clerk in The Beaver, January 1922:
June 26th, 1921— The H. B. Ss. Nascopie, unwitting servant of my sweet enterprise, bore me away from St. John’s, Newfoundland, at 6.45. 'Eight Bells’ has long since gone and so the block house must remain for many moons no other than a tender memory.
The day has been very fine. We have made great headway—passed Miquelon some time ago. Took some snaps to keep the memory of me green and lend a spur to generations yet unborn to venure forth and emulate my hardihood.
The journey has been scarcely commenced, yet how often has my fancy brought me to its end—up there among things of which the Great Company itself has but one or two who know— away north—hundreds of leagues inside the Arctic circle! Well, if I never really reach the end of this trail, I’m proud to be on the road with my present intentions. Ah, there must be no thought of failure, for if I but reach the end of this journey then shall my family’s coat of arms bear upon its escutcheon, E. & O. E.—‘Furthest North.'
June 27—Fine day, quite calm; averaging twelve knots. Passed Cape Ray, the southwesterly apex of the Terra Nova triangle, at 12.15 p.m. The boys played gramophone selections, such as 'Old Home of Mine,' 'Till We Meet Again,' etc., until they drove me to the deck with 'Memories.'
Bah! I must be stern, hard, leather-faced, for am I not one of the Arctic brotherhood—at least prospectively? Anyway, there is ample time for funny feelings, for Montreal is still a port of call. Besides, I think the boys should be a little more discreet.
June 28—Rain was the prelude of warmth and sunshine today. From noon onwards, holding about one mile from the shore, we steamed along the Gaspe coast. Passed Cape Chatham at 4.15 p.m. and at eleven picked up the pilot off Father Point.
June 29—Throughout the day we have quietly fought the tide of St. Lawrence, and there has been nothing to note save the things that occur in the ordinary voyage up the river.
June 30 to July 8—We reached Montreal at 3.45 a.m., on the thirtieth, and thereupon I determined to avert the tedium of chronicling the obvious conduct of one who soon would use this spot to jump off from civilized society, and, with but one event to disturb the even tenor of my way, nothing but the commonplace transpired. The life of the bell boy at a Montreal hotel is very full. I have no censure. I but speak of my constant desire for well-pressed trousers, a certain commission, its tardy fulfilment, an awkward imprisonment, the direct consequence of a scant wardrobe, and the inadvertency of the gentlemen above referred to. However, tomorrow I return to matters of which the world would be apprised.
July 9—Left Montreal at 10 a.m. with a miscellaneous ship’s company and cargo, bound for the north and the luring |unknown. If ye have tears, prepare to shed them now, brother apprentices! As far as I am concerned, the city is well lost to me, and this is a far, far better thing that I do now than I have ever done (for the civilized world), and so I go amongst the untamed—Pro Pelle Cutem.
July 10—Rev. Stewart, missionary to the north, conducted services. Captain Mack, of the H. B.C. transport service, broad of shoulder, of keen wit and jovial repartee, joined us at Father Point. We are told that he will help us to preserve our good spirits during the voyage. I am always pleased to meet the man who uses his own spirits in preserving others’.
July 12 — Left Father Point at 1.30 a.m. The day has been cool and foggy and we are amongst very heavy ice. We’ve been passing through the Straits of Belle Isle since 4 p.m. The Labrador coast is close. Cape Norman light faded from our vista at 8.45 p.m. As I write, the ship butts her way through the icefloes quite merrily. For this work indeed was she fashioned.
July 13—Still in the floes. Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner has nothing on us.
July 14—Arrived at the port of Grady 5.15 p.m. Picked up Ralph Parsons, manager of our district, who (so the boys tell me) would have the honourable gentlemen trading into Hudson’s Bay go into Baffin, and so, in their name, provided grub stakes and blankets for those whom he took further north to find new hunting grounds for the Company. Some twenty posts, all the way from Wolstenholme to Pond’s inlet, stand witnessing to the veracity of my brethren in pilgrimage.
We left Grady at 8 p.m., bound for the first post of the Hudson’s Bay Company on the Nascopie’s route—Port Burwell.
July 15—We have made fair progress during the day, in spite of the heavy floes that still beset us.
July 16—Averaged no more than five knots throughout the day, for Arctic ice is of a very hampering disposition.
July 17—The floes are loosening. We passed Cape Mugford at 10 p.m.
July 18—Entered Gray Straits at 11 a.m., to encounter more thickly packed ice than any we had hitherto met. At 7 p. m. we were held fast in the jam.
Photographed the apprentices while they stood on the ice that nipped our ship. Their experience had not hitherto comprehended the nature of the Arctic or the Arctic floes. I thought they looked a shaky lot. Silence, however, is very golden at times, and sympathy is a jewel. I remembered that the drunk who testifies to the unstability of the lamp-post is often the butt for the rebound of his accusation. Still, I’ll covertly remark that, fashion- ed in northern lands as I am, I did not feel that I had yet completely lost my element.
July 19—Jammed up to 4.30 p. m., at which hour, the ice having loosened, we recommenced threading our way by lakes and swotches through the pack. Tis cold. At 9.30 p.m.. Owing to a very dense fog, we called a halt. Button Islands are now abeam.
July 20—Took to the trail again through heavy ice. Clear water showed at 7 a.m. We were off Port Burwell at 8 p.m., but, owing to strong current we drifted, against our wishes, seventeen miles.
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| Nascopie at Port Burwell, July 1921. Credit:www.c-and-e-museum.org |
July 21—Arrived at Port Burwell at 6 a.m. ’Tis foggy and raining. Here we took on board Constable Butler, who was going 'outside' because of frozen feet. He had been out in a blizzard for thirty-six hours with no grub. The man he had with him as a guide was frozen to death. When the poor beggar was discovered after the blizzard he was in a sitting position with his hands over his eyes, waiting I suppose for the storm to clear; but he could not wait so long and so went out into the fairer day.
Braving rigors of which this tiny narrative is suggestive comes merely within the scope of the employment of the men of the Hudson’s Bay Company on the Far North Trail.
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| RCMP Constable Butler (right) who embarked in Nascopie at Port Burwell after barely surviving being stranded for 36 hours in a blizzard which killed his travelling companion. Butler was returning to undergo treatment for frostbite. Credit: www.c-and-e-museum.org |
July 22—Left Burwell at 5 a.m. There was a great quantity of ice around at the time and at 10 a. m. we had steamed into water quite rid of ice, and clear as far as the eye could see. We have had a chill wind blowing the whole day.
July 23—Mr. Parsons, accompanied by Messrs. Melton, Livingstone, Aitken and Eskimo Jimmie, left the Nascopie off Big Island, and by whale boat sailed to Lake Harbour, a heavy sea running the while.
Dr. Browne, of the Nascopie, shot and killed a bear at 6.50 p. m.
July 24—Expect to arrive at Wolstenholme shortly. Sighted polar bear and a few seals, but was unable to get near them. The ice is fairly close today. The fog has been so dense that we have been unable to see the land since 7 p. m. As we are very close to Wolstenholme, under present weather conditions the captain has decided to use nothing short of daylight to get into Wolstenholme.
July 25 to 29—We arrived at Wolstenholme at 6.30 a. m. on the twenty-fifth, and here I await the coming of the Ss. Baychimo (which ship does the more northern part of the transportation for the Hudson’s Bay Company), the Nascopie having sailed at 1 p. m. for Fort Churchill. I have looked over the post here and have found nothing that should worry the Company.
This is some breezy corner, I have been told, and during the five days I have spent here have seen no cause to doubt my informant that it is either raining, snowing, blowing, freezing or fogging at Wolstenholme the whole three hundred and sixty-five days of the year. Since I located here I have not seen the sun, and it’s either doing one of the five things mentioned above—or doing the whole five of them together.
Of the trip from Wolstenholme to the most northerly of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s posts I have made some jottings but, that this section of our itinerary should be the better chronicled and that matters may be given their proper place according to their true significance and importance, an abler and more experienced man will take up the burden of my tale.
Cargo of Reindeer for Canada. The Hudson Bay Company's steamship Nascopie has sailed from Norway with a full cargo of reindeer to initiate the reindeer culture project in Baffin Island. The animals will be bred for dairy products, meat hides and draught purposes, and if the venture proves a' success will supply the western Canadian market as well as the northern peoples' within a very few years. The company was incorporated under a dominion charter last May, with Mr. Stefansson, the organiser of the reindeer scheme, as one of the directors. It has obtained a large grazing territory on the southern part of Baffin Island.
Evening Telegram, 14 November 1921
There was no such thing as a "routine" year or voyage for Nascopie and whilst her tramping days were over for now, 1921 saw her undertake an "extra" run to the north on a most unusual mission. It had been decided "by the experts" that the Norwegian reindeer would thrive in Baffin Land and replenish the diminished caribou herds on the island. So Nascopie was chartered by the Canadian Department of the Interior to transport reindeer from Norway to their new home. Tasked with the logistics of the operation, HBC hired Ole Johneson and six Lapp families to act as herdsmen for the reindeer in summer 1921 and purchased 687 of the animals in Norway which were placed in quarantine before being embarked as well as being inspected by Dr. E.A. Watson, Chief Animal Pathologist of the Canadian Government. a Canadian Government hired pathologist.
So having completed her usual circuit of Hudson Bay posts, calling at Port Burwell, Chimo, Stupart's Bay, Wolstenholme, Lake Harbour and Dorset in Hudson Straits, then Port Churchill, Chesterfield, Repulse Bay, Harrison and Charlton Island on the western side of the Bay and north of it among the islands of Baffin Land, Nascopie would proceed to Cardiff with her cargo of fur, then coal and thence to Norway to embark 700 head of reindeer and take them to Baffin Land. The timeframe to accomplish all this was very short given the time of year and the prospects of yet another early winter. As the Montreal Star (16 September 1921) observed: "It is regarded by those who are aware of conditions up north in October as being a great commercial enterprise on the part of the Hudson's Bay Company and at the same time is a first class Arctic adventure. If the Nascopie gets in and gets away again her voyage will have established a record of which her captain and crew will be very proud."
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| Nascopie at Bugten, Norway where she embarked her unique cargo of reindeer for Baffin Land. Credit: saamiblog |
On 29 September 1921 Nascopie arrived at Port Burwell whence she would sail direct for Cardiff. Reported on 8 October to be en route to Cardiff, she loaded a cargo of coal there before proceeding to Namsos, Bugten-i-Alten and Loppen in Norway to embark the remaining 627 reindeer (60 having perished in quarantine). She also loaded 3,000 bags of moss for the reindeer to eat on the voyage across and embarked Ole Johenson and the six Lapp families to care for them. October is not an ideal time for a crossing from Norway to Baffin Land and it was a miserable voyage in stormy conditions and despite the best precautions, 67 of the reindeer did not survive the journey. On 1 November 1921 the surviving reindeer and the party of herdsmen were landed at Amadjuak, halfway between Lake Harbour and Cape Dorset.
The Evening Telegram (30 August 1922) detailed the voyage:
The trip from Bugten to Amedjuak was a trying one. A stormy passage and sea sickness caused much distress among the reindeer and a few died. A heavy storm held the steamer off Hudson Straits for some days. Ice began to worry the officer's of the ship before she finally reached Amadjuak on November 1. Ordinarily she bids final farewell to Hudson Straits in October for even then the Arctic cold warns that the surrounding waters may soon be an Impassable barrier of grinding ice.
With the season far spent the Nascopie's personnel and the reindeer party were faced with the task of landing about six hundred animals, without lighters or steamer pier, and with two miles of shallow water lying between them and a rocky beach. Necessity is the mother of invention. Two ships boats were lashed together and over their tops was built a closed In deck capable of holding upwards of forty reindeer. The animals were lowered into this and the improvised lighter was towed ashore by steam launch. As many as 217 reindeer were put ashore in one day in this way, until the six hundred animals stretched their stiffened legs in their new Canadian home and set their pace over the adjoining country to search for food. If fortune does not frown on the hopes of those responsible for placing them in Baffin Land, future generations of the Nascopie's reindeer will doubtless send forth tempting and savory odors to hungry Canadians from the kitchens of the Dominion. While the towing of the reindeer went on the mercury remained below the tero mark. A stiff wind blew, but this was some what of a blessing for its aid it was possible to keep the ice from forming over the adjoining water.
J. A. Mikkelborg, a Norwegian by birth, but for some years a resident of Canada as an official of the Hudson Bay Company, was left in charge of the reindeer and their tenders. The latter consisted of five Lapland families, including women and children. One hundred tons of supplies was left for the little colony. The officers and crew of the Nascopie assisted in putting together a frame structure for the use of Mr. Mikkelborg and his Norwegian assistant, known as a "reindeer leader," but the Laplanders planned to spend the winter in the tent like structures to which they have been accustomed through many generations in their own country. Already in November the temperature was ranging from zero to ten below and the ground was white with show. The Nascopie left Hudson Straits November 18, and arrived at St. John's Nfld. without incident, where she was awaited with increasing anxiety.
The following officers were on the Nascopie on her reindeer trip:—Captain G. E. Mack, Superintendent of Transport In Canada for the Hudson Bay Company; Captain G. H. Mead, Commander of the steamer; Chief Officer F. L. Coe; Second Officer J. H. Quick; Third Officer A. S. Watts; Chief Engineer J. Ledingham; Second Engineer A. H. Docherty; Third Engineer John Galbraith; Fourth Engineer R. H. Thomas.
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| Nascopie at Norway showing the long wooden stables built on her fore and after decks to house her compliment of reindeer. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Nascopie then proceeded to Lake Harbour to land 200 tons of coal and then had to put on all speed to clear the Straits before they heavily froze over.
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| Nascopie's "reindeer voyage" garnered her more publicity than any voyage to date. Credit: Rapid City Journal, 18 March 1922. |
On 4 November 1921, the Montreal Star reported that "Montrealers who feel the chill of early November morn are now reminded of the case of the Hudson's Bay Company steamer Nascopie, so well known in this port. The little trader has now broken all late records as far as commercial trading in the Arctic Circle goes. Her owners figure that she is in the Hudson Straits today, off Baffin Land, and is unloading or has unloaded her freight of seven hundred off head of Norwegian reindeer." It was added that the ship was at Harbor Lake and "land-locked between high bleak mountain ridges which shut off wireless communication both ways." The article stated that that the latest departure probably possible from the Straits before they froze over was 5 November and Nascopie not expected to reach St. John's until the 15th at the earliest.
Duty done and home, Nascopie arrived at St. John's at 1:00 a.m. on 22 November 1921, making the run from Port Burwell in just three and a half days. The Evening Telegram reported that "the ship reports exceptionally good weather north for this time of year. "
Back to a bit of between season tramping, Nascopie sailed to Halifax where she would take on a cargo of apples for England and sailed from St. John's after loading a consignment of salmon on 26 November 1921 for Liverpool.
1922
Another new ship entered the HBC fleet in 1922, the 1,391-grt, 212-ft.x 33.5 ft. Bayeskimo which had been purchased on the stocks at Ardrossan Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. Although her plating was strengthened forward, she did not have Nascopie's icebreaking capability. With her advent, Baychimo was transferred to HBC's Western Arctic operations based on Vancouver.
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| The little Bayeskimo sailing from Ardrossan, Scotland, on her maiden voyage in 1922. |
Captain Thomas F. Smellie resumed command of Nascopie in 1922 and sailed from England on 9 June for Botwood, Bay Roberts, and thence to Montreal, and arrived there on the 20th where she would load a number of boats built there for HBC to take north. She sailed on the 22nd and had two passengers for the crossing to Montreal.
The H.B.Ss. Nascopie left Montreal on July 8th 1922 with a full cargo for Hudson Bay posts. Mr. F. C. Ingrams, secretary to the governor and committee, Mrs. Ingrams and Master Robert Ingrams went as passengers. Captain Smellie is in command.
The Nascopie, which broke all records last year by making two voyage to the far north in a single season had no trouble in getting out this year and was not nipped in the ice at any point on her homeward journey.
The Montreal Star, 20 September 1922.
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| Nascopie arrives at Chesterfield Inlet, 9 August 1922. Credit: Knud Rasmussen photograph. |
Making "a splendid passage despite foggy weather," down from Port Burwell, Ungava Bay, having left on 11 September 1922, Nascopie came into St. John's on the 15th. Among her 12 passengers were one of the Lapp families returning to Norway who reported that the reindeer were "doing well in their new home, but they suffered some casualties during last winter."
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| Nascopie's cat and Buddy the polar bear cub get acquainted on her 1922 voyage. Credit: Frederck W. Bercham photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
She also carried a six-month-old polar bear cub, Buddy, who had been given to RCMP Sgt W.O. Douglas by the Inuit at Chesterfield Inlet. When he had outgrown sleeping by the end of his bed, it was arranged he would be transferred to Banff zoo and embarked on Nascopie with Sgt. Douglas who was returning on leave. Buddy howled as soon as he was put aboard and even managed to escape before sailing by climbing down the anchor chain and trying to swim for shore but boat was sent out for him and he climbed up an oar and into it and soon settle down to life aboard:
When the Hudson Bay steamer Nascopie came down to Newfoundland last autumn, Sergt. Douglas and Buddy were on the passenger list, and Buddy was the chief attraction. He made friends with all the crew, had the run of the whole boat and enjoyed a daily swim in a specially constructed tank. At St. John he was transferred to a mercantile steamer and brought to Montreal and there he was crated and rushed through express to Banff, where he arrived tired and dusty, but otherwise none the worse for his long and arduous trip.
The Canadian Magazine, September 1924
Buddy went on to a long and celebrated life at Banff Zoo to the delight of a generation of children there.
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| Credit: Montreal Star, 20 September 1922. |
Nascopie would sail direct for Cardiff to land her cargo of furs and left on 15 September 1922.
An Unusual Import. The ss. Nascopie recently arrived at Cardiff with an unusual consignment. Carrying a comparatively small parcel from Hudson Bay of undressed skins of various furbearing animals. There were over 170,000 skins of beautiful furs, porpoise and walrus hides, seal oil, animal ivory, spears, feathers, a canoe and various ethnological specimens. The whole weighed under 45 tons and yet the value of the consignment is estimated to be nearly £500,000. The whole parcel was sent to London by rail under the protection of the Great Western Railway Docks Police Department.
Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 12 October 1922
When Bayeskimo returned from Hudson Bay, it was reported that the reindeer herd on Baffin Island had diminished to just 160. The experiment had proved a failure when the animals did not find the moss growing on the island to their liking and most perished their first winter.
Nascopie spent autumn-winter 1922-23 in lay up on the River Dart, arriving at Dartmouth 4 October 1922.
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| An undated photo of Nascopie well "in the ice," possibly at Port Burwell, whose passengers and crew are feeding some tidbits to some of the local sled dogs. Credit: C.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
1923
Coming in for her annual refit, Nascopie arrived at Cardiff on 26 May 1923 from Dartmouth. Sailing from there on 15 June, she called at Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, on the 25th to embark a number of locally-built boats for shipment north, before proceeding to Montreal.
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With a cargo which included in the language of a shipping official, 'everything from a baby's feeding bottle to a tombstone,' the Hudson Bay Company steamer Nascopie, will leave this port on Saturday for the Arctic and will visit 23 trading posts which in the meantime have not been head from for in 12 months.
The Nascopie has been loading here for the past week and will be followed a week later by the Bayesquimeaux. The latter, however, will be send to St. James Bay, while the Nascopie must go to the most northerly post ever established by the company, namely, Pond's Inlet, Baffin Land.
This post was established two years ago and particular interest is being taken in the fortunes of this new venture. It was at Pond's Inlet that a shipment of 700 Norwegian reindeer was unloaded in 1921, the Nascopie making two trips to the Arctic that season. Reports were received that the imported reindeer had not fared too well in the matter of food and many of them had been killed by the natives.
Gazette, 10 July 1923
Among the cargo carried both by Nascopie and Bayeskimo that season were powerful Westinghouse receiving set to six of the outposts and these were tested en route, receiving quite clearly music broadcast from WBZ in Springfield, Mass.
Nascopie (Capt. T.F. Smellie) sailed from Montreal on 14 July 1923 and returned to St. John's on 5 October. The voyage expanded her itinerary north of Hudson Straits for the first time and she made maiden calls at Pangnirtung, Kekerton and Blacklead Island in Cumberland Sound and former whaling stations and established a new HBC posts at Clyde River, and called as far north as Pond's Inlet. After leaving Port Burwell, Nascopie encountered heavy ice in Hudson Strait and was icebound for days and encountered more ice in the western entrance to Hudson Strait on 29 July after calling at Wolstenholme.
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| Nascopie in heavy ice off The Buttons, near Lake Burwell on her 1923 voyage. Credit: Libraries and Archives Canada. |
When Nascopie arrived at Chesterfield Inlet, a southeast gale and heavy surf prevented unloading that evening. There, the world famous Danish polar explorer Peter Freuchen rowed out to the ship, presented himself to Capt. Smellie and explaining that his toes had been frostbitten that winter in Greenland, asked that ship's doctor amputate them. This was arranged for the next day ashore but that evening Freuchen was the honoured guest aboard and served the most elaborate meal he had enjoyed on months. The operation went off without a hitch, but under the chloroform, Freuchen "began a performance which Captain Smellie, after long years of experience, has classified as the most impressive he ever heard in the art and science of vituperation." The drug induced invective, morever, was delivered in English not Danish and the episode remained a favourite dinner antidote for Capt. Smellie for years.
Upon her return to St. John's on 5 October 1923, The Evening Telegraph reported that the "furthest point reached was the Hudson's Bay Post at Pond Inlet 72.42 lat. or 1,700 miles north of Winnipeg. The water in this vicinity was clear of field ice but icebergs were numerous. A lot of field ice was however encountered in Hudson's Bay on the way inward. The ship brought up a part general cargo of salmon, seal skins and furs. During the trip a new port was established at Clyde River." She brought in a full list of 27 HBC officials and began discharging her cargo at Harvey's pier including some for trans-shipment for Montreal in Manoa. She sailed on the 6th for Salmonier (Placentia Bay, Newfoundland) to load pitprops for England.
Nascopie arrived at Liverpool on 24 October 1923 and was laid up for the autumn and winter in Ardrossan, Scotland.
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| The cover of The Beaver, May 1924, featured Nascopie in the ice off Cape Wolstenholme on 10 August 1921. |
1924
Nascopie sailed from Ardrossan for Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, where she arrived on 26 June 1924 to load another consignment of locally built boats for the North and leaving there two days later, arrived at Montreal on 2 July.
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| Credit: Gazette, 3 July 1924. |
On her annual visit to the lonely trading stations around Hudson Bay, the Hudson Bay Company's steamer Nascopie, now in this port, will sail about July 14, with a cargo composed of everything from a statue for the Catholic Mission to phonographs for the factors and Indians. On the return voyage she will bring furs obtained by Indians since her visit last year, which the steamer will carry to London for disposal at the big November fur auctions. The Nascopie will also bring back from the Bay a certain amount of ivory, composed of walrus tusks and articles of Indian manufacture to sell curio hunters.
Evening Telegraph, 4 July 1924
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| Nascopie leaving Montreal: note the pile of boats carried as deck cargo fore and aft, many of which were built at Roberts Bay, Newfoundland. Credit: John M. Kinnaird photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
The Company’s supply boats, Nascopie and Bayeskimo, left Montreal on the 12th and 17th July, respectively, and so brought to a close one of the busiest periods of the year in the Montreal office. A number of the staff paid a visit to the boats when in dock and were pleased when the officers on board took them over and explained the many points of interest. The S.S. Nascopie sailed at 7 a.m., and it is only natural to suppose that the number of quayside supporters was very much smaller than it would have been had she chosen a more respectable hour for departure. However, those who were present had the satisfaction of seeing the object of their toil for many months past glide away into the distance.
The Beaver, August 1924
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| Fore deck of Nascopie showing the RCMP cutter Duncan being taken up North. Credit: Libraries and Archives Canada. |
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| Nascopie at Lake Harbour, south Baffin Island, August 1924. Credit: L.T. Burwash photograph, Libraries and Archives Canada. |
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| Nascopie and Bayeskimo at Lake Harbour in August 1924. Credit: Frederick W. Bercham photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Nascopie arrived at St. John's 7 October 1924, just two days out from Cartwright, and docked at the Furness Withy pier to land some of her cargo of herring and oil. She brought in 17 passengers from the North in addition to a polar bear which occupied a specially built kennel on deck. The officers and officials arriving aboard Nascopie confirmed disappointing news re. the reindeer experiment in Baffinland with the original 600-strong herd now down to 185 animals owing to the initial hard first winter and poor grazing. The project had already shown a considerable deficit and well below the anticipated 1,000-strong number expected by September 1924.
For the September 1924 issue of The Beaver, Nascopie's Chief Engineer J. Ledingham contributed another of his fine articles, based on that year's voyage.
Unless one is placed in somewhat similar circumstances, one cannot realize what the cry of 'the ship'? means to the lads at the Company's posts in isolated spots in Hudson Bay and Baffin Land. How they look forward to that event with no little excitement as ship time comes around! Then in a day or so the ship has come and gone. Undoubtedly the most important day in the year at the northern trading posts on the coast is the day the ship arrives; greater than Christmas Day or any other recognized holiday.
The ship’s annual visit to the Company’s posts in Hudson Bay and northern Baffin Land is an event looked forward to not only by those left in charge at these out-of-the-way spots but by those on the ship who are privileged to go from year to year (the writer has made fourteen such annual trips).
About the middle of July they know the ship is due to leave Montreal with all their requirements for the coming year. From records kept by them of previous years, they know almost to a day when to expect the ship. Some days before this they may be scaling the highest peaks in the vicinity to look for 'smoke,' as this is usually the herald of the ship’s approach. From the time the cry of 'the ship' arises until she is actually anchored, there is a feeling of importance and unrest at the station. Everyone talks about the ship; guessing who is on board and what new faces will appear.
After the first greetings are over, enquiry is for the 'packet box' with the most important item, the mail. News from home! While they are busy opening the mail and finding secluded corners to glance through the letters and the steward is busy giving the Eskimos a good tuck in, the crew are getting ready the cargo boats, and unloading commences. The natives are sent ashore to carry the packages from the boats to the store. For perhaps a day in some cases to a week in others, everyone is handling cargo and lending a hand generally to malit is not possible at all times to land cargo, Tides have to be taken into account, and most places are open roadsteads,where a sttrong breeze may make it impossible to work cargo. The doctor is also busily making his rounds, examining and treating natives for all kinds of ailments, pulling teeth, amputations, bandaging wounds. Whilst we were in port last year one Eskimo went to the R.C.M. Police for treatment for a sore throat. He was asked why he did not go to the doctor 'The doctor is cutting off fingers for a sore hand, and maybe he cut my head off for a sore throat.'
The natives dearly love a dance at ship time, and are greatly pleased if any from the ship attend.
Soon all the cargo is landed, the inspector has finished scrutinizing the post’s books, boats are hoisted on board, the Blue Peter is flying, passengers are aboard, hand-shaking again and, amidst firing of guns and many 'hurrahs' the ship heaves up anchor and slowly steams away out of sight around a bend.
At each post the procedure is much the same, until the last post is visited, cargo distributed and we leave them to their work and thoughts. We on the ship look forward to these annual visits and make the stay in port as pleasant and enjoyable as circumstances permit. By the end of October we are on our way south again to civilization.
Nascopie sailed from St. John's at noon 9 October 1924 for Liverpool and by the 24th was at Ardrossen, Scotland where she was laid up for the season.
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| Another fine portrait of Nascopie in the mid 'twenties by Capt. G.E. Mack. Credit: McCord Stewart Museum. |
In another excellent article published in The Beaver, December 1924, Nascopie's Chief Engineer J. Ledingham, provided first hand experience in navigating Hudson Bay and details of some of the principal ports of call on the ship's yearly voyage there.
The ice conditions in approaching Hudson Bay vary so much that one can never tell what to expect. Last year’s ice conditions are no criterion as to what this year’s are going to be. In my fifteen years’ experience of Hudson Bay work, I have never seen any two years alike. One year there may perhaps be no ice, the next it is loose and scattered, then again it may be met well down the Labrador coast and packed tight. Around Cape Chidley difficulty is almost always experienced and the ship has to make long detours around the Button Islands, some twenty-two in number, off Cape Chidley, often having to go almost across to Resolution Island and work along the north shore, then back across the straits to Port Burwell. To try to get through the Grey Straits between the Buttons and Cape Chidley when it is packed with ice is simply courting disaster, as the tides are very strong and may carry the ships too close to the rocks to be comfortable
When the ice from Davis Strait, Ungava Bay and Hudson Bay is all working out, it simply moves back and forth with the tides, unless there are strong steady winds.
Field ice is almost always to be met in the straits, sometimes loose and easy to force a passage, but often a tight jam, when progress can only be made as the tide rises and loosens the ice. On two occasions the entrance to Lake Harbour has been frozen over at ship time, when cargo had to be landed on the rocks near Beacon Island, some fifteen miles from the post.
The ship has been jammed for a week within sight of Wolstenholme, simply driving back and forth with the tides until there is a let-up somewhere. After passing Coats Island, the bay is generally free. Then, on the passage between: Churchill and Charlton Island, ice is very frequent met between Nelson river and Cape Henrietta’ Maria, and often the ice extends to the Bear Islands in James Bay.
HARBOURS AND ANCHORAGES AROUND HUDSON BAY
Port Burwell may be free of ice on entering, but a few hours after may be packed with ice. Landing cargo then is a difficult problem, boats and cargo having to be dragged over the ice. It is not a very safe anchorage at any time, as a big rock sticks up in the middle of what would otherwise be a nice harbour. The ship has to anchor very close to this rock, and one has to be always on watch to guard against the anchor dragging. Steam is always kept ready to move the ship at the slightest sign of danger. The post is situated up a little arm called Happy Valley. The Moravian mission has a station here and their own ship, the Harmony, calls each year. A representative of the R.C.M. police is here and acts as magistrate and customs officer. Port Burwell is on the whole a bleak and barren, desolate-looking spot.
Lake Harbour is almost at the western end of the straits on the north shore. After picking up the Eskimo pilot and his family, who are waiting at Beacon Island, we approach Lake Harbour through a narrow channel between the hills. It is about fifteen miles to the post. On the way we pass through the narrows, when one can almost touch the rocks on either side. After passing through, the inlet opens out into a fairly large sheltered harbour. Lake Harbour is about the one place one feels really safe at anchor. There is a tremendous rise and fall of the tide here—some thirty feet.
Wolstenholm harbour has a wide, open mouth and is exposed to strong winds, which come from the sea and down the valley behind the post. It is impossible to land cargo at times when a heavy surf is breaking over the beach.
Chesterfield has absolutely no shelter, and is exposed to all winds; bare, barren, weather-beaten rocks all round; gales very frequently. Last year the motor ship Fort Chesterfield, with both anchors down, was steaming for almost twenty-four hours to prevent her being driven ashore, several small craft being swamped. The Nascopie was kept in readiness at the “stand-by” during the gale.
Fort Churchill is a perfect nightmare of a place for the uninitiated mariner to try to enter; a very narrow entrance, with shoal water all around. The tide races through at the rate of eight knots. The bar is a boiling mass of jumbled water and keeps a man thinking, even though he knows there is plenty of water to float the ship. One heaves a sigh of relief after crossing the bar. The anchorage space inside is very limited, as the water shoals very rapidly. Discharging cargo. here, or at least getting it ashore, is none too pleasant, and the steam Launch and motor boats have many a tussle to get their tow ashore. Even then it is impossible to work excepting at half tides, especially if spring tides are running.
At Charlton Island the ship ties up a foot or two off the little pier, which is held fast by anchors on the off side and to stakes and anchors buried in the sand on shore. One bump of the ship against this pier, and the pier has gone west. It is only a temporary erection for ship time, and is dismantled as soon as the ship leaves. A swift current runs through the sound, and happens to be worst just at the pier. The Nascopie some years ago was swept away from the pier, but fortunately swung safely to her anchor.
The harbours mentioned are only a few of the many places the Nascopie has to go to, so it can be seen that one hasto be always on guard night and day watching for any untoward event which may occur, as a serious accident to the ship at any of these places might endanger the whole outfit to the posts.
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| Credit: Victoria Daily Times, 17 December 1924. |
On 17 December 1924 the Victoria Daily Times reported the prospect of big changes for Nascopie and HBC ships:
... some plans for changing the placing of their vessels, and the ss Baychimo, which previously operated in the waters of this coast and into the Arctic Ocean, will be replaced by the ss Nascopie. The latter vessel is a larger and stronger ship than the Baychimo, and has been working in Hudson's Bay and other more easterly parts.
The Nascopie is to be overhauled and considerably strengthened in her hull to make her fit for the rigors of the Arctic voyage. She proceeds northwards along the Pacific Coast of British Columba, rounds Alaska and passing Point Barrow enters the Polar seas.
It is understood, a dispatch from London states, that a new and superb Arctic ship of great power will shortly be laid down to the order of the Hudson's Bay Company for immediate construction and she will be in commission for the 1926 season. Whether she will operate out of Western Canadian ports or replace the Baychimo on the Atlantic coast is as yet unknown. The question has been asked, but is still unaswered. It was expected, however, that she will be kept on the Atlantic, but the possibility exists she may be sent to western waters.
Since the Hudson's Bay Company lost their schooner Lady Kindersley they have been planning a change in their fleet of vessels operating in Canada's waters. The new ship will make a valuable and useful addition to this fleet, and satisfies all the wants and desires of the company for the northern operations. The Nascopie is a ship of considerable size, and will take good care of the Arctic trade.
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| Nascopie laid up for the winter at Ardrossen, Scotland. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
1925
On 7 January 1925 The Province ended its own speculation that Nascopie would be transferred to HBC's Coronation Gulf route would, instead, remain on the Hudson Bay run "as the demands of the Atlantic business the company are too heavy for Baychimo to meet." Instead, that ship would ply the Western Arctic run. "A new ice vessel, 1,000 tons larger than the Nascopie, is to be laid down at once in British yards and will be ready for the 1926 season. Then the Nascopie will be brought to the Pacific and the Baychimo moved to other spheres of action." That, of course, would not materialise, either.
After laying idle at Ardrossen since 20 October 1924 (with Bayeskimo), Nascopie left on 25 June 1925 for Montreal direct where she arrived on 5 July.
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| Captain T.F. Smellie and officers on Nascopie's flying bridge, 1925. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
With the object of taking on stores and provisions for the Hudson's Bay Company posts along the Labrador coast, in Hudson and James Bay along both the southern and northern coasts of Baffin Land, the Nascopie, in command of Captain T. F. Smellie, arrived here yesterday after to join her much smaller sister the Bayeskimo, which, under the command of Captain J. Lloyd, is sailing tomorrow for the northern regions.
The Nascopie will set out on Saturday direct for Port Burwell, on the northwest extremity of Hudson Bay. She will then make for the Chesterfield Inlet, on the northwestern extremity and sail down to Fort Churchill and Charlton Island. On her way north again, she will call at Lake Harbor, where it is hoped to meet the Bayeskimo and hand over the furs collected from the posts up to that time, and she will then make for Pond's Inlet at the north of Baffin Land, while the Bayeskimo returns direct to Ardrossan. Quitting Pond's Inlet, she will call in at Cumberland Sound and at the Labrador ports of Cartwright and Rigolet before repairing to St. John, N.B. [sic. it was actually St. John's, NF] which is hoped to reach in October after three months away from civilization.
Gazette, 6 July 1925
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| Capt. Smellie and some of Nascopie's outbound passengers on the 1925 voyage which proved one of her most eventful. Note the ship's builder's plate on the superstructure bulkhead. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Nascopie entering Hudson Strait, July 1925. Credit: Frederick W. Bercham photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Hudson Strait. A typical "day at sea" for Nascopie on her 1925 voyage. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Hudson Strait, 1925: Nascopie early in her voyage North and her fore deck is packed with oil drums and a flotilla of boats for delivery to various posts en route. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart photograph. |
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| Nascopie at Charlton Inlet, 1925. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Nascopie was a tough vessel and a well-run one, but she was also a lucky ship and would prove never more so than in the mid 'twenties when the fates as well as the rigours of the Arctic played havoc with HBC's ships. In 1924, the HBC motor assisted schooner Lady Kindersley (1904) was wrecked off Herschel Island, Point Barrow, Alaska, after being nipped in the ice and crushed, loaded with machinery and stores and written off as a $420,000 loss.
The newest of the Company's fleet, Bayeskimo, had, it will be recalled, been purchased on the stocks and although her subsequent completion included strengthening of her hull for navigation in ice, she was no icebreaker like Nascopie and designed to cater to the closer in ports in the Bay rather than Baffin Land. Her 1925 voyage, which began from Ardrossan on 16 June and from Montreal on 7 July, was beset with difficulties. En route from Cartwright to Port Burwell, she was "nipped" by ice and began drifting with the pack toward the Labrador Reef off the Button Islands and worse, had broken her steering gear. Fortunately, Nascopie was nearby and made for Bayeskimo although it took a good six hours to reach her through the ice. A tow line was rigged and Nascopie managed to tow her fleetmate into Port Burwell for repairs. On 22 July with these completed, Nascopie sailed for Lake Harbour and Bayeskimo made for Fort Chimo.
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| Bayeskimo sinking in Ungava Bay, 23 July 1925, as photographed from one of her lifeboats. Credit: ICI Magazine, December 1950. |
The next day, 23 July 1925 found Nascopie in heavy ice off Lake Harbour when a distress call was received at 3:00 p.m. from Bayeskimo that she was holed by ice and sinking in Ungava Bay, some 155 miles distant. Capt. Smellie immediately changed Nascopie's course and made for the stricken vessel but even at full speed, it would take 11 hours to reach Bayeskimo's position and having to contend with the same ice that doomed her, it would actually be 16 hours before Nascopie could be on the scene.
With her no. 1 hold filling and the pumps not able to hold their own, Capt. Lloyd ordered Bayeskimo abandoned, putting his 42 crew and passengers into the boats with provisions and blankets. Capt. Lloyd was the last to leave Bayeskimo before she foundered after 8:00 p.m. on 23 July 1925. Unable to reach any land, the ship's company moored their boats to a large expanse of ice, built two shelters and started a beacon made of oil soaked blankets.
Now the Nascopie's engines were turning at their full limit. The ship cut through the icefields at thirteen knots. The ship lifted, rolled, shuddered and pitched. Every piece of crockery in use was broken. Passengers were flung from their bunks and the ship reverberated from stem to stern. On the bridge it was snowing, leads through the ice were poor, and after rain there came a mist. The telegraph remained at full speed.
Arctic Command
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| Marooned on an ice pack, Bayeskimo's officers, crew and passengers were doubtless relieved to see Nascopie's trademark tall funnel on the horizon the morning after their ship sank. Credit: www.ardrossanherald.com |
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| Nascopie had to crunch her way through the ice to reach the survivors. |
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| Credit: The Sphere, 26 September 1925 |
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| Providing practically "door to door" service, Nascopie as she drew up alongside the ice flow. Credit: Frederick W. Bercham photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
Making 13 knots when she was in the clear, the fastest she had steamed since trials, the gallant Nascopie came upon the scene at 7:00 a.m. the following morning, seeing the smoke on the horizon, and crunched her way through the ice until she was but a few hundreds yard off the ice floe that had served as the survivors "life raft." She took aboard Bayeskimo's people and landed them at Port Burwell the following day. They were eventually embarked on Harmony and taken to St. John's. The Company chartered Peveril to carry a whole new outfit to the remaining posts on Bayeskimo's route, but all her mail and parcels went down with the ship. Peveril left Montreal on 25 August and once again, HBC's Montreal shore staff had worked miracles in putting together an entire replacement outfit in a few weeks and dispatching before the weather closed in up North.
The Gazette of 25 July 1925 reported that Hudson's Bay Co. had placed an order for the new ship with the Ardrossan Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co., stating "it has not yet been divulged whether this vessel is to be run in connection with the Bayeskimo and Nascopie or if she is to replace one of them." Events had made it a moot point.
Now quite the celebrity, Nascopie completed her usual rounds. Delayed by heavy ice en route from Churchill, she arrived at Charlton Island, James Bay, on 17 August 1925, and met Peveril at Port Burwell in Hudson Bay, to collect the furs she loaded on her rounds. Nascopie arrived at St. John's on 13 October.
The steamer Nascopie, of the Hudson's Bay Company, arrived in port yesterday afternoon, after making her annual trip to the Hudson's Bay Posts. The ship went as far north as Pond's Inlet. The ice conditions were not nearly as had as might have, been expected, although some very heavy ice had to be contended with in crossing the Davis Straits. The Nascopie made all the usual ports of call, and it was found that the health of the people was excellent, and at no place was there sickness of any kind. On the return trip the weather was very stormy, and when at Port Burwell and Cape Chidley, two feet of snow covered the ground, and had every appearance of an early winter. Strong winds and heavy seas were encountered on the Labrador Coast, and when the Nascopie called at Cartwright on Sunday, a very heavy sea was running.
Evening Telegram, 14 October 1925
Nascopie sailed for England on 16 October 1925 and arrived at Liverpool on the 24th. Departing there on the 27th, she made for Androssan where she would be laid up on arrival on the 29th.
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| Nascopie (right) and Baychemo (centre) laid up at Ardrossen, Scotland in 1926. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Capt. Mack turning to his right captures Nascopie and her future fleetmate-- Bayrupert-- on the ways of the Ardrossan Shipbuilding Co. (see below the cranes on the far right) which was launched in March 1926. Credit: G.E. Mack, McCord Stewart Museum. |
1926
The big news that year was the introduction of the superb Bayrupert which, at 4,037 grt, was quite the finest ship ever built for the Hudson Bay Co. or indeed for commercial Arctic service. She arrived at Montreal on 19 June 1926.
Of course, like any new ship, Bayrupert denuded Nascopie of many of her long serving officers including Capt. T.F. Smellie who was replaced by Capt. F. Walker.
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| Capt. F. Walker who commanded Nascopie on her 1926 voyage. Credit: McCord Stewart Museum. |
Nascopie left Ardrossan on 16 June 1926 and arrived at St. John's on the 25th. There, she loaded about 450 tons of cargo for the north including provisions, 16 motor and Peterhead boats built during the winter and spring by the firm of Eb. & James Bowering, Bay Roberts W.; 30,000 ft. match lumber from Mr. John Bishop and about 1,000 salmon tierces from Wm. Dawe & Sons. Ltd. There was time for a match between the local Bay Roberts and Nascopie's football team, the ship's team lost 3-0. She sailed on the 27th with one passenger for Montreal. After calling en route at Sydney to coal, Nascopie arrived at Montreal on 1 July.
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| The Gazette in headlining the departures of "Nascopic" (sic) and Bayrupert made the former sound as if she had suddenly joined the White Star fleet. Credit: Gazette, 3 July 1926. |
For the first time ever, HBC would dispatch two vessels, both specifically designed and built for the purpose, to carry Outfit No. 257 North. Nascopie would be off first, 10 July 1926, followed by Bayrupert on the 15th. Both followed different routes and Nascopie was detailed to her usual Labrador and Baffin Land route, calling as far north as Pond's Inlet and the new ship would make the rounds of James Bay and lower Hudson Bay. Nascopie would establish two new HBC trading posts on this voyage, the most northern in their network, at Tukik and Sikinik.
This morning will see the departure of the S.S. Nascopie with stores for the Hudson's Bay Company posts in the north of Canada. She is due to sail at 10 o'clock from Sutherland Pier-- foot of Nicolet Street-- and will carry eighteen officials of the company, three ladies and a number of live animals, in addition to her crew.
Two of the ladies are accompanying their husbands, who are going to take over two of the posts, while the third is to rejoin her husband who is already in the North.
The animals on board include twenty pigs, six sheep and some poultry. Much amusement was occasioned when the swine were taken aboard, for they set despairing wails at the head of their gangplank. These stopped, while they were being drawn aboard, but recommenced when they were finally set on the steamer's deck.
The first port of call will be Port Burwell, situated at the northern end of the Labrador coast, but located in Quebec Province and fronting on Ungava Bay. The Nascopie will afterwards call at Lake Harbor, Amadjuak, Dorset, Wolstenholme, Southampton Island and, returning through the Hudson Strait, will stop at Fort Chimo at the foot of Ungava Bay. Thence she will proceed through Davis Strait, seperating Baffin Land from Greenland, and call in at Cumberland Gulf, River Clyde and Ponds Inlet. Ponts Inlet, the latitude of which is 72.40 North, is the most northerly post of the company at which the steamer will call.
The return will be made via Davis Strait to Rigolet and Cartwright, on the southern Labrador coast, and then the Nascopie will put in to St. John's, Nfld., to coal for her voyage across the Atlantic, direct to Ardrossan.
Gazette, 10 July 1926
Nascopie returned to St. John's on 17 October 1926 and after coaling at Sydney, arrived at Ardrossen on 10 November. She would have but a brief refit and respite for on the 3rd, it had been announced that she would be returning the Newfoundland seasonal seal-fishery under charter to Bowring Brothers Ltd. for the coming spring and would be commanded by the famous Capt. A. Kean. It would be a welcome off season employment for the ship rather than sit idle in Ardrossan for another winter and the ship would come over in early February to St. John's to prepare for the sealing season.
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| Nascopie back "at The Front" for the 1927 seal hunt. Credit: Frederick W. Bercham photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
1927
On 14 January 1927, The Guardian (Bay Roberts) reported Bowring Bros' fleet for the upcoming sealing season: "Five ships, including the Nascopie, which will be commanded by Capt. Abram Kean, will prosecute the voyage. The Terra Nova will be commanded by Capt. Wes. Kean; the Ranger by Capt. A. Kean, Jr., formerly second hand on the Terra Nova; the Eagle by Capt. A. Blackwood and the Viking by Capt. Geo. Whitely."
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| Nascopie, more accustomed to breaking through ice in the Arctic, came into St. John's after her first winter North Atlantic crossing in some years, encrusted with it. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Credit: Daily News, 14 February 1927. |
Making her first winter North Atlantic crossing in some years, Nascopie (Capt. G. E.Mack) arrived at St. John's on 13 February 1927 after a rough 11-day passage from Ardrossan. "Head winds and heavy seas were encountered and the ship was enveloped in water at times which with the frost coated her with ice. She came through, however, without damage. The ship reported having steamed through 150 miles of ice." (Daily News, 14 February 1927). She brought a cargo of coal and general goods. The process of fitting her out for sealing began when this was discharged.
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| Capt. A. Kean on the bridge of Nascopie; Newfoundland's most successful seal hunter, he would command the ship on her final charters for the sealing seasons 1927-30. Credit: Memorial University of Newfoundland, Mike Walsh Album of Sealing Photographs. |
As during her previous stints sealing, Nascopie was commanded by a different captain for the purpose and it would be a true legend of the seal hunt: Abram Kean who, in 38 years, had commanded nine ships and landed a total of 800,000 seals including an all time record for one voyage of 46,481 in 1916 in Florizel.
With beautiful weather prevailing and amidst the tooting of the horns of shipping in the harbor as well as their own sirens, the sealing fleet sailed for the icefields on Saturday afternoon. Not for years have so many people been on the waterfront to watch the fleet sail, practically every wharf being lined off with people and the piers from which the steamers sailed were crowded with people to with the seal hunters bumper trips and safe return.
The Daily News, 7 March 1927
The sealing fleet sailed at 4:00 p.m. on 5 March 1927 with a total of 1,610 men going out with the fleet, including 250 aboard Nascopie. As in the past few seasons, an Avro spotting plane, with skis and capable of taking off and landing on ice, was carried with the sealing fleet and was placed aboard Nascopie on the 3rd, Capt. Caldwell being the pilot. Previously, the plane had spotted seals, but the ships could not reach them owing to ice conditions.
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| Seal Spotter: the Avro biplane carried aboard Nascopie during the 1927 hunt which took off and landed on ice floes but whilst it could spot seal herds, it did not ensure they could be reached over the expanses of ice between them and the ship. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Nascopie unloading the biplane surrounded by ice during the 1927 hunt. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| A lonely looking Nascopie in the ice whilst sealing, 1927. Credit: shipsnostalgia.com, sebastapol. |
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| Seal hunters returning to Nascopie, 1927. Credit: G.E. Mack photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Nascopie "Unloading seals at Job's Wharf, St. John's 1927". Credit: Frederick W. Bercham photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
It proved a successful return to the icefields for Nascopie and on 15 March 1927 the Daily News reported that 60,000 seals were taken on the first day's kill and that "The Nascopie's men did a great day's work, killing 16,000" and had 4,000 already on board. Blizzard conditions ensued and on the 16th, Nascopie reported "11,000 on board and stowed, 2,500 on deck; and 64 flags on pans" and on the 16th, 18,000 aboard. By 6 April, Nascopie had 31,300 to her credit, by far the most of any ship of the fleet, of the total of 155,475 to date. It was reported that seals were in abundance but ice conditions were dire. She arrived back at St. John's on the 17th and four days later had had landed 29,200 seal skins when unloading had been completed on the 23rd, the total being tallied at 37,351, earning each of the 251 men $85.03 each.
Job's had Nascopie on charter through May and as before the war, put her to work hauling iron ore from Newfoundland to Sydney, NS, and back with coal. With a final consignment of coal, Nascopie arrived at St. John's from Sydney on 27 May 1927 after a smart 38-hour passage. She also landed two passengers.
On 16 June 1927 the Daily News reported that Nascopie had been in drydock for "some repairs last week" was now in the stream for coaling and would sail towards the end of the month for Montreal. Commanded by Capt. G.E. Mack, she arrived at Montreal on 6 July and Capt. Mack would take her north the first time in ten years.
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| Credit: Gazette, 7 July 1927. |
As the previous year, Nascopie and Bayrupert would make their own independent routes north with the new ship off on her second voyage on 11 July and Nascopie the following day. She would go direct to Port Burwell and then Lake Harbor, Dorset, Chesterfield, Wolstenholme and, back through the Hudson Strait to head north through Davis Strait to make the usual calls on Baffin Island as well as Sikinik on North Somerset Island before returning to St. John's.
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| Practically every canoe, still the no. 1 watercraft of HBC, came to Hudson Bay aboard Nascopie and her fleetmates and the consignment for 1927 was especially impressive. Credit: John M. Kinnaird photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
For the first time, HBC ships would carry stores for the trading posts of their great rival, the French firm of Revillon Freres Trading Co., Ltd., when it was decided to sell their two motor assisted schooners to HBC which would employed them in the salmon trade.
In a season that witnessed the first solo nonstop trans-Atlantic flight, Nascopie, too, benefited from the wonders of modern technology in the form of a radio telephone, installed by the Canadian Marconi Co., as well as shortwave receiving set. Finally, she would be able to communicate with the posts she would visit prior to arrival.
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| Credit: Montreal Daily Star, 12 July 1927. |
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| Nascopie "in the ice," location unknown but judging from the pile of canoes still atop her poop deckhouse, early in her 1927 voyage. Credit: John M. Kinnaird photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
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| Another view of an icebound Nascopie on the 1927 trip. Credit:John M. Kinnaird photograph, McCord Stewart Museum |
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| Nascopie passing through ice. Credit: John M. Kinnaird photograph, McCord Stewart Museum |
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| Nascopie looking forward with some of the beautiful Newfoundland-built boats she was transporting north on deck along with a considerable quantity of oil drums. She would return with the drums from the past season refilled with whale and seal oil. Credit: John M. Kinnaird photograph, McCord Stewart Museum |
Hudson's Bay Co. suffered their third and worst shipping loss in just three years when, on 22 July 1927, the year-old Bayrupert, impaled herself on a rock half way up the Labrador coast and whilst all aboard were rescued, the magnificent ship was lost on a barely begun voyage and only her second.
It was immediately arranged to have Nascopie make a second voyage north from St. John's, and to facilitate the time for this, her planned calls at Ponds Inlet and Sikinik in the far north of Baffin Land would instead be made by Fort Garry and Fort James and additional supplies were quickly assembled in Montreal and dispatched to St. John's to await the arrival of Nascopie.
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| Credit: Daily News, 25 August 1927. |
Nascopie returned from the North to St. John's on 24 August 1927 and the voyage was summed by by the Daily News that following day: "The ship called at the company posts as far north as Fort Chesterfield and made all calls intended. During the summer the weather was on the whole splendid, and not for years has so little ice been seen, so that the trip was more pleasant than in other years. The ship found the natives at all placed well after the winter, and nothing unusual happened during that time. The furring season was fairly good one and a large shipment was brought back." She landed three passengers and docked at the Furness Withy pier. There, she hastily loaded the duplicate outfit to replace that lost aboard Bayrupert, which had arrived from Montreal aboard Karmony.
The Daily News of 2 September 1927 reported that "the supplies to be sent to Hudson's Bay to replace those lost on the S.S. Bayrupert have now all been loaded on board the S.S. Nascopie which is berthed in the stream. The ship is loaded to capacity last night and will sail this morning carried a full deck load being laden very deeply."
On the way home, Port Burwell, never an easy port owing to its rocks which prevented ships from deploying sufficient anchor chain, kept Nascopie steaming against her anchors for 48 hours during a howling gale that risked collision with two other vessels in harbour, one of which was driven up on the rocks in the storm.
Not the first polar bear to be a passenger aboard Nascopie, the female which arrived at St. John's on 17 November 1927, elicited the Daily News reported "many people have visited the ship to see this strange visitor. Molasses sugar it appears to relish, but has an uncertain temper all its own."
We understand that extensive alterations have been made in the ship's accommodation this year to provide for an increasing number of passengers.
The Beaver, March 1928
Although Nascopie's winter lay-up at Ardrossan, where she arrived on 1 December 1927 from Liverpool, was comparatively brief, it was a busy one during which her accommodation was "enlarged and improved" (details of which are obscure) and her trademark funnel shortened by a quarter which elicited The Beaver, September 1928, to comment: "Since her last appearance in Montreal, the Nascopie's passenger accommodation has been enlarged and improved. Her funnel has been shortened, which, we fear, will cause some doubt as to her identity when the expectant staff and natives sight her in the distance approaching the various posts."
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| Undated photograph of Nascopie at St. John's during sealing season showing her slightly shorter funnel following her winter 1927 overhaul. Credit: Libraries and Archives Canada. |
1928
Nascopie would return to the Newfoundland seal hunt in 1928 and as announced in a radio interview by R.B. Job on 27 January, this would total 11 vessels, including the Red Cross liner Silvia, the first oil-fired ship to be so employed. Nascopie, again commanded by Capt. A. Kean, would be chartered to Bowring Bros. which would operate her along with Terra Nova, Silvia, Eagle, Ranger and Viking.
Nascopie left Adrossan for St. John's on 15 February 1928.
The fleet sailed on 5 March 1928, but the hunt initially hampered by a gale with snow on the 9-10th. By 20 March, Nascopie reported having killed 7,000 seals of the total 96,000 catch to date, and by the 18th, her number was 13,000. By the time Nascopie returned to St. John's on 17 April, the fifth of the fleet to do so, she had 21,156 pelts. Total catch that year was 227,022.
Although Canada's northlands still hold an element of romance for the town-dweller, they are annually the known rendezvous of Hudson's Bay Company steamer, which carry the stores for a series of posts and collect the pelts that dame fashion decrees shall grace the shoulders of her city-haunting sex. The sixteen-year-old S.S. Nascopie, well-known in Montreal and Hudson Bay, and the S.S. Ungava, also familiar to traders along the shores of Hudson Bay and Labrador, will this year supply the needs of isolated posts.
The Nascopie will make eighteen calls in Hudson Strait, Hudson Bay and James Bay, while the Ungava will venture within thirteen degrees of the North Pole, carrying stores to the Hudson's Bay Company post at Pond's Inlet, located in the northern tip of Baffin Island, and in what is sometimes called Cockburn Land.
Gazette, 28 June 1928
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| Job Bros. Ungava at Roberts Bay, Newfoundland. Credit: https://mha.mun.ca/Munn-Godden Collection |
Still reeling from the loss of Bayrupert, HBC had not elected to replace her with another newbuilding, and instead purchased a substantial share in Job Bros. of St. John's, Newfoundland, and chartered their Ungava (1918/1,914 grt) to share that years' outfit delivery with Nascopie which would make only one call on the Labrador coast, at Cartwright, and leave the supply of the Moravian mission stations to Ungava.
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| Capt. J.W. Murray, Master of Nascopie 1928-30. |
Nascopie (Capt. John W. Murray) left St. John's on 27 June 1928 for Sydney (30) to bunker and arrived at Montreal on 3 July. She would sail on the 12th, preceded by Ungava which departed on the 9th.
A welcome and most useful addition to Nascopie's bridge equipment introduced that season was a gyro compass, avoiding the often severe magnetic influences encountered in the far north especially in the later parts of the voyage to Chesterfield Inlet that rendered standard compasses quite useless.
That year, there were more passengers than usual with 40 booked in Nascopie, among them Bishop Anderson going to Moosonee in James Bay, and two RCMP constables destined for Port Burwell and the other for Chesterfield Inlet. Among those on the return leg of the voyage were Squadron Leader T.A. Lawrence and nine fliers who had engaged in the Hudson Strait navigation trials (testing radio beacons as a guide to navigation in the far north) who embarked at Port Burwell on 1 September 1928 for passage to St. John's, thence to Ottawa via Sydney. Their planes were dismantled and shipped aboard Larch for Halifax.
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| Nascopie with shorter funnel anchored off Cartwright, Labador, July 1928. Credit: University of Alberta archives, via http://russelbrothers.ca/ |
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| Nascopie anchored off Cartwright, Labador, July 1928. Credit: University of Alberta archives, via http://russelbrothers.ca/ |
During the voyage, an outbreak of influenza was raging at Wakeham Bay and the ship's doctor was afraid of it being transmitted to the next port of call, Lake Harbour where he prohibited the Inuit pproaching the ship and the cargo was discharged by those aboard, fearing the strain of influenza infected mostly the natives. Bishop Anderson arranged instead a service to the Eskimos who came off the ship in six or seven whaleboats. Shore contact was also prohibited during the subsequent calls at Port Harrison, Cape Smith, Wolstenholme and Amadjuak. The surgeon's theory that the influenza only infected Eskimos was disproved when he and half a dozen other aboard eventually contracted the virus.
What had been a fair weather voyage deteriorated the last six weeks when fog and gales were encountered. At Cape Smith, Nascopie had to remain outside the harbour for two days owing to a storm and dragged her sole remaining anchor at Port Burwell in the teeth of gale there. Just missing a reef, Nascopie was able to make for the open sea and ride out the storm while Ungava, in port at the same time, lost eight boats lashed to her decks in the storm.
Nascopie returned to St. John's on 12 September 1928 and when she arrived at Liverpool on the 21st, her cargo, including a large consignment of very valuable silver fox pelts, was estimated to be worth £250,000. She arrived at Ardrossan on the 23rd and laid up there for remainder of the year.
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| Nascopie sporting her shortened funnel unloading cargo at an unidentified port, c. 1928-30. Credit: John M. Kinnaird photograph, McCord Stewart Museum. |
1929
Given HBC's investment in Job Bros., it was not surprising that Nascopie would be sailing for them not Bowrings on the 1929 seal hunt. She departed Ardrossan on 24 January 1929 for St. John's and with the rest of sealing fleet, numbering 11 steamers and two auxiliary schooners, sailed from St. John's on 7 March 1929.
By 25 March 1929, Nascopie had reported 19,000 seals on board and her finally tally was 27,220, earning each of her 250 men $64.88 each. She and Ungava were the last of the original fleet out to return and Nascopie had aboard the crew of 23 from the small steamer Florencia which had been nipped in the ice and crushed on 24 April. They arrived at St. John's on the 28th.
Nascopie herself had been damaged by the heavy ice encountered and on 12 March 1929 her Chief Engineer wrote in his log: "Ice rafting tremendous pressure both sides aft pressure moving aft and caught rudder, star quarter block wheel carried off deck broken in 8 pieces. Bridge stanchions beset. Steering wheel split, chain drum shaft star side at engine twisted. Propeller jammed could not move engines. In my experience this is the heaviest ice and worst year for ice. Rafting so much no layman can credit what ice pressure can do, how quick it rafts and lets up again so quickly." (The Beaver, September 1947).
Fully repaired, Nascopie left St. John's for Montreal and called at Sydney on 3 July 1929 to coal before arriving on the 8th to load for the North.
For 1929, Baychimo would depart Vancouver for the western Arctic on 7 July, Nascopie to arrive Montreal on the 6th to load, Ungava to reach Quebec the 8th for minor repairs before proceding to Montreal and loading and a newcomer, the 600-grt Baynain, which had been recently purchased, would sail directly from St. John's for Labrador. That season would see the establishment of the first hospital for Eskimos in the eastern Arctic, at Nain, on the Labrador coast, midway between Hamiliton Inlet and Port Burwell. This would care for residents within a 100-mile radius and staffed by a nurse, Miss Somers, from London.
The Nascopie was gaily bedecked with bunting and flag, which were flown, rainbow fashion, from masthead, but she bore clear evidence of being on a trading mission. Her decks were piled high with heterogeneous freight which included pigs and fowl in specially constructed quarteres, numerous drums of gasoline for the auxiliary schooners and motor launched operated by the Hudson's Bay Company officials and even the well-to-do natives. Every available portion of the vessel's deck was utilized, through there was a section of the promenade deck left vacant for the passengers to obtain a little exercise. The holds were filled with boxed products, and flour in sacks, but careful storage was necessary in order that the cargo for each port might be removed without disturbing what remained. On deck, there were a number of motor launched schooners with auxiliary engines, whale boats and canoes, but each was well secured to withstand any heavy sea that might be encountered.
Gazette, 17 July 1929
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| Windsor Star, 18 July 1929. |
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| Credit: Philadephia Inquirer, 27 April 1930. |
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| Group portait of the passengers aboard Nascopie's 1929 voyage. Credit: Libraries and Archives Canada. |
So it was that Nascopie (Capt. J.W. Murray) began her voyage north for 1929 on 17 July. Among her passengers were a number of young HBC apprentices going out on their first postings, Anglican and Catholic missionaries and an ornithologist, starting a one-year projecting studying and collecting birds, insects and animals of Southampton Island. There were also two Eskimo boys, "Ben" and "Sam" aged 10 and 12, who had been brought to Canada by Bishop Anderson and sent to Brookfield School, but they had been found unable to physically cope with all the diseases common "down south" including measles, diptheria, chickenpox, scarlet fever etc. and reluctantly returning home.
After a "quick" trip North, Nascopie returned to St. John's on 30 September 1929
Nascopie sailed from St. John's 3 October 1929 for Liverpool, arriving on the 11th. Other than her far more valuable cargo of furs, she had a more symbolic item on her bill of lading-- the first shipment of No. 1 Northern Manitoba hard wheat, prepared by the James Richardson & Co. and shipped over the temporary rails of the new railroad to Fort Churchill, to arrive in England. Beothic brought the grain (totalling one-ton made up in two-pound packages) from Churchill to St. John's and it was loaded on Nascopie for England. Nascopie arrived at Adrossan on 13 October for lay-up.
Canada, largely defined and unified as a nation by the transcontinental railroad, had been content not to extend its railroad network north from its great Prairies north to the Hudson Bay until farmers, complaining of the monopoly of the Canadian Pacific, prevailed on Ottawa to build an alternative line from The Pas to Churchill. The port was named after John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough and Governor of The Hudson's Bay Co. from 1685-91. In 1787, Thomas Staynor, the Chief Factor, reported that "The harbour of Churchill is the finest in the bay for the ship and where her cargo could be the soonest discharged."
Construction of the 500-mile Hudson Bay Railway, begun in 1906, was disrupted by the war and high costs after it and was not resumed until 1927. Accomplished in miserable conditions at the rate of mile a day, the last spike was driven in on 3 April 1929. There was finally a railroad link to a major HBC post, but with no port to speak of, it would be another two years until a modern Port Churchill with a large concrete pier and grain loading facilities could be constructed. The never fulfilled the ambitions of Prairie wheat growers but it and Port Churchill would manifestly improve transportation and tourism to northern Manitoba and reorient Hudson's Bay Co.'s supply to its posts away from the traditional route from England via Montreal. And it was Nascopie that was the very first to carry, albeitly symbolically, the first cargo via the new link. It would be the first of "Ship of State" duties for the old workhorse that would be a feature of the ensuing decade.
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| Nascopie showing her slightly shortened funnel. Credit: The Beaver December 1929. |
1930
Nascopie arrived at St. John's from Ardrossan on 20 February 1930 with a cargo of coal. With the rest of the sealing ships, she sailed on 8 March and two days later was reported to be leading the fleet abeam of Cape Bonavista. That season offered much ice and more seals and when Nascopie returned to St. John's, the evening of 19 April, her arrival heralded by firing two rockets, it was reported she had 31,500 pelts aboard. When she completed discharging at Job Bros. pier on the 24, her total was 32,261, second in the sealing fleet that year only to Ungava's 37,177.
Nascopie had damaged some plates in the ice during the season and was drydocked at St. John's for repairs and undocked on 5 June 1930.
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| The Winnipeg Tribune 19 July 1930 |
Once more away to the North for furs to adorn the shoulders of feminine figures through the world, the trim S.S. Nascopie sailed at 10 o'clock yesterday morning for the Arctic regions. This Hudson's Bay Company steamer leaves every year with stores and supplies for personnel at posts in Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay, proceeding afterward up Davis Strait to Ponds Inlet at the upper extremity of Baffin Island. Loaded to the her marks, the Nascopie presented a pretty picture as she sailed away with her strings of flags and pennants fluttering in the bright morning sunshine. A gather of close on a hundred raised a cheer as she slid swiftly down the St. Lawrence after turning in the upper harbour, many among the crowd being members of the company's local staff. Their office was closed to enable everyone to attend this departure, and some ten or twelve women and girls extended a particularly warm send-off to the group of apprentices going north for the first time. As the ship pulled away from her berth at Tarte Pier, a handful of coppers wsa thrown aboard to interrupt a rendition of 'Auld Lang Syne,' but this offering was quickly flung back shore where it could be put to better service than in the land of the Eskimo.
Among the cargo were a horse, a cow, pigs and sheep, which gave audible evidence of their presence on board as the ship set her course for the sea. The decks were piled high with drums of oil and gasoline, together with a number of canoes, dorys, motor launches and sailing craft. Revillon Freres, who have several posts in the north, also shipped a quantity of stores and supplies by the Nascopie. She was well trimmed, and departure was made according to schedule through the efforts of her shipping agents here, J.F. Whitney and Company, who succeeded in obtaining two tugs at the stipulated hour.
Gazette, 16 July 1930
Chief Engineer J. Ledingham contributed another of his fine articles to The Beaver (December 1930) on that year's voyage North:
The voyage of the good ship Nascopie to Hudson Bay, 1930, will long be remembered by those who had the good fortune to travel on her as a very, very pleasant and happy one. Starting from Montreal on July 15, under a brilliant summer sky, the ship, bedecked with flags and deeply laden, was given a rousing send-off by the gaily dressed crowd who lined the dock wall: our Montreal staff, with friends and relatives of those embarking (some for the first time), to follow in the footsteps of the great Company of Adventurers who, for 261 years, have kept the Hudson's Bay Company flag flying, from Montreal, northward, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and emulating the lead and deeds given by men whose names will ever live in the history of Canada, men such as Strathcona, Simpson, Hearne, and others.
The past voyage has been eventful in many ways. At first, little things seemed to go wrong; but these were overcome, so that eventually the sun shone through again and our hoodoo vanished. Although smooth sailing can nearly always be reckoned on, that arch-fiend fog comes down just when it is least wanted; then there is a bit of bother with ice for a few days. Ice alone is not so bad, but coupled with fog it is a real nuisance and requires careful navigation. The propeller strikes great pans of ice, with ledged projecting many feet under water, stopping the engines completely, and causing everyone to wonder how the blades can stand up to the severe knocks and strains. But the Nascopie just seems to nose her way through it all, and safely reaches her desired haven.
We are kept in touch with the outside world by daily news bulletins, thanks to our efficient wireless installation. In the evenings the grammophone is kept going and community singing is in full swing, as the words and tunes become familiar under the leadership of our dapper 'Paul Whiteman,' who wields the baton.
Broadcasting each evening by the chief factor enables the men at the posts to know where the ship is and when to expect her. One of distinguished passengers is my old friend Archdeacon Fleming, 'Archdeacon of the Arctic,' who is doing yeoman service among the Eskimo and carrying on the good work commenced by dear old Dr. Peck over forty years ago. At every opportunity, a simple service is held by him for his beloved friends, the Eskimo.
Open-air services with the mosquitos buzzing round his head, services held in a shed, in the dim light of the ship's tween decks, baptisms, weddings, and I am sorry to say, deaths and burial services, have we watched the archdeacon perform with all the love and whole-heartedness he puts into his work.
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| Ford wedding aboard Nascopie. Credit: The Beaver, December 1930. |
An eventful wedding was held in the ship's saloon on the afternoon of September 1, after we had left Port Burwell for Pond's Inlet, the happy couple being Abram Ford and Clara Ford, daughter of our old friend Chelsey Ford, known to all who have ever passed through Port Burwell. Captain Murray gave the bride away, J. Drummond-Hay fulfilling the duties of best man. After the service, a reception was held in the saloon. A really beautiful four-tied wedding cake graced the table, made and decorated by the bride herself. The bride's health was drunk, short speeches made by several of those present. We wish long life and happiness to Mr. and Mrs. Abram Ford.
A few hours after our arrival at Chesterfield Inlet, a seven passenger Fairchild wasp seaplane, piloted by Mr. Spence, of the Dominion Explorers, landed beside the Nascopie. On speaking to Mr. Spence, he told us that he had been aboard the Baychimo only four days before at Coppermine River, a trip which, a few years ago, was impossible in summer, and is a long hard trip in winter if attempted to-day.
A notable feat in building was performed whilst at Sugluk. In five hours a new house was almost completely built, sills laid, floored, joists on four sides up, completely boarded on three sides, and roof rafters in place, under the leadership of John Mercer, of Bay Roberts. Only with many willing hands and minus mosquitoes could this rapid work be done. It was a creditable performance for amateur carpenters.
An enjoyable day's fishing in Port Harrison River by Colonel Reid and the writer ended in twenty-two good-sized trout being landed.
Crossing the Arctic Circle, bound for 'Pond's,' the usual ceremony was held, and Dr. McKenna, Messrs. Drummond-Hay, Mercer and Adams, and Constable Kerr were admitted to the Arctic Brotherhood in due and ancient form and given the circle shake.
Nascopie left Port Burwell on 19 September 1930 and arrived at St. John's on the 29th. Among those disembarking were Mr. Ralph Parsons, HBC District Manager, and Rev. Archdeacon Fleming. She sailed direct for Ardrossan on 2 October and docked there on the 10th.
Destined not to turn a screw for two and three-quarter years, Nascopie missed two successive "outfit" deliveries and would never return to the sealing trade. She was not idled by any of the perils of her well-coursed route or any mechanical or structural failure nor superannuated at age 18, but like so many British merchantmen of the time by the ever reaching effects of the Great Depression and in particular its considerable impact on her owners. With their business rooted in the fur and retail trade (in Canada where like the United States the 'twenties boom went bust in an alarming fashion), Canadian land and export wheat and other commodities, Hudson's Bay Co. were particularly hard hit. Moreover, the nature of the fur trade built around an annual hunting season and fur auctions, made it a business cycle that was slow to react to quickly changing market and sale conditions.
With the white fox fad already on the wane, fur prices had already begun to fall from 1927-28 and the fur sale for 1929 in October was just before the U.S. stock market "crash" that month and according to HBS' annual report, "furs led the way in the falling of commodity prices" with successive declines in January and May 1930 sales with prices 40 per cent lower.
For strictly economy reasons, Nascopie was laid up at Ardrossan from 10 October 1930 and joined by Baynain on 15 November.
1931
The Depression would also impact the seal trade and this plus the diminishing returns caused by weather and over hunting, would see the Newfoundland seal fishery begin its slow decline. Given their interest in Job Bros., this only contributed to financial pressures on HBC. There would be no charter of Nascopie for the 1930 sealing season and instead, HBC would charter Job Bros.' Ungava for that year's outfit (no. 230) delivery.
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| Credit: The Beaver. |
On the 15th July, the S.S. Ungava left Montreal for her annual voyage to the Company's posts on the Labrador, Hudson Strait, around Hundson Bay and on the northern shore of Baffin Island. She will visit in all about twenty of the Company's posts.
Owing to the large amount of the Company's supplies for posts on Hudson Bay having been shipped this year by rail via Churchill, it was only necessary to send one vessel into the Bay, and the veteran vessel of the Company's ocean-going fleet, the S.S. Nascopie, had not been put into commission this year.
The Beaver, September 1931
1932
Steadfast in economising their operating costs, HBC kept Nascopie idle that year and sold Baynain to Far East buyers, making Nascopie the last of their deep ocean fleet. As the year before, Ungava was chartered to take Outfit 233 north.
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| Credit: The Beaver. |
On July 9 the Company's S.S. Ungava left Montreal, with Captain Thomas F. Smellie in command. The Ungava is a trim screw steamer of close to three thousand tons capacity. She sailed with the usual miscellaneous cargo and a full compliment of passengers, and this year flew the Royal Mail flag, for she carried the supplies and personnel of the Department of Interior and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in former years conveyed on the steamer chartered by the Department of Interior, the S.S. Boethic, which, for reasons of economy, did not make the voyage this year.
The Beaver, September 1932
However, 1932 saw HBC's losses pared from the £465,000 the previous year to £52,000.
He would imagine a prosperous Canada and an unprosperous Hudson's Bay Company, but he could not imagine a prosperous Hudson's Bay Company and an unprosperous Canada. The welfare of Canada and its people meant everything to this company.
P. Ashley Cooper, General Court of the Governor,
Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay,
London 28 April 1933.
So ended Nascopie's "golden age" as a faithful servant to the "Ancient and Honourable Company," tarnished a bit by Depression induced idleness, but merely a respite before a new phase in her career serving country as well as company and expanding her horizons further west as well as north.
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| Nascopie and CGS N.B. McLean off Wolstenholme as depicted in HBC's 1933 calendar. |
Science has not yet succeeded in discovering any substitute for the famous Hudson's Bay ship, Nascopie. She takes the greatest risks on every trip through the Arctic ice floes. Her itinerary carries her within eight hundred miles of the North Pole. So far she has weather all storms and survived all dangers.
And today she goes on her way with the cheers of sailormen ringing in her crew's ears and with the good wishes of every Canadian who is proud of his country and of the gallant men who serve her within the Arctic regiones. They have won a reputation second to none in the Empire today, and they are maintaining it unsullied through the years.
The Winnipeg Tribune, 29 July 1936.
Nascopie sails at 10 a.m. flying the Hudson's Bay Company flag, the 'red duster' of the British Merchant Marine and the red and white pennant that proclaims she is carrying His Majesty's mail.
The Gazette, 8 July 1939.
They were dubbed "Ships of State"-- the iconic flagships of the great maritime nations that summed up both the individual characters and ambitions of their countries and the virulent nationalism of the 'Thirties-- Queen Mary, Bremen, Rex-- and yes, even the aged little Nascopie. She returned to service in 1933 not just for Hudson's Bay Co. but chartered, too, by the Dominion Government to undertake the annual Eastern Arctic Patrol which supplied the RMCP posts, carried the Royal Mail and "showed the flag" in Canada's northernmost frontier-- The True North, Strong and Free-- of anthem verse and geographic sovereignty. So it was that the London registered, British-owned and mostly Newfoundlander crewed Nascopie assumed the role of Canadian Arctic Ship of State. More importantly to the isolated communities and posts she served, "The Ship" was back...
The newly federated Canada, small in population and epic in size, first defined her national cohesiveness with the trans-continental railway built by Canadian Pacific Railway Co. which linked the new Dominion "from East to Western seas" across more than 3,400 miles. Yet, Canada also extends some 2,900 miles from north to south (Ellesmere Island, NWT to Lake Erie, Ontario), her three northern most territories comprising 40 per cent of the country's landmass. All this, of course, was secured to the Crown through the enterprise of Hudson's Bay Co. dating to their charter by King Charles II in 1670. Two hundred years later the northern territories passed to the Dominion of Canada and in 1880 Britain transferred all of her possessions in the Arctic to Canada.
Hudson's Bay Co. remained the biggest presence in the region and initially Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic was more symbolic at a time when the development of the vast Prairie provinces were the focus of national enterprise. However, the ensuing 30 years saw a Golden Age of Arctic exploration by America and Norway planting their flags in the frozen expanses and prompting an increasing Crown presence in the region. In response, the Canadian Government commenced periodic voyages to the Eastern Arctic by the 1880s and in 1897 the "Arctic Patrols" began along with the establishment of permanent Royal Canadian Mounted Police stations, mostly in the existing HBC trading posts, starting in 1903. Expansion of the Canadian Arctic included Baffin Land and Ellesmere Island in the first decade of the new century.
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| CGS Arctic at Pond Inlet, 1923. Credit: YK Museum Soc./NWT Archives |
After the First World War, Canada's claim to sovereignty over the Arctic was increasingly challenged by the United States and Denmark and countered by an expansion of RCMP posts at Craig Harbour, Ellesmere Island, and Pond Inlet on Baffin Island. In an effort to further demonstrate her sovereignty over northern territories, in 1922 Canada began an annual patrol to the eastern Arctic to establish and maintain police posts. These "sovereignty cruises" were initially undertaken by CGS Arctic (1904/762 grt) under the leadership of Capt. Joseph-Elzéar Bernier, Canada's greatest Arctic explorer and numbered among their passengers civil servants, doctors, scientists, court officials and RCMP personnel The ageing wooden hulled Arctic was replaced in 1926 by the chartered Job Bros. sealer Beothic which carried on until 1932.
In 1930 the Canadian Government commissioned the 3,254-grt twin-screw icebreaker CGS N.B. McLean, built by the Halifax Shipyard, which was based in the Hudson Straits to facilitate shipping to and from Port Churchill and she would also make annual trips into Hudson Bay and the Arctic independent of the annual East Arctic Patrol.
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| The chartered Job Bros. sealer Beothic off Pond Inlet during the first of her Eastern Arctic Patrol voyages in 1926. Credit: William John Job photograph, McCord Stewart Museum |
For 1932, the Dominion Government and HBC successfully shared the charter of Ungava on a combined voyage from Montreal on 9 July that acted as that year's Eastern Arctic Patrol as well as deliver the annual HBC outfit. This set the stage for further co-operation and a new beginning for Nascopie.
The transformed logistics afforded by Port Churchill, a budget conscious Canadian government wishing to end the costly chartering a standalone vessel for the Eastern Arctic patrol, a markedly improved financial position of HBC and a realisation that the small Ungava was inadequate to the task coalesced into a decision to reactivate Nascopie and return her to service. She would do so refitted with expanded accommodation and readapted to serve the purposes of both HBC and the Dominion Government and indeed her previous route already duplicated much of the Arctic Patrol. HBC billed the Government about $20,000 initially per voyage for 20 berths and 400 tons of cargo; by 1935 the cost was $26,000.
Additionally, for the first time, HBC would be able to offer a few berths for commercial passengers desiring to undertake one of the most unusual and exotic of cruises. Finally, it was decided for reasons of efficiency and economy that Nascopie be homeported in Montreal year-round and commence and end her annual outfit voyage there rather than from Scotland. Her operations, too, would now be managed from the Winnipeg office rather than from London.
Nascopie would re-enter service a more Canadian ship in purpose and in symbolism and her activities assumed much more of a public interest and press exposure than hitherto as The Ship of State of The True North.
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| Credit: The Beaver, March 1933 |
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| The Royal Mail pennant at Nascopie's foremast, 7 September 1933, at Robertson Bay, Greenland, 740 miles from the North Pole. Credit: The Beaver. |
1933
On 15 February 1933 the Edmonton Journal reported that Capt. T.F. Smellie, who had commanded Nascopie in 1917-19 and 1922-25, was to leave the city the following week "for Scotland to supervise work on the company's ice-breaker Nascopie. Captain Smellie will sail the vessel back to this side of the Atlantic and will command the ship when she leaves Montreal on July 8 on a three-months cruise of northern waters. The Nascopie, for first time, will have accommodation for 40 cabin passengers." The Daily News (St. John's) of 4 March reported that "Captain Smellie, taking Captain Robt Randall as chief officer and Mr. L. McCrudden as chief steward and a number of seamen from here, will proceed by the next Furness liner from this port to the Old Country to bring out the ice-breaker Nascopie."
Soon the Hudson's Bay Company refurbished the Nascopie, installed extra cabins and baths , and made an open bid for the tourist trade . Circulars and folders were distributed and advertisements appeared in a few magazines for 'A Summer Cruise to the Arctic.' It wasn't long before more applications were being received than could be handled . Many Americans and Canadians were willing to pay $650 apiece for a three-months ' Arctic tour . A half -dozen or more of them, women as well as men, were on the passenger list each summer.
Canada Moves North.
On 17 March 1933 the Hon. J.A. Merkley, Minister of Labor and Industries, announced that that "arrangements have been made whereby the Hudson Bay Company's boat the S.S. Nascopie will be placed into service for the first time for tourist traffic into the Hudson Bay and northern seas."
The Hudson's Bay Company announced that a special cruise to Hudson Bay and the Eastern Arctic will be made this year for the first time in conjunction with the Government and company officials. In view of the fact that two rail connections with Hudson Bay are now available, termini having been established at Churchill, Manitoba, and Moosonee, Ontario, the voyage can be divided into three sections. The elapsed time from Montreal to Moonsonee will be thirty days, and forty days from here to Churchill. The roundtrip, from Montreal to St. John's, Nfld., will last ninety days, and the cost will be between $850 and $1,000, the rates including berth and meals. Passengers may also enjoy a five-day trip to Cartwright, on the Labrador Coast, returning directly to St. John's by mail steamer, or join the ship at either Moonsonee or Churchille for the most northerly section of the voyage.
The Gazette, 28 March 1933
Sailing from Montreal about July 8, the Nascopie will steam down the St. Lawrence, following the North Shore to the Strait of Belle Isle, and then up the rugged coast of Labrador to Cartwright, the oldest trading post on the coast, and one of the centres of activity of the International Grenfell Association. Continuing northwards, the powerful vessel will pass sailing ships of the Newfoundland fishing fleet, and make a call at Port Burwell, Que, at the eastern proximity of Hudson Strait, where the first Eskimos may been seen.
Calls will be made at posts along Hudson Strait, such as Lake Harbour, on Baffin Island; Stupart's Bay, Sugluk West and Wolstenholm, at the western end of the Strait, and then the Nascopie will turn south into Hudson Bay, where a stop is to be made at Charleton Island. Passengers may proceed by motor launch from there to Moose Factory and Moosonee, the terminus of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway. Churchill, with its new elevator and port equipment, will be next port at which the Nascopie calls on her long itinerary, before starting forth on her second trip through the Hudson Strait, calling first at Southampton Island, at the base of Fox Channel, down which heavy ice surges from the North, and again at Wostenholme. Crossing the Strait, a stop will be made at Cape Dorset, a second at Lake Harbour and another at Port Burwell.
Then commences the drive north, up Davis Strait to Ellesmere Island, calling at Craig Harbor, six hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle. This is the most northerly point at which the Nascopie is scheduled to call, although an attempt may be made to continue through to Bache Peninsular, only 660 miles from the Pole, provided ice conditions permit.
Among other calls, Dundas Harbor, Ponds Inlet, Clyde and Pangnirtung appear on the published itinerary, and final halts at Port Burwell and Cartwright before the cruise is ended at St. John's, Newfoundland, from which return to Montreal may be made by one of the several steamers operating regularly on the St. Lawrence route.
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The voyage (delivering HBC Outfit no. 234 and the 11th Eastern Arctic Patrol) would call at 25 ports, dsitributed supplies to 47 government and trading posts and cover some 12,000 miles.
Cartwright 12 July
Port Burwell 16 July
Lake Harbor 20 July
Stuparts Bay 23 July
Sugluk 26 July
Wolstenholme 28 July
Cape Smith 31 July
Port Harrison 3 August
Charlton 8 August
Churchill 15 August
Southampton Island 20 August
Wolstenholme 23 August
Dorset 25 August
Lake Harbor 28 August
Port Burwell 31 August
Dundas Harbour 7 September
Craig Harbor 10 September
Ponds Inlet 13 September
Clyde 17 September
Pandnirtung 21 September
Port Burwell 26 September
Cartwright 1 October
St. John's 7 October
Refitted by the Ardrossen Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Co., Nascopie's accommodation was expanded with cabins built forward on Shelter Deck and she could carry 36 passengers in in eight four-berth and four single-berth cabins. Her saloon was expanded as well. A welcome and practical addition was refrigeration equipment for stores and provisions markedly improving the food aboard whilst modern radio communication was installed along with a depth sounder on the bridge which was invaluable given the poorly charted waters Nascopie navigated. Materially improving the working of cargo were two specially constructed wooden barges, one 34 ft.-long and the other 30 ft.-long, each powered by twin gasoline engines, and capable of carrying 15 tons each. These were based at Cartwright and taken aboard there and carried on the fore deck. Finally, Nascopie's crew was increased to 50.
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| Credit: Star-Phoenix, 18 May 1933. |
Nascopie would return to service as a fully fledged Royal Mail Ship with her own postmaster aboard and on 8 May 1933 it was announced that a "Mail Service for the Arctic" had been established in connection with the upcoming July voyage. "Mail for the area to be served should be addressed to the addressee at his nearest post office care of S.S. Nascopie, Montreal, before the date of the vessel's departure. The following example has been given by postal authorities: "John Doe, Cartwright, for Frenchman's Island, c-o S.S. Nascopie, Montreal."
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When the Hudson's Bay Company steamer Nascopie casts off from Alexandra Pier Saturday and noses her way down the St. Lawrence to commence a four-month trip to the Arctic, the red and white Royal Mail pennant wil, for the first time in history, fly from the foremast, indicating that the boat is an official mail steamer.
Inspector T.V. Sandys-Wunch will be in charge of the RCMP detachment on the boat and will also act as postmaster, as the Nascopie is carrying a large amount of mail to northern posts.
Montreal Star, 5 July 1933
Owing to some back and forth with the postal authorities as to who would serve as postmaster aboard the ship (initially this was assigned to the commander of the RCMP detachment), Nascopie would remain an "S.S." (the "H.B.S.S." was dropped due to her new dual role) until granted the prefix "R.M.S." in 1935, but granted the privilege of flying the Royal Mail Pennant upon returning service.
Henceforth, Nascopie's annual Arctic Patrol was of special interest to philatelists worldwide who collected postmarks from the northernmost post offices in the British Empire. Indeed, the 1933 voyage was the last to feature that of Dundas Harbour, closed that year, which passed the honour to Craig Harbour on Ellesmere Island, 700 miles from the North Pole. HBC printed special envelopes for each trip and mail posted from Nascopie assumed proportions far greater than the tiny communities she served.
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| Credit: Vancouver Daily News Herald, 23 May 1933. |
Among the earliest passengers to be booked for the first trip was announced on 8 May 1933 at Ottawa at the annual meeting of the Boy Scouts Association that a Scout would travel at the invitation of the Hudson's Bay Co. On the 22nd it was announced that 17-year-old Eric Liddell of Vancouver had been selected to make the voyage as the Canada's outstanding Boy Scout with 38 badges.
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| Credit: The Beaver, June 1933. |
For the first time HBC printed a brochure and placed modest advertisements for the voyage as an "Eastern Arctic Cruise" in The Beaver. With space for only half a dozen commercial passengers and the considerable press coverage, that was enough. Applications were made through the Fur Trade Commissioner of the Winnipeg office.
If the return of Nascopie was a new beginning for the ship, it also marked the end of a 265-year-old tradition. Since 1668 when Nonsuch sailed from Gravesend for Hudson's Bay, the Company's annual outfit had always originated from Britain. The departure of Nascopie from Androssan on 16 June 1933, marked the last "Fur Ship" to sail from British waters.
When the Hudson's Bay Company steamer Nascopie, left Ardrossan Harbour early this morning for the Arctic, a 265 year old tradition of trading between these regions and London and Clyde ports will be broken.
Aboard the Nascopie yesterday, a farewell luncheon was given by the company at which Mr. P. Ashley Cooper, the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company was the principal guest.
With modern improvements in communication and transport and regular ocean services, it was no longer necessary for the Company to send a ship from the Clyde to the Arctic. He anticipated that the Nascopie would remain permanently in Canadian waters, and her fur collections each year would be shipped to England by the regular liners.
Western Daily Press and Bristol Mirror, 17 June 1933
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| Left to right: Mr. Chadwick Brooks, Secretary Hudson's Bay Company; Captain W.L. Hope, pilot; and Mr. P. Ashley Cooper, Governor of the Company. Credit: The Beaver, September 1933. |
In recognition of the occasion of the final HBC Outfit sailing direct from Britain, Governor Mr. P. Ashley Cooper made a special and adventurous flying visit to Ardrossan to wish Nascopie, Capt. Smellie and crew a fond farewell as described in The Beaver, September 1933:
The Governor of the Company, Mr. Ashley Cooper, is a busy man and at one time it seemed he would be unable to achieve his desire to mark the occasion by a visit of inspection to the Nascopie and wish Captain Smellie, his officers and crew Godspeed.
However, in the same way that the aeroplane in 1932 made possible visits to various of the Company's fur trade posts in the Northwest Territories, so, with similar facilities, the Governor was able to make the visit to the Nascopie.
On the evening of 15th June, the Governor left Croydon air port in a de Haviland Push Moth piloted by Captain W.L. Hope, of King's Cup fame, accompanied by Mr. J. Chadwick Brooks, the secretary, in a similar aeroplane piloted by Captain Allen.
The flight over the Midlands and the West Coast from Liverpool docks to Solway Firth proved most interesting. An unexpected thrill was experience amongst the Ayrshire mountains, when the travellers, when with twenty miles of their destination encountered a severe storm, the mountains becoming enveloped in dark, heavy clouds. Captain Hope, who was navigating on behalf of both planes, decided that owing to the threating conditions, which were gradually becoming worse, it would be possible to get through, and therefore reluctantly altered his course with the intention of returning to Solway Firth, thence to proceed north again, if possible, by the coast. In the rapidly gathering gloom of Scotch mist and driving rain, visibility was very bad and, under prevailing conditions, it was not a matter of surprise that the two small 'planes lost sight of each other. After a few anxious minutes of search, however, contact was again established and the flight southward resumed.
Shortly afterwards, Captain Hope saw a break in the heavy clouds to the westward, and rapidly changed direction, followed by Captain Allen, the mountains were safely negotiated and at 9.30 p.m. a perfect landing was made on the race course at Ayr. The night was spent at Ayr, famous as the birth-place of the poet Robert Burns, and the journey to Ardrossan was continued by car the following morning, the Governor and the secretary arriving about 11 a.m. on board the Nascopie, which was flying the Governor's flag and fully 'dressed' for the occasion.
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| Credit: Illustrated London News, 1 July 1933. |
After a complete inspection of the vessel, the Governor and the secretary attended a luncheon in the saloon, at which Captain Smellie presided, the company present including representatives of shipping, country and municipal interests.
After the luncheon the Governor addressed the company as follows:
'Captain Smellie and Gentlemen, in the first place may I welcome here Provost McDowal and Mr. Wood, representing the Borough of Ardrossan. We are glad to see also Mr. Kincaid, Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Hopperton and the rest of you gentlemen who have done us the honour of coming here today….
It gives me very great pleasure to meet you all on board our good ship the Nascopie on an occasion which is a memorable one in the history of the Company, of which I have the honour to be Governor.
Two hundred and sixty-five years ago, on the 30th March 1668, the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay purchase for 290 their first vessel, the Nonsuch, a ketch of about fifty tons. On the 3rd June in that year she set sail with forty-two souls on board, carrying the British flag to the shores of Hudson's Bay.
Since that day the world has seen great changes in many directions, and not the least have seen in the building of ships. The Nonsuch was a small wooden vessel: to-day we see in the Nascopie a steamer of steel, with modern machinery, equiped with wireless and specially strengthened for ice. Capt. Smellie will tell you that this enables him to steer the vessel through the ice field with perfect confidence.
Throughout the years since 1668 the ships of the Hudson's Bay Company have left these shores with supplies of mechandise, food stuffs, etc., for the fur trading post in the Arctic, returning in due course with cargoes of fine furs. …
To-day, therefore, we break with a tradition that is two hundred and sixty-five years old, and this may indeed be the last occasion on which the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company will make an inspect of the Company's vessels on this side. Of how few things can it be said without emotion, 'It is for the last time!'…
With the transfer of the Nascopie to Canadian waters, the last of our London shipping interests, which at one time were of great proportions, disappears….
It now only remains for me to express my pleasure in having been able to take the opportunity of inspecting the vessel before departure and ask you to join with me in drinking the health of Captain Smellie, the officers and crew, and wishing them Godspeed and a prosperous and pleasant voyage.
Gentlemen, the toast is, Captain Smellie and the Ship's Company of the Nascopie.'
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| The Governor of HBC (left), Capt. Smellie (centre) and Chief Engineer Newlands (right) and other officers aboard Nascopie. Credit: The Beaver, September 1933. |
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| 'Will Ye No Come Back Again?' Nascopie sails for the last time from Ardrossan, Scotland, 16 June 1933. Credit: The Beaver September 1933. |
Entirely transformed for the carriage of passengers to the Eastern Arctic, the well-known Hudson's Bay Company steamer arrived here yesterday afternoon from Ardrossan to load stores and supplies for the northern trading posts, and to embark a number of Government officials in addition to ordinary passengers seeking new experiences along the route to be followed by this steamer in the next four months.
Gazette 30 June 1933
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| Credit: Gazette, 30 June 1933. |
After a three-year absence, Nascopie returned to Montreal on 29 June 1933, docking at Alexandra Pier at 3:30 p.m.
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| RCMP Inspector T.V. Sandys Wunsch, Maj. D.L. McKeand and the Rt. Rev. A.L. Fleming, Bishop of the Arctic aboard Nascopie. Credit: eBay auction photo. |
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| HBC's Ralph Parsons and Capt. Smellie during the 1933 voyage. Credit: David L. McKeand photograph, Libraries and Archives Canada |
In addition to Scout Eric Liddell, the passengers for the voyage included Bishop Turquetil (boarding at Churchill) and Archdeacon A.L. Fleming. Also boarding at Churchill on 18 August was Russell Owen, special correspondent of the New York Times and German tourist Colin von Ross. The other tourists were J.J. Heard, a lawyer from Pittsburgh and his son; W.C.S. McLure, MP and his daughter and journalist H. O'Neill from Newark. In all, five passengers embarked in Montreal and four in Churchill. HBC personnel included Ralph Parsons, Fur Trade Commissioner, George Watson, manager of the St. Lawrence-Ungava District, William Richie, super cargo on his 14th voyage north, J.M. Saunders and A.B. Fraser, post managers. Led by Major David L. McKeand, the government party included an historian/secretary, a botanist, a meteorologist, medical officer and a geologist. The RCMP Detachment led by Inspector T.V. Sandys-Wunch, comprised two Corporals and one Constable making the round trip, and a Corporal relieving the men of the Bache Peninsula post which was being closed and its duties transferred to Craig Harbour. Three representatives of the Revillon Freres Trading Company were also aboard.
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| Credit: Vancouver News Herald, 17 July 1933 |
Following several long blasts of the whistle and a shout from the shore of the customary good-byes, the trim little vessel, Nascopie, left with her interesting list of passengers and precious cargo for Canadian Arctic on Saturday morning. There was no delay in the scheduled departure, and as there is much sea to cover and the possibilities of delays on such a journey the master of this Hudson's Bay Company steamer, Captain T.F. Smellie, lost no time in getting underway for his ten thousand-mile voyage, one expected to occupy about three months.
Although each year the company's ships have been leaving this port packed with their large variety of articles, intended to give necessities, comforts, and even some of the luxuries of civilization to those who have to spend long months cut off from the rest of the world at trading posts in the far north, seldom has a more interesting assortment been taken by any of the boats than that of the Nascopie. And when the vessel drew away from Alexandra pier on Saturday the wonder was, where all the stores and cargo which had been gathered on the dock had been stored.
Gazette, 10 July 1933
Everyone was excited to have Nascopie back in service and sailing again for the Arctic except the pilot who overslept and arrived at the pier by taxi at 10:20 a.m, 20 minutes after she was to have sailed.
This first Eastern Arctic Patrol took Nascopie farther north than she had yet ventured: Dundas Harbour on Devon Island, Craig Harbour on Ellesmere Island and… the most northern point she would ever call: Robertson Fjord in Greenland.
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| Credit: The Beaver. |
Nascopie arrived at Port Burwell on 18 July 1933 after making a good passage out except when heavy pan ice was encountered coming out from Ungava Bay and speed had to be reduced to only five knots. A highlight of the voyage was the call at Cartwright where the 24 planes of the Italian trans-Atlantic air armada, commanded by General Italo Balbo, was anchored. On the 29th, Nascopie and CGS N.B. McLean were together in Eric Cove, at the western entrance to Hudson, across from Nottingham Island, and Nascopie proceeded to Charlton, experiencing fog, loose ice and unseasonably cold weather en route, where seven of her passengers landed on 7 August to travel to Moonsonee and home via the T&NO Railway.
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| Nascopie off Charlton Island 9 August 1933. Credit: Libraries and Archives Canada. |
From Charlton, Nascopie carried on to Churchill on 10 August 1933 and thence began the northern leg of her voyage. On the 12th it was reported that Dr. M.O. Malte, Dominion botanist of the expedition, had taken ill aboard the ship and rushed to Moonsonee but died on the train en route to Winnipeg.
Flying the house flag of the Hudson Bay Company and red and white ensign of the Royal Mail, surmounted by the Union Back, the S.S. Nascopie docked here at 11:30 a.m. from Montreal and intermediate points.
Star-Phoenix, 15 August 1933
After a four-day run across Hudson Bay, retarded by heavy ice en route, Nascopie arrived at Churchill on 14 August 1933. There, she loaded 80 tons of cargo for the north including 180 bales of buffalo skins for the Eskimos while her passengers "spent the day taking snaps of white whales, the sled dogs of the trappers and the industrial activity along the quays." She also transferred coal and other supplies destined for Chesterfield to Ocean Eagle for transhippment to avoid any potential weather delays there and another benefit of the new port of Churchill.
Nascopie sailed from Churchill at 7:45 a.m. on 16 August 1933. Northward, bound for Baffin Island, she encountered little ice but passing the Arctic Circle on the 29th, reporting to be 98 miles more of Cape Walsingham, en route to Craig Harbour, she was met with "howling northeasterly gales, snow and cold weather." Expected to reach Craig Harbour on 1 September, the seas were so rough she did not arrive until the 3rd and it took three days to land stores owing to the high seas. Nascopie then sailed to Robertson Bay on the Greenland Coast to return three Greenland Eskimo families who had been employed at Dundas Point. A courtesy call was made at Godhaven, Greenland, for meetings with Danish officials there. The voyage to Greenland enjoyed clear weather and smooth seas, but encountered many icebergs drifting south. On the way home, Nascopie made her second call at Port Burwell on the 20th, at the entrance to Hudson Straits, and would call at Cartwright before proceeding to St. John's where she arrived on the 27th.
Sturdy little craft that annually plows her way through the sullen Arctic seas, the Hudson's Bay company steamer Nascopie returned to civilization Wednesday. Her decks crowded with waving passengers, her motley signal flags tossing in the wind, the Nascopie slipped into harbor here, completing a trip begun at Ardrossan, Scotland, June 17. Captain Thomas Smellie reported a successful cruise 'in every way.' On board was the usual contingent of home-bound Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, and missionaries, traders, scientists, government offiicals and adventure-seeking tourists.
Edmonton Journal, 27 September 1933
Major McKeand considers that this year's expedition has been eminently sucessful. He expressed appreciation for the full cooperation of Captain Smellie, officers and crew of the Nascopie for carrying out of Government work.
Daily News, 28 September 1933
Photographs by Max Sauer, Jr. from Nascopie's 1933 voyage as published in The Beaver, September & December 1933
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| Unloading cargo at Port Burwell. |
The 27th September, 1933, saw the completion of the annual voyage of Hudson's Bay Company vessel into Hudson Bay, for on that day the S.S. Nascopie docked at St. John's, Newfoundland, now her home port, after a ten thousand five hundred mile. This year's voyage was unique in two respects: the first that the ship was at Cartwright when General Balbo's air armada broke its journey there, and the second that it was the time an outstanding Canadian Scout had made the voyage as a guest of the Hudson's Bay Company. And did Scott Liddell enjoy himself? We certainly gather that he did, even though he thought he was to be left behind when a sudden storm arose at Craig Harbour. Liddell was cut off from the ship by heavy seas, and from the window of the Mounted Police barracks he saw smoke rising from the Nascopie's funnel. He spent the night with the police, more than half believing that the ship would pull out during the night and he would have the doubtful pleasure of a winter's scouting on Baffin Island. Daylight revealed she was still standing by to receive her belated passenger. Two hundred and sixty-three years of voyages into the uncertain waters of Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay, and less than a dozen casualties-- proof of the good seamanship of Hudson's Bay Company captains.
The Beaver, December 1933
"About the most exciting thing that happened to us was our meeting with Balbo and his planes in Labrador. We met him for about an hour after he landed there, and I was with the party who talked to him aboard the Princess Alice," Liddell told a reporter from the Vancouver News Herald (19 October 1933). His own account of the voyage was published in the Vancouver Province, 18 January 1934. Joining the Royal Air Force in 1937, Flying Officer Eric Liddell was killed on 10 December 1940 when his bomber was shot down during a raid on Essen. He was 24 years old.
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| Eric Liddell's account of his voyage in Nascopie in the Vancouver Province. (LEFT CLICK for full size scan) |
Nascopie was first expected to sail to Montreal from St. John's on 29 September 1933, but this was not the case and she would instead be laid up at the Newfoundland port. Her government party returned to Montreal via Halifax by train on the 31st.
These have been difficult years and you and I, and all of us, have worked under strenuous conditions. The clouds have lifted slightly, but the horizon is still obscured in mist, and it is the steadfastness, the courage and the loyalty of the men and women of the Company which have enabled us to steer our ship through these troubled waters. At a time when disaster have pursued so any great enterprises, the Hudson's Bay Company has been able to make progress which is notable in the world of commerce. The voyage of the Nascopie this year might well be a symbol of our progress. This stout ship, known and loved you men of the Eastern Arctic, proceeded about her task, admitting no difficulties and conquering all obstacles and arriving at her home port precisely on time.
From the Governor's broadcast to the Fur Trade, Winnipeg, October 24, 1933.
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| "One Company"... HBC Governor P Ashley Cooper and Captain Smellie, ship's officers and the official party for the 1934 voyage. Credit HBC Heritage |
1934
Nascopie spent the autumn and winter laid up in St. John's. Many of her Newfoundlander crew signed on for fishing or sealing voyages during this time but by early spring there were signs she was about to emerge from winter hibernation. Her Chief Engineer arrived from England 19 April 1934 and Capt. T.F. Smellie on 5 May from Halifax and supervised Nascopie's overhaul and she was drydocked at St. John's at the end of May.
On 3 March 1934 the Montreal Gazette published the first details of her upcoming voyage, beginning from the port on 7 July and once again a few berths would be available to the general public, either beginning from there or from Churchill on 15 August. It was planned to terminate the voyage, however, at Quebec on 30 September, rather than St. John's. That year's Boy Scout sponsored by HBC to make the voyage was Cockburn McCallum, aged 16, from Winnipeg.
The big announcement concerning the voyage was made on 23 April 1934 in Montreal: HBC Governor, P. Ashley Cooper, and Mrs. Cooper, would be making the voyage from Montreal to Churchill, the first time a Governor of the Company had done so in 265 years.
Among her cargo, which by mid June, was already being meticulously assembled at Shed 6A, Alexandra Pier, was a radium machine for the Catholic Hospital at Chesterfield Inlet. The Montreal Star of 14 June 1934 in reporting the preparations, opined "The departure of the Nascopie is always the most interesting sailing evening of the navigation season in Montreal."
Canada's Deputy Post Master General P.T. Coolican announced Nascopie's itinerary and posting schedule on 18 June 1934 and as before, mail for the voyage could be dispatched either from Montreal on 7 July or Churchill on 15 August.
Cartwright 12 JulyPort Burwell 22 JulyLake Harbour 22 JulyWakeham Bay 24 JulyWolstenholme 26 JulyCape Smith 29 JulyPort Harrison 1 AugustCharlton Island 5 AugustChurchill 13 AugustSouthampton Island 17 AugustWolstenholme 20 AugustDorset 21 AugustLake Harbour 24 AugustPort Burwell 26 AugustPangnirtung 30 AugustClyde 4 SeptemberPond Inlet 6 SeptemberRobertson Island (Greenland) 9 SeptemberCraig Harbour 11 SeptemberDundas Harbour 14 SeptemberPond Inlet 16 SeptemberPort Burwell 21 SeptemberCartwright 26 SeptemberQuebec 1 OctoberMontreal 3 October
In all, Nascopie would make 25 calls and distribute supplies for 37 government and trading post, covering approximately 12,000 miles.
HBC Governor P. Ashley Cooper arrived at St. John's from Liverpool on 18 June 1934 aboard Newfoundland. Capt. Smellie had Nascopie dressed overall for the occasion as she lay along the Job Bros. pier and the following day the Governor inspected Nascopie and the HBC district office. He later went salmon fishing with Mr. R.B. Job.
Nascopie departed St. John's the afternoon of 19 June 1934 for Sydney, NS, to coal and thence to Montreal where she arrived on the 25th. She had first to berth at Hochelaga where her entire consignment of Cape Breton bunker coal taken on at Sydney had to be discharged when it was found to be unsuitable for her type of boilers and burned out her grates. All 1,400 tons of it had to be removed and suitable replacement bunkers shipped. The Gazette noted that "she arrived here in first-class condition, but will lose much of her cleanliness under the local coal tips. Captain T.F. Smellie, her well-known skipper, was particularly anxious that the Nascopie should present her finest appearance on this occasion, as she will have aboard P. Ashley Cooper, Governor of the Company, and the first to enter Hudson Bay through Hudson Strait, who be accompanied by Mrs. Cooper."
Governor Ashley Cooper arrived in Montreal from Newfoundland on 28 June 1934 whilst Mrs. Cooper was due at arrive at Quebec in Empress of Britain on the same day. They would visit Ottawa and Toronto before returning to Montreal to embark in Nascopie. Prior to sailing, the Coopers also went to Alexandra Pier to see the process of loading the outfit and provisioning and coaling the ship.
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| Governor and Mrs. Cooper with some of the "outfit" for the voyage in Shed no 6, Alexandra Pier. Credit: The Beaver |
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| Capt. Smellie (right) showing the Coopers Nascopie as she takes on coal. Credit: The Beaver |
The traditional Governor's Dinner, instead of being held at Gravesend, was instead given at the Oak Room of the Windsor Hotel, Montreal, the evening of 6 July 1934, hosted by G.W. Allen, KC, chairman of HBC Canadian Committee.
In addition to Governor P. Ashley Cooper and Mrs. Cooper, HBC and government passengers included Ralph Parson, Chief Factor, Superintendent T.H. Irvine, RCMP, two sergeants and six constables; Major D.L. McKeand leading 16 government officials and specialists; six UBC apprentices and two for Revillon Freres and two Anglican Church missionaries and their wives. For the first time the Post Office had a representative aboard for the whole voyage. Frank Gilbert was assigned to make a survey of mail service in the Arctic, inspect all post offices and acted as Postmaster aboard as well as act as secretary to the government party. With the expanded HRC party, there was no room for commercial passengers from Montreal but four did embark at Churchill.
Nascopie's typically varied cargo included chicken haddie for Fort Chimo, boiled dinners, bales of brooms and soft drinks for George's River; lead ingots and oranges for Lake Harbor; peppermints, table oil cloth and fresh apples for Payne Bay; and coal, tar, preserves and a gasoline pump for Pangnirtung. On deck, she carried a consignment of Nova Scotian-built boats for Revillon Freres. She took, too, a 1,000 tons of bagged coal, perhaps the most essential commodity in a region almost entirely above the tree line and where it was billed to each post at $100 a ton. She also carried a specially prepared motion picture of The King which would be shown to the Eskimos and, of course, carried the projector and operator as well.
A little ship went a-sailing from Montreal on Saturday.
But this was no ordinary departure. It represented the Dominion Government leaving to administer its vast Northern possessions; it means relief to Royal Canadian Mounted Police scattered at isolated posts up to the Arctic; it meant the church carrying its message to the Indian and Eskimo; it meant mail and supplies; and it meant a great historic company reaping the harvest of a winter's work by its outposts in the north.
The S.S. Nascopie, laden to her decks, steamed for her annual cruise to 38 points through the Northland, leaving to the accompaniment of cheers from several hundred gathered on the pier and to the tune of salutes from craft lining the harbor front.
It was a colorful scene as the little steamer pulled away. Scarlet uniforms gleamed through a drizzling rain as eight Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers boarded the ship under of command of Superintendent T.H. Irvine in his blue uniform. Unable to conceal his delight at being chosen for the three months' journey, C. MacCallum, of Winnipeg, stalwart and bronze in his uniform and decorations as King's Scout, stood on deck.
Gaily decorated with bunting, with the Royal Mail pennant aloft and the personal flag of the Governor of the Company, flying, the little 1,503-ton net steamer, a veteran of the Arctic under the command of a veteran skipper, Capt. T.F. Smellie, made a brave picture as she slipped past larger but less romantic craft in the harbor.
The Gazette, 9 July 1934
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| Official message by H.M. The King to the Innuit people conveyed by Governor Ashley-Cooper during the voyage. Credit: The Beaver. |
This was Nascopie's most ceremonial send-off for any of her many voyages, occasioned both by the presence of the Governor aboard and the innate sense of occasion, dignity and tradition that only a company of two hundred and fifty plus years can summon up as well as fulfilling the Ship of State role that was now Nascopie's in the Eastern Arctic. Governor Cooper met with the Governor General prior to departure and carried a personal message by HM King George V that would be conveyed by speech and in print to the Innuit people during the course of the voyage.
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| Governor Ashley Cooper addresses the newsreel cameras. Credit: The Beaver |
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| General McBrien and Supt. Irvine inspect the RCMP detachment before sailing. Credit: The Beaver. |
Newsreel cameras, reporters and a crowd of some 1,000 people met Governor Ashley Cooper as he arrived at Alexandra Pier just before 10:00 a,m. on an unfortunately rainy 7 July 1934. General MacBrien arrived from Ottawa by plane to inspect the RCMP detail and the Governor addressed the newsreel cameras.
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| Preceeded by "The Piper," Governor Ashley Cooper embarks on Nascopie. Credit: The Beaver. |
The Governor boarded Nascopie preceeded by "The Piper" who would, more than anyone, be remembered during the course of the voyage. Staff Sergeant Robert Hannah, 6 ft. 4 ins. tall, of the 42nd Black Watch Regiment and in full kilted regimentals would, to the delight, chagrin or bemusement of all. especially the Inuit, play his pipes aboard and ashore all the way to Churchill. Capt. Smellie was reportedly not best pleased with the daily evening concert outside his cabin but conceded the Governor knew it would intrigue the Eskimos although their Huskie dogs took some winning over.
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| Staff Sargeant Robert Hannah and two Inuit girls, July 1934. Credit: D.J. McKeand photograph, Libraries and Archives Canada. |
And with any meticulously planned bit of pomp and ceremony, there had to be a last minute hiccup. A stoker had deserted just before sailing and Capt. Smellie himself apparently had to comb the quayside idlers to find a replacement willing to sign on with no notice for a three-month voyage to the Arctic. He found one in the shape of a dirty, disheveled derelict who followed Capt. Smellie down the gangplank whilst the cameras clicked and Nascopie, with a full crew, was off to the doleful notes of "Will Ye No Come Back Again" by Sgt. Harris and waved off by stewards lining the rails of one of the CP Duchess liners and Great Lake grain ships as she pulled out into the stream. The Montreal Star called it "the most interesting sailing from the port this year" and of the last minute addition to his crew, Capt. Smellie said "he turned out to be a darn good stoker." (Arctic Command).
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| HBC Governor P. Ashley Cooper (left), Ralph Parsons, HBC Fur Commissioner (centre) and Mrs. Cooper (right) aboard Nascopie. The Coopers are displaying vintage Arctic Style in their classic Hudson's Bay Co. blanket coats! Credit: HBC Heritage. |
Intended to acquaint Governor Ashley Cooper with the ship, routine, region and rigours of delivering the HBC outfit, the voyage did just that. Capt. Smellie dutifully tried to adhere to a meticulously planned schedule for each port with presentations, speeches, inspections, all preceded by a radio address prior to arrival. And most likely knew it was best to let the vagaries of Arctic weather and the route take care of best laid plans.
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| Imperial Progress: Governor and Mrs. Cooper, Chief Factor Ralph Parsons and Capt. Smellie going ashore in Nascopie's launch at Cartwright on 11 July 1934. The embroidered sweater the seaman is wearing is... ace! Credit: The Beaver. |
The first call at Cartwright on 11 July 1934 went off without a hitch with brilliant weather, a rather Nelsonian landing by the Governor by launch, spit and polish and speeches in front of the little community hall including reading the King's message and later a dance in the hall.
Sailing from Cartwright on 14 July 1934, Nascopie encountered heavy field ice two days later at the entrance to Hudson Straits. For three days she made only 37 miles. On the 19th heavy fog set in and she had to stop to await better conditions. CGS N.B. McLean and the HBC schooner Fort Garry were nearby. A shift in wind cleared the fog and passage resumed. In all, she was held up for an extraordinary five days, "the days have been partly occupied by broadcasting of programs and messages to police, mission and Hudson's Bay Company posts on the Labrador coast, through the straits and on Baffinland', and " a special program was broadcast to northern posts at the same time from the ship, including regimental marches by Piper Sergeant Harris of the 42nd Black Watch and concluding with the National Anthem." The reception to some of the radio broadcasts was so poor in places, that Gov. Ashley Cooper later recalled a post factor saying how much he enjoying "the piccolo" music! One suspects it was the longest five days in Capt. Smellie's career. Despite the fog, polar bears and many seals were seen on the ice surrounding Nascopie which drifted 100 miles off her course.
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| Nascopie's forepeak 21 July 1934, HBC Governor and the official Government party pose for a snap. Credit: Libraries and Archives Canada. |
At Lake Harbour on Baffin Island, "the rocky barren hills echoed with the shouts and cheers of Eskimo sports held in honor of P. Ashley Cooper…. Three hundred Eskimos participated in the wrestling, football and kayak raced and spectators were at constant war with the celebrated Arctic mosquito, it was a great occasion and the sun was warm at the tiny colony of traders, missionaries and policemen." (The Province, 28 July 1934).
Four days off her schedule, Nascopie was soon off westward through the Straits towards Stuart's Bay and Wolstenhome with hopes she could make up time down the east coast of Hudson Bay.
One of the ceremonial and symbolic gestures of the voyage was casting a wreath on the waters of Hudson Bay on 4 August 1934, the 324th anniversary of Henry Hudson's discovery of the body of water. For the purpose, an elaborate wreath was prepared by the Royal Empire Society, paid for in pennies collected from school children throughout the Empire in cooperation with Governor Ashley Cooper who wrote a speech to accompany the ceremony. Not officially a part of Outfit 266, it was, to the horror of Capt. Smellie the night before, left behind at Shed 6 Montreal. Chief Steward Arthur Reed who had been aboard Nascopie longer than most anyone and not unaccustomed to domestic crisis was tasked with creating a replacement. Enlisting a lady passenger aboard of artistic bent, the two spent most of the evening manufacturing a suitable if sparse replacement from wire, moss and toilet paper flowers dyed red from the Captain's ledger ink.
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| Ceremony on deck of Nascopie on the 324th anniversary of the discovery of Hudsons Bay. Credit: The Beaver. |
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| A close-up of the emergency moss and dyed toilet paper wreath concocted by Chief Steward Reed (top right). |
The ceremony passed off without a hitch although photos of it show a Chief Steward Reed rather looking down at his shoes during the Governor's speech before the wreath was cast over the side. Capt. Smellie later confided to Gov. Ashley Cooper about the origins of the wreath and both conceded that honour had still been done and the governor once again appreciating the essential of improvisation on this service!
Off the ironbound west coast of the Belcher island Saturday with the fog lying so thickly on Hudson bay that only ice fields were visible, tribute was paid to Henry Hudson and his son who, three centuries ago, were put adrift by a mutinous crew and never seen again. On the boat deck of this ship the ceremony was carried out under weather conditions which made every one present solemnly conscious of the sea tragedy of long ago.
P.S. Ashley-Cooper, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, on behalf of the Empire day movement cast on the water of the bay a wreath in memory of the great explorer. It was a wreath purchased by the pennies of thousands of school children throughout the empire.
When at 11 o'clock was struck on the ship's bell, the engines were stopped, the Red Ensign lowered to half mast, Government officials, men of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the ship's officers and crew and the men of the Hudson's Bay Company stood on the boat deck in silence.
The wreath was put adrift as a piper played the lament-- 'The Flowers of the Forest' which was followed by the 'March of the Black Watch' as the ship's engine picked up again and the Nascopie resumed the southward part of her journey towards James Bay
Gazette, 7 August 1934
"Through alternating fog and sunshine and ice," Nascopie carried on toward Charlton Island, the depot for Moose Factory where Governor Ashley Cooper would made a side trip on 9 August 1934 by seaplane to visit Rupert's House, the oldest of all HBC trading posts.
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| Nascopie icebound off Cape Henritta Maria, James Bay. Credit: The Beaver. |
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| Out for a bit of exercise, Governor Ashley Cooper climbs down Nascopie's bow onto an ice pan. Credit: The Beaver |
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| Suitably attired in one of the classic HBC blanket coats, Governor Ashley Cooper contemplates an icebound Nascopie. Credit: The Beaver. |
Miles of miles of shifting ice pans, the pentrating cold of the sub-Arctic, the northern silences broken only by the crunching of ice against steel, as the reinforced hull of the S.S. Nascopie, Hudson's Bay supply ship, pushed through the floes.
Star Phoenix, 20 August 1934
Nascopie steamed onwards to Churchill but due to arrive there on 12 August 1934, ice fields to the southeast of James Bay, 20 miles of Cape Henrietta Maria, held her up from the 9-17th and not until the wind changed direction from the northeast was she able to find clear water and resume passage. As reported by the Vancouver Sun (20 August 1934): "Huge ice floes in pans two hundred yards across and frequently twenty feet above the water had held the sturdy ice breaker for six days on her trip north from Charlton Island in James Bay. The ship was, for days, only able to move at high tide and each night drifted back southward sometimes farther than the previous day's run. Westerly winds and skillful navigation liberated the ship liberated the ship thirty-six hours before her arrival here [Churchill] under a warm sky."
It was not until 7:20 a.m. on 19 August 1934 that Nascopie arrived at the massive new concrete grain pier at Churchill, "with one hundred flags flying 'rainbow fashion,' from stem to stern," six weeks and two days out of Montreal.
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| Nascopie alongside the massive new concrete pier at Churchill. Credit: eBay auction photo |
The disembarking Governor and his party "all had the highest praise for Captain Smellie, who had stayed on the bridge day and night, and they paid great tribute to the Nascopie, saying that any average passenger or freight vessel would have succumbed to the constant forces of the elements." (Star Phoenix, 20 August 1934).
The Governor hosted a luncheon aboard Nascopie for 30 guests at 12:15 p.m. that day before entraining for The Pas.
For Nascopie, it was back to work and after she coaled and completed loading cargo for the north including buffalo skins, gas, oil and general freight, and with 30 passengers of all descriptions aboard, sailed from Churchill at 4:30 p.m. on 22 August 1934.
After a stormy passage, Nascopie arrived at Southampton Island on 25 August 1934 and Lake Harbour was reached on the 30th. During the call at Pangnirtung on 3 September, a generator donated by a benefactor was installed at the Anglican Mission hospital there which was reported to "ablaze with light" when Nascopie sailed in the evening.. On 8 September Nascopie was in Exeter Sound, off Baffin Island, about 300 miles north of Hudson Strait and on the 12th reported to be "encountering severe gales, ice, rain and fog" after clearing River Clyde settlement on the east coast of Baffin Island and making for Pond Inlet on the north of the island. The northernmost post in the British Empire, Craig Harbor, was reached on the 18th where cargo was unloaded in six degrees below zero temperatures.
Battling heavy, packed ice floes in Jones Sound, Nascopie finally headed south towards Pond Inlet where she arrived on the 11th. The Star Phoenix (19 September 1934) reported that "This year's voyage to Canada's far northern posts has been characterized by unfavorable navigation conditions. Heavy floes of ice, northeast gale, snow, rain and fog have combined to retard the progress of the expedition with the result calls are somewhat later than expected. However, the work of the expedition to date has been highly successful and all the objectives have been achieved." There was, however, no call at Robertson Bay, Greenland, as planned as ice conditions did not permit it. Nascopie called at Port Burwell at the entrance to Hudson Strait on the 23rd to coal and then headed down the Labrador coast towards her final stop at Cartwright.
On 27 September 1934 Nascopie was reported homeward bound and she arrived at Halifax on 1 October, "ice-scarred" and with 33 passengers, including three women (one who was a tourist with her husband and two nurses), ten RCMP officers, eight of whom were returning from post.
Nascopie would spend that winter and spring laid up at Halifax.
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| Nascopie icebound off Cape Henritta Maria, James Bay, 1934. |
1935
Nascopie's 1935 voyage was announced on 8 April, beginning from Montreal on 13 July and ending, again, at Halifax on 26 September. The voyage was 8,436 nautical miles and called at 22 ports in all. Unlike previous Eastern Arctic Patrols, there was no extension to Greenland this time.
Cartwright 18-19 JulyPort Burwell 23-28 JulyLake Harbour 30-31 JulyWakeham Bay 1-2 AugustSugluk 2-3 AugustWolstenholme 3-4 AugustCape Smith 4-5 AugustPort Harrison 6-9 AugustChurchill 11-18 AugustChesterfield Inlet 19-21 AugustSouthampton Island 23-24 AugustWolstenholme 26 AugustCape Dorset 27-28 AugustLake Harbour 29-31 AugustPort Burwell 1-2 SeptemberCraig Harbour 7-9 SeptemberDundas Harbour 10-11 SeptemberPond Inlet 12-14 SeptemberClyde 15-16 SeptemberPangnirtung 18-20 SeptemberPort Burwell 22-23 SeptemberHalifax 28 September
Coming out of lay up, Nascopie left Halifax on 25 June 1935 for Montreal where her cargo was already being assembled again at Shed 6A, Alexandra Pier. "The stoutplated Nascopie, veteran of the Arctic seas, is in port today," reported the Gazette on 1 July upon her arrival under Capt. T.F. Smellie. "The Nascopie lay idle yesterday in the broiling sun, and her officers, used to cold weather, were sitting in the mess room, mopping perspiring brows," the Gazette reporter wrote, adding her crew were unused to hot weather. Nascopie and the other ships in harbour were "dressed overall" in honour of Dominion Day on 1 July whilst her loading paused for the holiday.
Her Government party would once again be led by Major D.L. McKeand and include a relief detachment of RCMP men, several scientific experts and on this voyage, take two Montreal doctors to make a special medical appraisal of the Eskimos to "research why the Eskimo is apparently immune from hardening of the arteries, diabetes and cancer."
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| Credit: www.postalhistorycanada.net |
In 1935, H.B.S.S. or S.S. Nascopie officially changed to R.M.S. Nascopie and assigned no. 2790 as a full service accounting post office. The on board postmaster did not handle RCMP or HBC mail but all mails received by the Montreal Post Office, letters posted aboard and mail collected en route. Outbound, she carried 300 letters on the 1935 voyage and returned with 15,000, almost of which were special cachets for stamp collectors posted from aboard and the six post offices in the Arctic region, the most northern in the British Empire. The income from philatelic covers was so great as to largely finance the expenses of the official Government party on the voyage.
A comprehensive account of the philatic aspects of Nascopie's 1935 voyage can be found here
https://www.postalhistorycanada.net/php/Journal/Articles/PHSC_168-169_(article).pdf
Kitty sat on a camp-stool near the No. 3 hatch of the R.M.S. Nascopie, and while the winches roared and the heavily-loaded slings dipped with a rush into the yawning hold, she calmly considered her luck. Of all the kittens in America, she was probably the most envied. There were plenty of cats would give eight of their nine lives to be going on this trip-- beyond the rim of the Arctic circle, into a strange white land where even men are few, where a kitten could put her paws down on the roof of the world. How many of her friends could boast an experience like that?
Kitty got down off the camp-stool, stretched herself and walked over to the edge of the hatch. This was yesterday afternoon, at Shed 6-a, on the end of Alexandra Pier, where the stout-plated Nascopie was being loaded for her annual patrol into the Arctic, which starts from Montreal on Saturday. And Kitty, peering into the hold, saw the most unusual cargo that is loaded aboard any ship in the port of Montreal.
She saw tons of provisions that will go to the men who maintain the far-flung posts of the Government, the Hudson's Bay Company and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. She saw romantic names painted in black letters on the cases and bags and cartons-- Whale River, Cape Hopes Advance, Craig Harbor-- farthest northern post of the Government-- Port Harrison, Southampton Island, Port Burwell-- names to conjure with, names that spoke of long winter nights, of snow and ice, of solitude and the silence of a great white continent.
Kitty was impressed. She looked at the officer watching cargo and wondered if any of this stuff dipping into the hold could possibly be for her. Her eyes turned to the poop deck, and the brightened suddenly. Those cases coming down the chute were filled with fish. She could see great slabs of meat being carried to the refrigerator below-- red and tempting and althogether a sight to make a kitten purr pleasantly.
Satisfied that she wouldn't be hungry on this trip, she turned her attention once more to the hold. The Nascopie had started loading yesterday morning. She 6-a was overflowing with cargo. Outside it was piled high on the wharf-- hundreds of bags of hand-picked coal for the northern stations, as many bags of flour, lumber for the new post at Port Harrison, four of five boats to be loaded on deck before the little steamer sailed.
A man could barricade himself in Shed 6-a today and live indefinitely. Packed high to the rook is every kind of provision. Over the corner you can find half a dozen spring begs. Next to them like a stove, complete, and carted for loading. Steam radiatiors, oars for rowboats, stove-pipes, chimneys, chairs, tables-- enough to equip one or two houses.
There are several galvanised ashcans in the shed, waiting to be loaded, but these cans will probably never see any ashes. Printed on red paint on each one of them are 'Institute of Parisitology, MacDonald College.'
Kitty wanted to know about these ash-cans. They will, one of the ship's officers explained, be used to preserve the bodies of any dogs who die during the winter at the northern posts, and will be sent back to MacDonald College for analysis next year. Disease among the dogs-- who are still the standby of the north countrymen for transportation-- is dreaded in the Arctic. Unless care is taken, a hundred or two hundred dogs may be wiped out by infections. Therefore the analysis at MacDonald College of any that die from unknown causes.
Stores were being loaded yesterday. Barrels of butter, canned food, matches, soups, jams, tea, coffee-- the list is almost endless. From now until Saturday longshoremen will be actively at work in getting cargo into the spacious holds of the Nascopie, and when she clears from Montreal the stout little steamer of the Hudson's Bay Company will carry, in addition to this, a deckload of oil and several boats, including a large launch for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The Nascopie is unusual in every respect. Her mate and her chief engineer are brothers-in-law, which is something that you very seldom find aboard a ship. Her deck crew is composed of hardy Newfoundlanders, and her fireman and oilers are mostly natives of Halifax and other parts of Nova Scotia.
Kitty grew tired of watching the longshoremen handle the sling loads. She crept off to the galley to see what the cook could spare in the way of something to eat. She swaggered a little as she walked. The sea was in her blood already.
John R. Sturdy, The Gazette, 9 July 1935
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| Some of Nascopie's deck cargo of oil drums and boats. Credit: The Beaver. |
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| The boats included this large launch for RCMP. Credit: The Beaver. |
For Major Theodore V. Sandys-Wunsch, RCMP superintendent, the voyage would combine an inspection trip and his honeymoon with bride Miss Jean Rossiter of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. For the first time, the official party included a naval officer, Commander C.T. Beard. A new post would be created at Port Harrison. That year, six commercial passengers embarked in Montreal.
Pre-historic Eskimo culture, investigators into husky dog deaths, a former Ontario cabinet minister, a Canadian naval officers, bug savants, and a host of other interesting people are this morning aboard the Nascopie, as she starts off on he annual 10,000 mile sea trip to the frozen rim of the world. No more exciting ship departure takes place during the calendar year from Montreal than when this Hudson's Bay 1,503-ton ice-bucker sails down the river, flags flying, amid a salute of steamer whistles, as starts out for polar seas.
The Montreal Star, 13 July 1935
Somebody shouted 'Good-bye, Nascopie, good luck!' A tear-stained hankerchief, clutched in a woman's fingers, waved a last farewell. From the wharf a chorus of cheers rang to the little ship putting her nose into the river, and the ship, her whistle blasting, answered.
A paper streamer, stretched from the ship to the dock, suddenly snapped in two, and the last contact with land had been broken. The Nascopie, stout little vessel of the Hudson's Bay Company, had sailed for the Arctic.
Saturday morning, as the ship turned outwards from the harbor and thrust her bow into the water, and the most colorful and annual sailing at the Port of Montreal was repeated for another year. Under a brilliant sun the Nascopie turned away from the cheering crowds on the wharf, her masts and wired bedecked with pennants and flags, her decks crowded with passengers and extra cargo, new paint glistening on her hull.
All the way along the harborfront, as the brave little vessel moved swiftly on her way, ships gave her a ringing send-off, with long blasts on their whistles. Liners, freighters, lake boats and tugs bid good-bye to her, and she, acknowledged their well wished, replied again and again.
With that long paper streamer broke in two, the Nascopie had said farewell to a Canadian port for the summer. In a short time she will be steaming into the waters of the Arctic, carrying provisions and passengers to the islolated posts of the Far North. It will be September before she returns to Halifax.
The sailing of the Nascopie every year is one of the outstanding sights of the navigation season. Saturday is no exception. Heavily loaded with a cargo that included everything imaginable, carrying a deck load of boats, launches and barrels of oil, she was an impressive sight as she steamed into the river and disappeared downstream.
Watching her, one felt strangely thrilled. No one could tell what she will find at the posts and stations of the Far North. How will men have survived the winter? Will they be well and healthy? How many things have happened-- how any deaths, how many births? These were the questions that flashed across the mind as the little steamer disappeared down the river.
The ships in port, all the way from Alexandra Pier to Vickers, bade her last good-bye as she passed. Their whistles were still blasting when the crowd on the wharf had drifted away.
The Gazette, 15 July 1935
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| R.M.S. Nascopie sails from Montreal 13 July 1935. Credit: The Beaver |
Nascopie sailed from Montreal on the 265th annual voyage of a HBC ship into Hudson Bay at 10:00 a.m. on 13 July 1935. Unlike the previous year, there was a "scarcity of shifting ice" and Nascopie's outbound voyage was made with little delay and less incident.
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| Just two weeks later, in the ice in Hudson Strait, 23 July 1935. Credit: McGill News photograph via https://catapultdotblog.com/ |
She arrived at Churchill on 12 August 1935 from Wolstenholme and sailed from there for Chesterfield Inlet on the 17th. Among her cargo taken on at Churchill included more green buffalo hides for the Eskimos on Ellesmere Island and six car loads of Montreal-built boats for posts on Baffin Island as well as coal for bunkers and for the northern ports. Nascopie called at Craig Harbour 7-9 September.
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| One the many special covers posted aboard R.M.S. Nascopie on her 1935 voyage. Credit: eBay auction photo. |
Truly a Royal Mail Ship in name and purpose, Nascopie processed 15,000 letters, 90 per cent from stamp collectors, during the voyage. Postmaster W.M. Martin was overwhelmed with work aboard and the government historian, Hon. W.G. Maclean, was enlisted to help him. During the voyage, a new Post Office was established at Port Harrison.
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| Nascopie at Clyde, September 1935. Credit: The Beaver. |
Heavy fog delayed Nascopie's departure from Lake Harbour until 31 August 1935, bound for Port Burwell. On 12 September she was reported to be heading home after landing supplies in difficult icy conditions at Craig Harbour 7-9th. On the way south, Nascopie called at Port Burwell 23-23rd but owing to delays en route, the call at Cartwright was cancelled and she returned to Halifax on the 28th.
1936
Nascopie's 1936 voyage was announced on 1 May, commencing from Montreal on 14 July and first calling at Hebron, Labrador, and returning to Halifax on 2 October. From Hebron, she would call at Port Burwell and the usual ports and arrive at Churchill 13 August.
"Overhauled and ready to undertake the Hudson's Bay Company's 267th annual voyage into the Arctic," Nascopie sailed from Haliifax on 28 June 1936 for Montreal where she arrived on 3 July and went directly to Windmill Point basin to coal, afterwhich she shifted to Shed 6a, already bursting at the seams with cargo, Alexandra Pier, to load.
In addition to cargo, The Province (Vancouver) suggested some anticipation on the part of intending passengers, "this year there is a small but select and privileged passenger list. Some said they preferred this cool cruise to a jazzy crossing on the gorgeous Queen Mary." All of the passenger accommodation was booked by the beginning of May, with eight embarking in Montreal and three in Churchill.
On 7 July 1936, the Gazette reported "Yesterday the Hudson's Bay Company vessel was getting the final touches of a coat of new paint. Coal will be bulkiest item carried by the Nascopie. Bags of it are stacked high all over the end of the pier. Several boats and canoes are ready to be loaded aboard."
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| Captain T.F. Smellie and his officers for the 1936 voyage. Credit: The Beaver. |
Once again, the Government party was led by Major D.L. McKeand and the RCMP six-man detachment was led by Inspector K. Duncan and the Postmaster was G.H. Lawrence, and there were 11 commercial passengers aboard.
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| The well laden little Nascopie is ready to cast off from Montreal's Alexandra Pier. Credit: The Beaver. |
Amid tears and cheers, the Hudson's Bay ship Nascopie sailed this morning on her annual voyage to the Arctic. Red-coated mounties, pale missionaries, quiet scientists, and a handful of tourists-- this constituted the human cargo. On the deck were boats whose keels will no other waters but polar one; and drums of gasoline for them.
Deep down in the holds were the plum puddings, Christmas mail, toys, frilly things for ladies far removed from scenes where such frills are normally displayed lipstick, one kitchen sink, coal worth $120 a ton when it gets inside the Arctic circle, flagpoles, ammunition, and tin chimneys.
Then down in the larder are fresh eggs and cream, lettuce, fruits, and perishables, while less carefully protected from the heat are enough supplies to feed dozens of people for three months.
Perhaps the most interesting scene of all was on the shore. Loving mothers and other relatives wept as young lad, off on the great adventure, stifled his own tears and set his face in a false grin of farewell. Clergy gave each other a spiritual word of consolution on departure, while some of the Hudson's Bay people, inured to these to these farewells, yelled an affectionate good-by.
Capt. T.F. Smellie, this year enjoined by orders from the fur trading department of Hudson's Bay from giving interviews, was again a popular figure, acknowledging waves and cheers and salutes, shaking hands, and acting as master of ceremonies, stevedore, traffic officer and everything else. Then at 10 precisely, he has off. Without a tug, he got the ship started, she back up half a length, swung slightly into the basin and going ahead slowly, she passed the crowded quay, a few feet out. The harbor tug Sir Hugh Allan, gave a salute with her whistle, a few cheered, some sobbed, and a hundred people waved her out of sight.
The Montreal Star, 14 July 1936
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| Credit: The Leader Post, 21 July 1936. |
That brave little veteran of the Arctic Seas, the Royal Mail ship Nascopie, is on her long way this morning to top o' world.
As she steamed out of Montreal yesterday, ablaze with pennants and her red ensign flying proudly at her stern, and as ships in harbor spoke with blasting whistles a last farewell, the ice-scarred vessel was breaking contract with big cities for three month. Ten thousand miles of voyaging lay before her, a mission of trade, of relief and law and order, and of mercy, that stretches to within 800 miles of the North Pole.
When she went yesterday morning there were crowds to see her off. On her decks stood red-coated men of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, going north on the long patrol of law and order that stretched across the eastern Arctic. There were priests and scientists and doctors-- each with a mission in the Arctic-- and in the holds were loaded the supplies, the medicines and the equipment that mean the different between life and death to the men who stand guard in the far north.
She cast off her lines at 10 a.m. going astern from the wharf, and then, as her whistle shrilled in long echoing blast, she straightened out and moved downstream. The crowds on the pier waved arms and handkerchiefs and hats in a last, too quick farewell. There were tears in many eyes. Some of those figures on the heavily-loaded decks-- this man in the scarlet coat of the 'Mounties' or that man in the black garb of minister-- were leaving for long vigils in the Arctic that would last one, three, or five years.
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| R.M.S. Nascopie on departure from Montreal, July 1936. Credit: The Beaver. |
The Nascopie was a proud sight as she slid from her berth. Bunting fluttered from bow to stern. The white pennant of the Royal Mail flew high from her mainmast-- for she carried mail to the Arctic-- Christmas mail.
Across the river the harbor tug, Sir Hugh Allan, was the first ship to bid her a rousing farewell. The blast of whistles filled the air. More quickly, as waving hands grew distinct, the Nascopie slid downstream, black smoke pouring from her funnel, her heavily loaded hull deep in the water.
As she passed the end of King Edward Pier, the Royal Canadian Navy destroyer, HMCS Champlain, saluted the veteran Arctic ship. White ensign and red ensign dipped in passing. Then, further down, HMCS Saguenay paid her respects to the Nascopie, and the ensigns dipped again.
She continued on her way, the crowds still lingering on the pier, still waving, and she steamed downstream-- the ship in the harbor, all the way of Vickers and below, said good-bye to her with shrieking whistles.
The Gazette, 15 June 1936
The five of us that were to be left behind went down to the docks to see the rest of our party depart. Prepared for laughter and banter, we had not expected the sailing of the little ship to be so stirring. The vessel was bedecked in pennants, apart from the Red Ensign at the stern and the Blue Peter at the mainmast. A detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in their scarlet uniforms, was drawn up on the deck for inspection by a high-ranking officer. There were priests, government officials, traders, doctors and scientists. In her holds, we knew, were the supplies for a territory ten times the size of England. We shook hands with our friends. Some of the ladies farewelling their nearest and dearest cried, while another group was singing.
Then the siren sounded out in long blasts, the propellor churned the water and she was away. A nearby harbour tug blew her a rousing farewell and more and more sirens sounded their good wishes. Black smoke belched from her funnel and as she moved out into the stream we could see clearly all the things lashed to her decks. Boats. Canoes. Drums of gasoline. All sorts of queer-shaped things covered with tarpaulins.
Ian and I watched her manoeuvre into midstream and then head out of the harbour, the white pennant of the Royal Mail slapping in the wind at the top of her mast. Down river, the Canadian navy, in the form of two destroyers, dipped flags in salute as she steamed by. Just beside me somebody's friend had forgotten a last message, bawling out 'Happy Christmas' in the forlorn hope of being heard on the ship. We began to understand why they had told us that to think about the Arctic without thinking about the Hudson's Bay Company was like writing a book about sea without mentioning ships.
The Last Gentleman Adventurer
The first call, at Hebron, Labrador, was made on 20 July 1936, and Nascopie continued to Port Burwell where transferred two scientist members of the patrol to Fort Garry whence the men proceeded to the Ungava Bay area to establish astronomical stations. On to the south coast of Baffin Island, Nascopie encountered the first ice of the voyage whilst approaching Lake Harbour on the 26th. Wakeham Bay, Sugluk West and Wolstenholme followed, where two other scientists were left to continue investigations on the mainland north of Northern Quebec and nearby island and who would be picked up later in the voyage en route to Craig Harbour. Next was Cape Smith followed by Port Harrison. On the 28th Nascopie was reported to have "rounded Labrador and Ungava and is now visiting the RCMP posts on the western shores of Hudson Bay, and making for Fort Churchill."
Nascopie arrived at Churchill there at 6:00 p.m. on 13 August with 20 passengers. Her cargo of furs was immediately landed and the following day she commenced to take on 500 tons of bunker coal which had brought in by Wentworth. The first half of the voyage, according to The Beaver, was "remarkable mainly for the prevalence of fog and the absence of ice, one between Stupart's Bay and Sugluk and the other in Hudson Bay between Port Harrison and Churchill, practically no ice has been met."
Starting the second stage, to the Eastern Arctic and high north, of her voyage, Nascopie left Churchill on 17 August 1936. Postmaster G.H. Lawrence had 50 bags of mail for the northern posts including Christmas mail and parcels with everything from "Christmas cards to plum puddings" and she had some newly embarked passengers including Bishop Turquetil, RC missionary. She took on a carload of green buffalo hides for the natives on Baffin Island and landed two two kyaks and hunting instruments for exhibition in Ottawa.
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| Nascopie navigating in ince. Credit: The Beaver. |
From Churchill, Nascopie called at Chesterfield and Southampton Island. The voyage to the latter was accomplished in considerable ice which prompted this detailed appreciation of what is what was like to be aboard Nascopie as she was doing what she was design for and did best:
The Nascopie steams slowly at dawn approaching Southampton Island. As daylight comes ice is seen: a vast icefield as far as the eye can see. It looks like a solid mass but as the little ice-breaker closes in, there are gaps of water between the ice pans-- smooth, clear, green water.
The ship is still at sea but there are no waves, no rollers. The winds takes no hold on the ice and so the water is perfectly calm. The steel stem of the icebreaker strikes the first plan. There is a slight check, then a rending crash. The ice pan breaks in two and the ship surges on.
It is thrilling hanging half over the bow of the ship watching that remoreless advance. One moment the ship is gliding like a canoe in still water; the next an ice pan blocks her passage. She strikes. Her stem sweeps back under her waterline in a curve and the overhang rises above the ice cake and forces it down.
Under the green water the glittering white mass has two alternatives: to slide out and away, or to crack in two and let the ship through the break. There is a rushing of green water pouring over the ice as the ship goes through.
Sometimes the ship tilts the ice pan until the outer sides rise clear of the water. Then there is a crunch and break and the ice goes floating away.
The ship goes steadily through at three to five knots; but at least she runs into thick ice; too tightly packed to be thrust aside, too heavy to crush down. The chief officer is up in the crow's best, looking for another lead.
The ship goes astern for she has climbed up on the icefloe until there is 12 or 14 feet of her red showing under water mark showing; like the red flannel petticoat of an old lady on a dry spot in a mud puddle.
The rudder is of heavier steel, heavier than usual. Clamps are screwed down to hold it squarely fore and aft, so that when the move astern begins the ice will not being it round and smash it against the hull.
Held squarely the heavy steel plate becomes a knife and sheers through the ice which has closed in behind. Slowly the Nascope backs out of her predicament, and goes off on a new bearing along a like where the ice is not so heavy and where there are open water leads to let her through.
All through the day this slow steady progress continues. Sometimes the ice pans are stubborn and the ship has to climb on top to break them down. They gave way reluctantly and shear off the red paint until the ice looks like the spot where the slaughtered body of a seal was found; or where a polar bear has been making a gory meal.
Thomas Wayling, The Ottawa Citizen, 3 November 1936.
Nascopie made a second stop at Wolstenholme on 24 August 1936 followed by Dorset (25) and Lake Harbour on the 27th.
On 30 August 1936, Nascopie was reported to be steaming eastward in Hudson Strait and soon turn northward for Baffin, Devon and Ellesmere Islands. Pond Inlet, on Baffin, was reached at midnight on 3 September followed by Dundas Harbour. This would be the final call there and the post was abandoned owing to the scarcity of white fox. The 52 Eskimos, along with 182 dogs, three polar bear cubs and six whaleboats were transported by Nascopie to a new settlement in Arctic Bay. During the passage, Nascopie was bursting at the seams with 38 cabin passengers, 60 Eskimos (accommodated in the heated tween decks, 42 crew, 197 dogs, three polar bear cubs and the ship's cat.
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| Passenger Gertrude Perrin (whose photo album of her voyage is part of the HBC archives held by the Manitoba Archives) with The Jeep, Nascopie's cat who shared his ship with 197 dogs and three polar bear cubs during the 1936 voyage. Credit: HBCA, Gertrude Perrin fonds, HB2008/004 |
The highlight of the annual patrol, the call at the northernmost post, Craig Harbour was made on 5 September 1936 where "RCMP Lance Corporal R.W. Hamilton and Constable A.G.K. and the natives were reported well after the year's sojourn at the farthest north post." On this voyage, a new post was established at Arctic Bay where Nascopie arrived on the 8th and stayed four days by which the weather had turned cold and snow was falling. Pond Inlet was next visited, on the 13th followed by Clyde two days later and then Pangnirtung where she exchanged the doctor and nurse at the Anglican mission hospital there. There, she also embarked an Eskimo suffering from epilepsy for treatment at Halifax.
And after a final call at Port Burwell, Nascopie was homebound and on 28 September 1936, the Gazette reported "The ice-scarred vessel is bringing back to civilization a group of Royal Canadian Mounted Police and traders who have been out of contact with civilization for years." Nascopie arrived at Halifax on 1 October. Her passengers including three white polar bears given by the HBC agent at Dundas Harbour to the Quebec Zoo and among her cargo were botanical and soil samples collected by a scientist in the Arctic region. The Royal Mail Ship Nascopie and her hardworking Post Master aboard handled 19,000 pieces of philatelic mail and several additional thousands of letters and parcels during the voyage and Craig Harbour had 5,380 pieces of philatelic mail.
Nascopie had quite a few ship's cats over the years and in addition to "Kitty" from Montreal, there was "The Jeep" who had been signed on at Halifax as a kitten and known for steadfastly refusing to leave the ship at any of her ports, The Expositor of 1 October 1936, noting that "when three polar bears for Quebec were taken aboard, he merely sniffed at the cages and thereafter disdained them. When some Eskimo dogs were added, 'The Jeep' retired from sight until they left the ship. Today he was the first down the gangplank."
Film of Nascopie's 1936 voyage from the National Film Board of Canada
https://archives.onf.ca/plan/18035/
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| "Ship Day" at Wolstenhome, 10 August 1936. Credit: Toronto Star photograph. |
1937
On 1 May 1937, eleven members of Nascopie's crew including 2nd Engineer Diamond, Third Engineer Eales, Third Mate Adey and eight deck hands left St. John's for Halifax to take Nascopie out of lay up.
Announced on 1 June 1937, Nascopie would depart on that year's Eastern Arctic Patrol and delivery HBC's 268th Outfit from Montreal on 10 July and return to Montreal (instead of Halifax) on 29 September. Commanded again by Capt. Thomas F. Smellie, this would be his 15th trip to Hudson Bay.
The Ottawa Citizen of 16 June 1937 outlined the three principal objectives of this and preceding Eastern Arctic Patrols.
To leave no doubt as to the Canadian sovereignty of Baffin Island, Ellesmere Island, Devon Island and all the other islands of this mighty archipelago by establishing services on them.
To conduct scientific investigations into the topography, geology, meteorology and ice conditions of the island as well as the plant and animal life.
To care for the Eskimos, several thousand of whom live on these islands, and to bring supplies and relief to the members of the Mount Police who from their lonely outposts dispense help and represent law and order to the natives.
Ice conditions permitting, the MS Aklavik of Western Arctic district, will meet the RMS Nascopie at Brentford Bay and thus established for the second time ocean contact between the Company's vessels in the most remote area of the Northwest passage. The first meeting took place during 1930 between the MS Fort James and the MS Fort Macpherson at King William Island.
The Beaver, June 1937.
On the 1937 voyage there would be another objective that melded the commercial and strategic ambitions of both HBC and Canada: to further demonstrate the viabilities of the long sought Northwest Passage linking the Western and Eastern Arctic and providing a shortcut across the continent. Here, as so much in the region, geography was trumped by climate and the navigation season between the two principal ports, Point Barrow at the tip of Alaska to the west and Lancaster Sound, north of Baffin Island in the east, was so short as to make a single year passage hitherto impossible. Ronald Amundsen, the first to complete the passage, took three years to do so.
Hudson's Bay Co., of course, had operations and a network of posts that spanned the Canadian top of the world. During Nascopie's long Depression lay up, Capt. Smellie was tasked with developing a shortcut for the Northwest Passage by using the port of Aklavik at the mouth of the Mackenzie River in Yukon with the idea of avoiding the heavy ice and long passage from there to Point Barrow. A single ship could still not make the passage in a single season but two might and meet in the middle as it were, that being in or around Cambridge Bay and the Boothia Peninsula which was within 700 miles of Nascopie's furthest regular port on Baffin Island.
This idea had been tested in 1930 with the HBC motor schooners Fort McPherson (from the west) and Fort James (from the east) with a bit of a muddle as to the result. It did show the necessity to create a new HBC post, literally in the middle or more precisely off the Boothia Penisula that would serve as the transfer point as well as tap the promising hunting prospects in the region for white fox.
Now, in addition to her regular duties on her 1937 voyage north, Nascopie, Capt. Smellie and her crew would be tasked with accomplishing a true Northwest Passage interchange between two HBC ships as well as establish a new post on the northern end of the Booth Peninsula… and do it all in time to get home before the Hudson Straits iced up. The northern voyage would be extended about 700 miles longer than the previous year as after leaving Arctic Bay, on the north side of Baffin Island, Nascopie would sail to the end of the Boothia Peninsula, 240 miles to the southwest. There, HBC Inspector William Gibson would establish a new post, the location of which was left to Capt. Smellie and based on his judgement as to the most suitable anchorage and beach for working cargo. Finally, a group of Inuit families and their dogs would be transported from Arctic Bay to the new post.
It was announced on 9 July 1937 that the new post, originally to be named Fort Hearne, was to be established on or about 7 September on Bellot Strait as a connecting post between the eastern and western Arctic. "When the Nascopie arrives, it will be the first time white men have visited be the first time white men have visited the remote tip of land since Commander Ross was there about 100 years ago. It is thought not unlikely that traces of the Ross expedition will be found Bellot Strait. Attempts will be made to ascertain whether this strait, which lies between the mainland and North Somerset Island, is navigable." (Gazette 9 July 1937). To honour the Ross expedition, the post would instead be named Fort Ross.
That year, the epic assemblage of cargo for Outfit 268 was house in Shed 46 as the old Shed 6a had been torn down during the reconstruction of Alexandra Pier. The shed would be relocated near the Harbour Bridge and would be in use for HBC the following year. As in past voyages, the Young Men's Canadian Club had donated a large number of books, magazines, puzzles, games, gramophones and records to be taken up north and distributed to the Inuit.
Nascopie left Halifax on 27 June 1937 for Montreal and arrived on 3 July and would have to load very quickly.
On 8 July 1937 the Government party was announced, again under the command of Major D.L. McKeand, comprising 28 in all including 11 Mounties. About 100 people including 43 crew and 20 company men will make the trip, including seven women passengers and 1,000 tons of cargo including 890 tons of supplies for HBC and RCMP posts. Once loaded Nascopie will displace 3,000 tons and capable of cracking ice six-feet thick. Among the passengers was Lt. Cmdr. W.K. Queen, USNR, who was chief engineer of the Admiral Byrd expedition to the Antarctic in 1933. That year's commercial passengers comprised five embarking at Montreal and eight in Churchill.
The 1937 East Arctic Patrol would cover 10,346 miles, call at 23 ports and, distribute mail to 45 posts. Nascopie's first call would be Hebron, Labrador, on 16 July, for a stay of two days, then Port Burwell, Lake Harbour, Wakeham Bay, Sugluk, Cape Dorset, Wolstenholme, Southampton Island, Cape Smith, Harrison and she arrived at Churchill on 8 August. Sailing on the 11th, Nascopie would proceed to Chesterfield Inlet, Wolstenholme, Lake Harbour and then up Davis Strait to Craig Harbour on Ellesmere Island and Arctic Bay. Leaving Arctic Bay on 5 September, she would continue to the site of Fort Hearne and then on to Pond's Inlet, Clyde River, Pangnirtung, Port Burwell and return to Halifax.
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| A relaxed Capt. Smellie about to make his 15th voyage north. Credit: The Beaver. |
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| Nascopie's passengers waving farewell. Credit: The Beaver. |
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| Nascopie sails from Montreal on her 1937 voyage. Credit: The Beaver. |
Her decks loaded with oil drums; here a couple of canoes sewn up in sacking and labelled 'Repulse Bay'; there's a compactly folded baby carriage; her hold stuffed with mails and an extraordinary diverse assortment of supplies; her long yellow stack smoking away in a very businesslike fashion, her flags flying as a regatta-- the Nascopie sailed out of Montreal Saturday morning for the far north.
The shore was crowded with waving well-wishers, some of them relative and friends of the passengers, some of them Hudson's Bay Company veterans wearing their service medals, but many of them strangers, there simply because they were fascinated by the romance of the little boat starting off on a 10,000-mile journey to the outposts of civilization. Not a few of these were small boys. They may not be reading R.M. Ballantyne these days, but the thrill of the Arctic hasn't diminished.
On deck to wave good bye-- some for three months, some for three years-- were the scarlet-coated mounties, the Hudson's Bay Company men, the Government and university scientists, wireless, movie and radio men, missionaries and their families and tourists.
The bustle of departure reached an unexpected climax when a latecomer dashed up in a taxi and caught the boat by the skin of his teeth. The hawsers had been cast off, the Blue Peter hauled down, and the Nascopie was actually on underway when Dr. L.D. Livingstone, ship's doctor, appeared. His baggage was thrown on deck and he jumped after it. With 15 years in the eastern Arctic behind him, he was nonchalant enough about the affair.
The Gazette, 12 July 1937
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| Inuit band aboard Nascopie at Hebron. Credit: The Beaver. |
When Nascopie arrived at her first port of all, Hebron, Labrador, she was joined by the schooner Gertrude L. Thebaud, with the Donald LB. MacMillan Arctic Expedition aboard. "Rev. George Harp, mission representative greeted the voyage with an Eskimo brass band and the music was broadcast on short wave. It is believe to be first time an Eskimo band has been on the air." (Ottawa Citizen, 18 July 1937). The concert over, the musicians joined others in unloading supplies from Nascopie to the HBC motor schooners Fort Garry and Fort Amadjuak for Ungava Bay and other northern posts. Arriving at Port Burwell on the 18th, the Rev. R. W. Wenham and Miss Taylor (who had sailed up from Montreal) were married aboard by the Rev. A. Turner. The newleweds would make their home at Fort Chimo.
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| Vows on the prow: wedding ceremony aboard Nascopie during the call at Lake Burwell. Credit: The Beaver. |
Nascopie touched at Lake Harbour on 22 July 1937, Wakeham Bay (23) and Sugluk on the 24th. Cape Dorset was next on the 25th and then Wolstenholme 26-27th. Cape Smith was visited on 1 August and arrived at Churchill on the 7th. There, she joined other ships in port on the 9th greeting the arrival of the first warship to enter the Churchill harbour in 155 years, HMS Scarborough. Favourable weather so far put Nascopie well ahead of schedule and after loading 400 tons of coal, she was off again on the 14th.
Disregarding Friday the 13th superstitions, Capt. T.F. Smellie last night pointed his ship, the R.M.S. Nascopie, out into Hudson Bay, amid salutes from other vessels in this northland port, to begin an extended cruise of the Arctic archipelago, scheduled to last until the end of September
The stout little ship nosed out into the north with all accommodation filled. Members of the Eastern Arctic Patrol under Major D.D. McKeand, Royal Canadian Mounted Police under Superintendent G.F. Fletcher, Hudson's Bay Company officials and many distinguished scientists were included in the passenger list.
The Windsor Star, 14 August 1937
Nascopie's arrival at Chesterfield Inlet on 15 August 1937 was described in the North Bay Nugget:
It is Chesterfield's big annual occasion when the Nascopie, northern supply ship of the Department of Mines and Resources, rode at anchor off the rocky coast here Sunday. The vessel, on its yearly trip to various posts in Canada's spacious Arctic and conveying relief personnel, scientists, missionaries and even tourists, reached Chesterfield at daybreak.
Flags and bunting streamed from the Hidson's Bay Company post, from the few stores clustered around the inlet, from the Roman Catholic hospital, the barracks of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the post office and the station operated by the radio branch of the Department of Transport.
Before the Nascopie dropped anchor, Eskimos from miles around congregated and clambered overside. Through tossing seas the passengers were conveyed to the jetty in motor craft and there they were met by a smiling polite matron.
The Nascopie unloaded 150 tons, mostly coal, ferried by scows from ship to shore.
Splendid weather has favored the Nascopie since she left Montreal.
Nascopie embarked three Inuit families comprising 18 persons and their dogs, at Arctic Bay on 31 August 1937 for the new Fort Ross. "In gripping Arctic sunshine and remarkable freedom from ice, the ship carrying the Eastern Arctic Patrol sailed Tuesday for Fort Ross and the North-West Passage that gripped the imagination of Hudson, Frobisher and other explorers, and usually end in their death. It will be the first time the Eastern Arctic Patrol enters the Passage and on Monday night the ship's company drank a toast to the Dominion government in honor of the historical event. Going through Admiralty Inlet after leaving Arctic Bay Monday month, a school of seals put on a water gymnasium show that entertained the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, scientists and government official making the trip." (Winnipeg Tribune, 1 September 1937).
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| Nascopie in Depot Bay as seen from Fort Ross. Credit: The Beaver. |
On 31 August 1937 Capt. Smellie took Nascopie into the icy waters through Lancaster Sound and into Prince Regent Inlet that no steel ship had hitherto navigated and for which there were no charts, past ice floes populated by thousands of harp seals. On 1 September in Depot Bay, near Brown's Island and Long Island, at the eastern end of Bellot Strait, Nascopie anchored and Capt. Smellie and a party took a boat to investigate a site for the new post and returned to the ship at seven.
Well, believe it or not, 6,000 miles and fifty-five days out of Montreal, through ice, fog and storm, the R.M.S. Nascopie dropped anchor off Brentford Bay at the eastern entrance of the Bellot Strait at 2.30 P.M. on September 1! Captain Smellie, accompanied by the late Paddy Gibson and me, set off immediately in one of the ship's cargo scows to take soundings and to reconnoitre. As a result, the captain found a better entrance than the originally accepted one off Possession Point. With regard to a possible post site, it was found that Depot Bay was as good as any, being fully up to the report given of it by McClintock in his journal so many years ago.
Thursday, September 2, 1937, was an historic day. R.M.S. Nascopie was under way at 4 A.M. and after cautiously approaching the coast dropped anchor at 7.30 A.M. to allow Captain Smellie to take more soundings and to set out marker buoys. During this operation one of the seamen, in the act of throwing out one of the buoys, threw himself overboard as well! However, he was quickly hauled on board. The captain, in his wisdom, had taken the precaution to have just the right kind of medicine on hand for such an emergency— the sailor was quickly revived with Hudson's Bay rum! Gibson and I accompanied the captain on this survey and were left ashore while the captain returned to bring in the ship. The final selection of the post site, and the location of the various buildings, was made by Gibson and me about ten on the morning of September 2.
In the meantime Captain Smellie had returned to his ship, and the R.M.S. Nascopie was slowly approaching the selected anchorage while Gibson and I were watching from on shore. It was a thrilling experience to watch a famous ship steam in to disturb the serenity and stillness of that vast and silent Arctic land. But this was not all, for while we watched with But there was no time for celebrations, for much work had to be done during the short week the Nascopie would stay in Depot Bay. There was a heavy cargo to unload, including building materials, furnishings and equipment fbr a staff dwelling, a store and two warehouses. The unloaded cargo, at least the perishable portion, should be under cover inside the larger warehouse and the staff dwelling covered in and habitable before we left. Immediately after lunch, therefore, the carpenter gang, consisting mostly of fur traders from the Nascopie passenger list under direction of ship's carpenter Clem James, went ashore with a load of lumber, and by dusk they had the foundation of the dwelling laid and the floor on.
Fur Trader's Story.
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| Credit: The Winnipeg Tribune. |
A new passage across the top of the world, linking Eastern and Western Canada, was charted today when contact was made between the Hudson's Bay Company ship Nascopie and the schooner Aklavik in Bellot Strait.
The dream of Arctic navigators for 400 years became a reality when the Aklavik, from Cambridge Bay in the Western Arctic drew alongside the Nascopie from Montreal. It meant a new Northwest Passage through Bellot Strait which seperates Boothia Peninsula, the most northerly tip of the Canadian mainland and Somerset Island.
Although ships have run the original north-west passage farther north, along Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait, it was the first time a ship had passed through Bellot Strait, thus opening a new passage.
Montreal Star, 3 September 1937
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| The HBC schooner Aklavik approaches Nascopie. Credit: The Beaver. |
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| West meets East as Aklavik draws alongside Nascopie. Credit: The Beaver. |
That same day the schooner Aklavik was sighted coming from the mouth of Bellot Strait and at 11:00 a.m. 2 September 1937 she was alongside Nascopie, "West Met East, having again proven the North West Passage" (The Beaver). Aklavik which had left King William Land Post on 23 August "encountered much ice and wind and not a little engine trouble, but with determination and grit these men, E.J. Gall, J.R. Ford and Patsy Klengenberg, brought the craft to the meeting place on time. History was made on this day: McClintock's cairn was found, furs from King William Land Post were being shipped to London via the Eastern Arctic route, the Eastern and the Western Arctic Districts were opened to each other, and skipper Gall had earned the distinction of journeying to his home in Scotland on furlough by this route," (The Beaver). Capt. E.J. Gall transhipped to Nascopie for the passage back to Halifax, thus becoming the first passenger to make the Northwest Passage.
Before the day was over, there was another rendezvous when L.A. Learmouth and D.G. Sturrock reached Nascopie after crossing Bellot Strait in a 16-ft. canoe, having journeyed from King William Land by whaleboat, canoe and on foot, crossing from west to east on the northern tip of Bootha Peninsula. L.A. Learmouth would take over the management of the new Fort Ross post.
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| With Nascopie in the distance, the foundation for Fort Ross is laid. Credit: The Beaver. |
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| Erection of the main post building. Credit: The Beaver. |
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| The three Eskimo families and their dogs going ashore from Nascopie. Credit: The Beaver. |
There remained the task, accomplished in snow and sleet, of constructing from scratch the new Fort Ross Post and in six days the new building, with its post office, was constructed, and everyone chipped in. The Inuit party was landed and three HBC officials left to man the post. Delayed departing for 13 hours by a snowstorm, Nascopie sailed on 8 September 1937.
Now on the long run home, Nascopie called at Pond Inlet, Clyde (13 September 1937) and Pangnirtung three days later "after a beautiful run down the Pangnirtung fjord." Departing there on the 19th, Nascopie called at Port Burwell and it was a rough run south to Halifax, where she docked on the 28th, "it marked the close of a very successful trip, with good weather, congenial company, and the knowledge that yet another step had been taken in the progress of the Company." (The Beaver).
Nascopie, Capt. Smellie, crew and the government officials aboard received a hero's welcome upon return to Halifax on 27 September 1937 after completing one of the most successful and noteworthy of all Eastern Arctic Patrols and supply missions of HBC. "Captain T.F. Smellie made a wonderful job of the trip," Major McKeand told reporters.
Despite the well-earned accolades, Captain Smellie, who famously complained that the spurs the RCMP men insisted on wearing with their famous dress uniforms even aboard ship were damaging the companionways and carpeting, was uncomfortable at best with all this "ship of state" hoopla and considered Nascopie to be what she always had been: a London registered vessel belonging to a British company, headquartered in London, engaged on Company business under the Red Ensign.
But the Captain was glum as Montreal gave him its most memorable reception. 'There seemed to be more government people around than I believed existed,' he said. 'Nobody looked over the old girl's stern to find just where she was registered-- London. I flew only the Red Ensign and the flag of the Hudson's Bay Company. The government of Canada had nothing to do with it…'
The Province, 24 April 1963
Films of Nascopie's 1937 voyage from the National Film Board of Canada
https://archives.onf.ca/plan/2090/
https://archives.onf.ca/plan/2089/
https://archives.onf.ca/plan/35893/
https://archives.onf.ca/plan/2105/
https://archives.onf.ca/plan/35892/
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| Official HBC issued card for Nascopie. |
1938
The deck crew of Nascopie sailed from St. John's to Halifax on 30 April 1938 aboard Fort Amherst to bring her out of lay-up and she was drydocked for overhaul.
Although a proposal to use CGS N.B. McLean for that year's Eastern Arctic Patrol was entertained, on 11 May 1938 the Canadian Government announced it would continued its use of Nascopie in the role and again under the command of Major D.L. McKeand, leading his 7th EAP. The Post Office announced its once a year Arctic mail service on 2 June with R.M.S. Nascopie sailing from Montreal on 9 July. The 12,246-mile cruise would touch at 24 ports and carry mails and supplies to 45 posts and communities. A new call for her this trip would be Thule, Greenland, before Craig Harbour and Fort Ross. Her postmaster for the trip was F.R.E. Sparks. On her "to do" list was the establishment of new two-way short-wave radio stations at Stupart's Bay, Lake Harbour, Wolstenholme, Fort McKenzie, Pangnirtung, Southampton Island and Fort Ross.
Nascopie carried cargo, of course, as part of her government-funded operations, separate from her HBS post supplies and on the 1938 voyage, this comprised: Lake Harbour (28¼ tons), Eskimo Point (21¼ tons), Chesterfield, (113¼ tons), Baker Laker (24 tons), Craig Harbour (8¼ tons), Pond Inlet (24¼ tons) and Pangnirtung (87¼ tons) or a total of 306½ tons. In addition, she carried on government account "a quantity of green salted buffalo, elk and moosehieds" loaded at Churchill "for distribution to Eskimos in the Northwest Territories and in northern Quebec."
Nascopie arrived at Montreal from Halifax on 29 June 1938 fresh from her annual refit and berthed again at Shed 46. For economy reasons, the government icebreaker N.B. McLean would not be in service that season and Nascopie will be once again alone in the North save for the missionary ship Marie F. Therese.
Among those sailing in Nascopie was the Hon. John Buchan, son of the Governor General of Canada, Lord Tweedsmuir, who arrived in Empress of Britain at Quebec on 7 July 1938 and would sail to his posting at Cape Dorset as an employee of HBC. Also sailing was Miss Wallace of Peterhead, Scotland, who was sailing to Arctic Bay to marry post manager A.R. Scott there who had proposes to her "by radio, wireless and cable." Two other brides were also sailing and the voyage would see a record three weddings conducteed aboard. Miss Lorene Squire, a noted wildlife photographer, would also be making the voyage (embarking at Churchill) and record much of it in photo whilst Canadian landscape painter Frederick Horsman Varley (1881-1969) would document it in paintings for the National Gallery. The Right Rev. A.L. Fleming, Anglican Bishop for the Arctic region, was also aboard. That year saw eight commercial passengers boarding in Montreal and six in Churchill.
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| Capt. Smellie waves farewell from Nascopie's bridge as she sails. Credit: The Beaver. |
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| Nascopie sails from Montreal, 9 July 1938. Credit: The Beaver. |
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| Nascopie sails from Montreal. Credit: Times Colonist, 20 July 1938. |
The two "ships for the far north" that year, Nascopie and the little missionary ship Marie F. Therese, sailed together from Montreal on 9 July 1938.
Crowds gathered to see them off, and wave a last good-bye to men and women who are going into the Arctic for long stretches-- some of them for three or five years, and some of them longer. Along the beach as the Nascopie, dressed from stem to stern in bunting, slipped away from the pier at Shed 46 and went sternway into the stream, the scene was a repetition of other years. There was the drama hidden by gaiety, as friends bid farewell to one another, as hankerchiefs fluttered and hats waved. There was the color of the little ship, loaded deep in the water with her heavy cargo; the scarlet coats of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on deck, and the ship's blasting whistle as she cut the final line contact on a voyage that will take her 12,000 miles to within a short distance of the North Pole.
At 10 a.m., the lines were taken in, the Nascopie's whistle blasted for the tugs and she was under way, the Blue Peter run down from her mast. She made a striking picture as she moved away from the pier, the eyes of those on shore following her until the last moment.
Along the stretches down the harbor, eastward past Vickers, ships at the berths sent ringing blasts of farewell to Nascopie and Marie F. Therese. It was the first time the two Arctic ships had sailed together. It added to the color of a sailing that has always been colorful.
The Gazette, 11 July 1938
Nascopie left Montreal on 9 July 1938, sailed from Shed 46 on the 269th voyage "Trading into Hudson's Bay" by a company vessel and the 16th undertaken by the stalwart ship.
Hebron Harbour, Labador, was the first call as usual, on 15 July 1938, and cargo for the Ungava Bay posts was transferred to Fort Garry after the customary welcome concert by the local Eskimo band which came out by boat and serenaded the ship as she anchored. Port Burwell was next on the 17th. The following day a wedding was conducted aboard by the Bishop of the Arctic of Miss Evelyn Cope and Fort Chimo Post Manager D.A. Wilderspin and Capt. T.F. Smellie gave away the bride.
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| Nascopie interrupted a mother polar bear and her two cubs lunching on a dead walrus on an ice pan and the three jumped in the water and swam for another ice ice field. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
During passage to Lake Harbour prolonged by considerable ice en route, an amusing polar bear encounter was recorded in The Beaver (September 1938):
During the afternoon of the 19th, while most of the passengers were in the saloon, the cry went around 'Polar Bears!' Immediately there was a rush for the rail and there, sure enough, Captain Smellie was taking right up to visit a mother polar bear with two cubs having lunch from a dead walrus on a pan of ice. It was a pretty picture to say the least, but as we came closer the mother bear took to the water with the two cubs following here, swimming for all they were worth. Gradually the Nascopie overtook them and, when she saw that she could not outdistance the Nascopie the mother bear doubled back and jumped on a pan of ice close by the side of the ship. As soon as the mother bear saw the cubs safely on the ice, away she galloped with her offspring at her heels till, suddenly, Captain Smellie gave a small 'toot' on the siren and it was most amusing to see the mother bear turn around with such a surprised look to see what it was all about. But her halt was only momentary, for she again galloped away over the ice and into the water, followed by her cubs and was soon lost to sight. The whole incident was most exciting and there was much clicking of cameras.
Nascopie arrived at Lake Harbour on 20 July 1938 and during the call, the traditional Inuit sports day was held. Stupart's Bay was next, on the 21st and Sugluk the following day. During the two-day stop at Cape Dorset on 24-25th, Dr. R.H. Manning of HBC and Miss Ella Wallace Jackson were married aboard by Bishop Flemming, the wedding ring fashioned from a brass fitting by Chief Engineer Jackson. A new house was built by all hands (including Capt. Smellie) for the post manager.
Wolsetenholme, one of the most impressively sited of all posts, with its fjord approach, was visited on 26 July 1938 followed by Southampton Island (28) and Cape Smith on the 30th. There, the good weather hitherto experienced gave way to driving rain which transitioned into a full blown gale and early on the 31st, Capt. Smellie had to weigh anchor and take Nascopie out to sea to ride it out until late that afternoon. The second of August saw Nascopie at Port Harrison. The second day there, Capt. Smellie took his passengers ashore for a picnic. The RCMP post there was closed down and the constables, dogs, possessions and Peterhead motor boat were shipped aboard for passage to their new post on the west coast of Hudson Bay.
Leaving Port Harrison on 4 August 1938, Nascopie put in a fine run across the Bay to Churchill where she docked at 7:00 a.m. on the 6th, two days early. There, she landed 200 bales of fur collected so far which was dispatched by train for the east and onwards shipmen to London. She took aboard a carload of buffalo, moose and elk hides for the Inuit in the north.
Sailing from Churchill on 8 August 1938 to begin the northern part of her voyage, Nascopie arrived at Chesterfield on the 10th, and made her second call at Wolstenholme on the 13-14th. Her ensuing call at Lake Harbour was delayed by a 24-hour storm in Hudson Bay.
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| Nascopie at Wolstenholme. Credit: Lorene Squire photograph, The Beaver. |
Thursday, August 18,1938, broke beautiful, clear and calm on Hudson Strait, but it was to be a tragic day for R.M.S. Nascopie. Early that morning Able Seaman Isaac Mercer of Newfoundland slipped from the rigging, and almost clearing the ship into the sea struck his head on the iron railing and suffered a severe head concussion. The accident was a mystery, as the weather was clear and the sea a glassy calm. Mercer was known to be one of the most careful and efficient seamen on the ship. However it may have happened, he slipped his hand hold and fell with his legs still more or less grasping the rigging, his head falling first to hit the rail. A few more inches and he would have cleared the rail into the sea and thus have been saved. Doctor Rogers, the ship's surgeon, and Bishop Fleming were quickly on the scene but in a few moments Able Seaman Mercer had passed beyond human aid.
Fur Trader's Story.
In a rare and tragic occurrence aboard Nascopie, Able Seaman Isaac Mercer fell 60 feet from the rigging on 18 August 1938 and was killed almost instantly from a head injury. He was buried at sea, "the impressive service of burial at sea was conducted by Right Reverend A.L. Fleming, Bishop of the Arctic. Four seamen acted as pall-bearers, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Detachment attended in full dress uniform, and as many office and men as could be spared from duty. The engines were stopped, and the bell tolled for Mercer, who was ane extremely competent seaman and had sailed in Company ships practically every year since 1927." (The Beaver).
On 19 August 1938 one of the Inuit passengers gave birth to a baby boy as Nascopie left Port Burwell.
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| Nascopie off Thule, Greenland. Credit: Loren Squire photograph, The Beaver. |
A thrill of the voyage was the maiden call at Thule, Greenland, and the passage there met with a lot of ice but Nascopie passed Cape York at noon and anchored off Thule on 24 August 1938 after passing many large ice bergs en route and the port itself dominated by its own "table mountain." Arriving at 10:00 p.m., passengers were allowed ashored and returned past midnight, still in sunshine.and the weather was quite beautiful. Although diplomatic courtesies were exchanged with the local Danish authorities, the main object of the call was to pick up two Inuit families for the RMCP post at Craig Harbour. Their embarkation was delayed when the two husbands were off hunting and Nascopie was finally on her way on the 25th.
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| One of the embarks at Cape Dorset, this husky pup was bound for Fort Ross. Credit: Lorene Squire photograph, The Beaver. |
The passage to Craig Harbour passed many impressive icebergs and Nascopie arrived there on 26 August 1938. As usual, a considerable amount of philatelic mail was taken ashore to the post office to be stamped there and, of course, returned aboard for conveyance onwards. At Cape Dorset, Nascopie embarked 26 Inuit families, their dogs and belongings, with 20 destined for Fort Ross and six for Arctic Bay. At Arctic Bay on the 29th, the wedding of post manager A.R. Scott and Miss Eileen Wallace took place in the saloon, performed by Bishop Fleming.
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| Aklavik and Nascopie meet again off Fort Ross. Credit: Loren Squire photograph, The Beaver. |
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| "Ship Day" at Fort Ross, 1938. Credit: Lorene Squire photograph, The Beaver. |
Much ice was met in Prince Regent Sound but did not deter Nascopie from making her first return visit to Fort Ross on 31 August 1937. There was also a reunion rendezvous with Aklavik from the West and again cargo was exchanged between the two vessels. Nascopie sailed on 1 September for Pond's Inlet reached on the 3rd. The worst weather yet encountered was from Clyde to Pangnirtung with rain, fog and then snow which put Nascopie 30 hours off her timetable by the time she reached Pangnirtung on the 9th where the weather turned beautiful for her entire call there and the passengers enjoying an excursion up the fjord. There, the last of seven short-wave radio stations was set up and this and the other posts so fitted could now talk directly with the company headquarters in Winnipeg and, of course, elsewhere. Nascopie left Pangnirtung on the 12th. A final stop was made at Hebron and on the 15th, she headed for Halifax and home.
R.M.S. Nascopie poked her scarred nose into dock in Halifax harbor tonight and completed another chapter in her sagas of the seas around Canada's northern fringe. Since leaving Montreal late in une, she steamer and her party of seamen, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Government scientists and passengers, covered more than 11,000 miles around the Arctic Archipelago, Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay.
Nascopie's arrival at dock attracted a goodly crowd of relatives and friends of her party, sightseers and other interested persons. The first message one couple exchanged after three months apart went from husband to wife across a narrowing space of water: 'Well! You didn't get any thinner!'
The Gazette, 20 September 1938
When Nascopie docked at Halifax on 19 September 1938, she had several records in hand, not the least of which were the three weddings celebrated aboard, the greatest distance (12,246 miles) yet covered by an Eastern Arctic Patrol since its beginning in 1922 and the shortest duration in relation to distance covered and generally the best weather.
It was mentioned in the official report of that year's East Arctic Patrol that "With the increased number of private commercial radio stations now operating in the Eastern Arctic, and improved equipment used on the patrol vessel combined with other favourable conditions, it was found possible to shortern the previously estimated time of the entire voyage by eleven days. The four and a half days saved at Churchill were attributed mainly to improved facilities available for loading coal.
Images of R.M.S. Nascopie, 1938, by photographer Lorene Squire
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| Photographer Lorene Squire (1910-1942) sailed in Nascopie on her 1938 voyage (Churchill to Halifax) and worked for The Beaver from the mid 1930s to her tragic death in a car accident in 1942. She uniiquely captured the Far North... its landscapes, peoples, animal and birdlife and... Nascopie... on film. |
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| R.M.S. Nascopie at Fort Ross, 1938. Credit: Lorene Squire photograph, Archives of Manitoba. |
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| R.M.S. Nascopie at Chesterfield Inlet, 1938. Credit: Lorene Squire photograph, Archives of Manitoba. |
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| R.M.S. Nascopie at Craig Harbour, 1938. Credit: Lorene Squire photograph, Archives of Manitoba. |
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| R.M.S. Nascopie at Fort Ross. Credit: Lorene Squire photograph, Archives of Manitoba |
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| R.M.S. Nascopie at Lake Harbour, 1939. Credit: Lorene Squire photograph, Archives of Manitoba. |
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| R.M.S. Nascopie at Fort Ross, 1938. Credit: Lauren Squire, The Beaver. |
Paintings by Frederick Horsman Varley, ARCA, done aboard Nascopie, 1938
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| "The Nascopie," 1938. Credit: painting by Frederick Horsman Varley, The Robert McLaughln Gallery, Oshawa |
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| "Arctic Seascape," 1938. Credit: painting by Frederick Horsman Varley, Gift of Mrs. Donald McKay, 1977, Donated by the Ontario Heritage Foundation, 1988 |
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| "Mountains, Eastern Arctic Patrol, R.M.S. Nascopie," 1938. Credit: painting by Frederick Horsman Varley, The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario |
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| "Arctic Night," 1938. Credit: painting by Frederick Horsman Varley, artvalue.ca |
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| "Eskimos on Board the Nascopie," 1938. Credit: painting by Frederick Horsman Varley, www.heffel.ca |
1939
The Royal Mail Steamship Nascopie, veteran of many a trip to Canada's Arctic, pointed her bow seaward yesterday for the first time in seven months. She was bound for Falmouth, England, for an overhauling after laying up in Halifax since September.
Her departure was not uneventful. After she left her dock and steamed into the stream, she returned for an unnamed fireman reported missing. Officers were unable to find him and the Nascopie sailed again.
The sturdy 2,521-ton craft will undergo repairs befoe she makes her annual trip to Hudson Bay this spring. For many years Nascopie has been a messenger from civilization as she visits the far-flung Arctic outposts.
The Gazette, 27 March 1939
Marking her first trans-Atlantic voyage since 1933, Nascopie sailed from Halifax on 24 March 1939 for Falmouth where she would undergo a major Lloyd's survey, and arrived on 5 April.
After coaling, Nascopie left Cardiff on 17 June 1939 for Montreal, destined never again to visit Britain. It was a known fact that "all her toughness, the Nascopie's fire grates can't digest Canadian coal. Last year she burned out her grates again, as she did two or three years previously, and so her bunkers are heaped with the best Swansea coal this time." (Montreal Star, 7 July 1939). Among her passengers for the trans-Atlantic voyage were Mrs. Smellie and daughter Nancy, Mrs. D.L. McKeand, Mrs. Hamilton, P.A.C. Nichols and C.G. Wilson. Passing Quebec on the 28th, Nascopie arrived Montreal the next day, docking at Shed 46.
Canada will again assert her sovereignty over the islands of the Arctic this year when the annual expedition of administration officials penetrates the bleak wastes of the North.
North Bay Nugget, 30 June 1939
The Eastern Arctic Patrol for 1939 was announced on 30 May and, again under the direction of Mayor D.L. McKeand, Nascopie would sail from Montreal on 8 July and arrive at Churchill on 7 August and thence to the far north, returning to Halifax on 26 September. R.A. Perskins, of the Windsor Post Office, was designated as Postmaster for the voyage on 15 June. As usual, the ship's planned arrived at Craig Harbour on or about 27 August was an event in the philatelic calendar for that coveted postmark from the most northerly post office in the Empire. On this voyage, 32,000 pieces of mail was handled, 16,000 of which were for philatelists. The Patrol, encompassing 10,600 miles, would call at 22 ports, serve 48 RCMP and HBC posts in all and handle 414 tons of government cargo :
Hebron 16 JulyPort Burwell 19 JulyLake Harbour 21 JulyWakeham Bay 23 JulySugluk 25 JulyCape Dorset 27 JulyWolstenholme 28 JulySouthampton Island 30 JulyCape Smith 1 AugustPort Harrison 5 AugustChurchill 9 AugustChesterfield Inlet 13 AugustWolstenholme 18 AugustLake Harbour 20 AugustCraig Harbour 28 AugustFort Ross 1 SeptemberArctic Bay 4 SeptemberPond Inlet 8 SeptemberClyde River 10 SeptemberPangnirtung 16 SeptemberHebron 20 SeptemberHalifax 27 September
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| Credit: The Gazette, 8 July 1939. |
Quietly and efficiently, preparations are under way here for the annual visit of the sturdy little R.M.S Nascopie to the lonely Arctic world of treeless hills, sapphire seas and icebergs.
Star Phoenix, 19 June 1939
Nascopie's compliment for the voyage comprised 41 officers and crew, 13 passengers (six making the roundtrip and seven landing at Churchill where six more would embark), 11 HBC staff and 14 government officials embarking at Montreal.
Romance will be wedded to cold fact when on July 8th, from the Port of Montreal, R.M.S. Nascopie turns her bows down the St. Lawrence headed, once again, for lonely Arctic seas. While the cities swelter in summer heat, chill polar winds; will trail Nascopie’s smoke behind her, while her white wake traces a path across the heaving wastes to havens where for many days expectant eyes have swept the horizon.
Nascopie's appearance in that world of treeless hills, sapphire sea and icebergs the hue of trolls' palaces, spells relief, release, human contact and that greatest of all gifts to those in exile self-imposed-- letters, papers, books from home!
Fur trader, Mounted Policeman, prospector, missionary-- all whose lives call them into the lonely north welcome the Nascopie's arrival as the red-letter day of their year.
The Carbon Chronicle, 29 June 1939.
Bulging with supplies for civilization's outposts, the Hudson's Bay Company's sturdy ship Nascopie sailed today from Montreal's 87-degree heat for the cool of the Arctic.
Drums of gasoline crowded her decks. Food, coal, magazines and bath tubs filled her hold. She carried 13 passengers, company workers, scientists, Government officials and two scarlet-coated members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Star Phoenix, 8 July 1939
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HBC's veteran Fur Trade Commissioner Ralph Parsons (who established 28 posts during a 40-year-career) and Capt. Smellie prior to sailing. Credit: The Beaver |
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| Prior to sailing, Fur Trade Commissioner Ralph Parsons, Major D.L. McKeand, Capt. Smellie and HBC Governor P. Ashley Cooper (visiting the ship) share a memory of the 1934 voyage. Credit: J.W Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
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| Credit: Star-Phoenix, 14 July 1939. |
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| Nascopie sails from Montreal on 9 July 1939. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
When Nascopie sailed on 8 July 1939, among those seeing her off was HBC Governor P. Ashley Cooper, recently returned from an inspection trip of Western Canada. Company business during the voyage would include the establishment of two more shortwave radio stations at Fort Chimo and Fort Frobisher.
As described in The Beaver (September 1939), "the voyage has been unusual so far [up to Churchill] for the amount of foggy, rainy and disagreeable weather coupled with exceptionally heavy ice conditions which delayed us. This necessitated cutting short the stop-overs at ports of call so that season 1939 had been a rush at the posts where we stopped." In addition, the voyage showed the Inuit in a very poor way, short on food amid depressed conditions. That season's fur catch was 50-75 per cent less than previous year.
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| Credit: Edmonton Journal, 17 August 1939. |
When Nascopie made her first call at Hebron, although still greeted with the customary band concert, she was swarmed with Inuits relishing a meal aboard after being short on food for sometime. Fog and ice delayed Nascopie en route between Port Burwell and Lake Harbour where she arrived on 21 July 1939, one day late. This, plus "rather disagreeable weather" cancelled the traditional sports day at Lake Harbour. Two Inuit families were embarked for passage to Fort Ross, the new post proving attractive owing to the better hunting prospects there.
More fog and considerable ice was encountered crossing Hudson Straits and Nascopie arrived at Stupart's Bay on 24 July 1939. On arrival at Wakeham Bay,"Major D.L. McKeand reported that the 12-mile channel running from Hudson Strait into Lake Harbour was full of winter ice floes, worst ice conditions during the 17 years the annual tour of the Eastern Arctic has been made." (Winnipeg Tribune). On sailing from Sugluk on the 26th, Nascopie hit her first rough sea conditions but this gave way to fog and ice and delayed again, she reached Cape Dorset on the 27th. To make up time, the ensuing call at Wolstenholme was fleeting and finally good weather was enjoyed on passage to Southampton Island where passengers enjoyed a picnic ashore before departure on the 31st. Nascopie proceeded to Port Harrison (2-4 August) where Capt. Smellie took passengers fishing following by an afternoon Inuit sports competition. Sailing for Churchill, more ice was encountered and Nascopie was stuck for the night of the 5th but underway again the following morning when, to the delight of those aboard, three polar bears were sighted quite close to the ship as she passed.
Delayed 12 hours by ice in the bay 100 miles east of the port, Nascopie's arrival at Churchill on the evening of 5 August 1939. This coincided with the visit to the port by the Governor-General Lord Tweedsmuir and Lady Tweedsmuir who, the next day, greeted their son, John Buchan, who was aboard, returning from a year stationed at Cape Dorset as an apprentice of HBC . The vice-regal party were guests of Capt. Smellie and Major McKeand aboard Nascopie that afternoon.
Beginning the northern leg of her voyage, Nascopie left Churchill on 8 August 1939. Before departure, her on board stamp supply which had been exhausted owing to the demand for philatelic post, was restocked. One passenger alone had posted more than 5,000 letters to secure the rare northern cancellations. Nascopie set a record for cargo discharge for the post, arriving at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday and off on Tuesday at 7:00 a.m., a day early to put her back on schedule.
At Chesterfield, Nascopie transshipped cargo to Fort Severn for Baker Lake and other smaller posts. "After a fine run," she arrived at Wolstenholme on 13 August 1939, allowing the Fur Trade Commissioner the honour of inspecting the post on the very day, 30 years after he established it in 1909.
More poor weather was experienced at Lake Harbour on the second call on 15 August 1939, again causing cancellation of the sports day activities there. She embarked 25 Eskimo dogs there for transport to Fort Ross where most of the team had wiped out by an epidemic. At Port Burwell on the 16th, Nascopie was joined by Fort Amadjuak, the HBC Commissioners inspection boat, which took the Commissioner and other staff down the coast of Labrador, and the schooner Fort Garry. Next was Devon Island, which had "recently received a fresh snowfall, thus providing unlimited Arctic scenery for the passengers-- glaciers, snow-capped hills, icebergs and all." (The Beaver).
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| King Boreas (passenger Dr. R.L. Sutton) and Queen Aurora (passenger Mrs. G.K. Tallman) on their polar bear throne for the ceremony of initiation into the Order of the Arctic". Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
Whilst approaching Craig Harbour on 21 August 1939, 20 of Nascopie's passengers enjoyed the ritual of being initiated into the "Order of the Arctic Circle" presided over by King Boreas and Queen Aurora, "the whole ceremony was well organized and well executed, and provided a most welcome diversion," although not for Capt. Smellie who was being navigating his ship through quite heavy ice at the time.
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| The RCMP contingent at Craig Harbour paddle out through the heavy ice to Nascopie. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
Craig Harbour, where Nascopie anchored on 22 August 1939, offered "a bleak and forbidding prospect," with the harbour packed with heavy ice and the surrounding hills covered with new snow. The two local RCMP constables and their Greenland Eskimo servants, had difficulty even getting out to the ship by canoe around the floes, but were rewarded by a hot breakfast aboard when they did. Major McKeand presented the post with specially autographed photos of the King and Queen he obtained during the Royal Visit. It was impossible to land cargo that day and not until 5:00 p.m. the following day did the wind change and the ice shifted enough to get the cargo boats working. Laden with mail bearing the much desired Craig Harbour postmark, Nascopie sailed on the 24th.
Leaving clear weather, Nascopie found herself in a blinding snowstorm by midday on 24 August 1939 with rising winds which assumed gale force by the evening and she was hove to the following day, "a miserable, cold day, quite a blizzard in fact, and although our good ship Nascopie rode the gale very well, it was too rough to do any kind of work. Very few of the passengers were moving about and our canine passengers had rather a dog's life of it." (The Beaver).
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| Nascopie stuck in thick ice in Prince Regent Inlet. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
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| In Prince Regent Inlet, Nascopie ploughs through new ice that is one-foot thick. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
"On the 27th August, we were working through ice down into Prince Regent Inlet, finally becoming stuck in quite heavy icefields at 2 p.m. The wind had been rising throughout the day and by evening had developed into a regular blizzard, the snowdrifts piled on deck. Fortunately, the ship was perfectly quiet in the ice, but we woke up on the morning of the 28th to behold a very wintery scene. A great amount of snow was piled on the decks, the hot and cold water system of the ship had frozen, and the donkey engines had to be kept slowly turning over to prevent freezing. Truly it was a bleak Arctic outlook, and our passengers could have no mistake as to where they were, certainly 'somewhere in the Arctic." (The Beaver). Nascopie finally got underway on the 28th and passed through "the heaviest ice of the voyage" to anchor in Brentford Bay. She finally reached Long Island, at the mouth of the Bellot Strait, the following morning, three miles from Fort Ross and finally came into the "port" later that day. There was no rendezvous with Aklavik that visit. Sailing from Fort Ross, delayed by more fog and ice in the Prince Regent Inlet, was rewarded by another polar bear sighting close to the ship.
Arctic Bay was reached on 3 September 1939, the day Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Dominion of Canada followed on the 10th. However, being a British ship, Nascopie was at war from that day as Major McKeand told the press on return, "from the day war was declared, no lights were allowed aboard ship and a special lookout was maintained at all times for submarines. All outgoing communications were suspended and no one ashore knew when we were to dock. Our only contact with the outside world during this period was through broadcasts from standard radio stations."
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| Nascopie at war: no. 2 boat swung out in readiness on the final leg of her 1939 voyage. Credit: Libraries and Archives Canada. |
Nascopie proceeded to Pond Inlet on 5 September 1939, the Clyde and after a fine weather passage and passing many large icebergs. then two days of heavy fog, reached Pangnirtung on the 12th. During the two-day call there, the trial of the Inuit Katchoo on a charge of manslaughter was held, with D.L. McKeand as Magistrate. The jury gave a verdict of guilty on reason of insanity and Katchoo was sentence to confinement in a mental hospital in Halifax and took passage in Nascopie under guard. Weather not war continued to bedevil the voyage with a gale on approach to Hebron on the 17th. Upon departure, the portholes were painted over, lifeboats provisioned and swung out as she neared the North Atlantic war zone.
On 23 September 1939 Nascopie picked up her pilot at 3:30 p.m. and after being cleared by a naval patrol boat, docked at Halifax at 5:00 p.m. Thus ended Nascopie's 1939 voyage, eventful in itself and one that began in peace and ended in war, the second for the 27-year-old stalwart.
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| "Ship Day At Pangnirtung" (photograph by Loren Squire) on the HBC 1940 calendar which featured in the 1942 film "The 49th Parallel." |
The old ship, performing her voyage faithfully year after year, through fog and storm and ice, in war as in peace, became a national institution-- a sturdy symbol of Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic.
Clifford Wilson, The Beaver, September 1947
As befitting ships whose peacetime duty-- to company and to country-- was of such worth as to be valued even more in war, Nascopie's essential Eastern Arctic Patrol and HBC outfit deliveries continued throughout the Second World War as it did in the First. There were diversions to Greenland and even a return to a bit of tramping from Canada to the U.S. and down to the West Indies, an epic storm, failings and frustrations owing to inexperienced wartime crews but Nascopie and her redoubtable skipper Capt. Smellie continued to ply familiar if no less challenging waters; armed, grey and invaluable as ever in The True North, Strong and Free.
1940
With the occupation of Denmark in April 1940, Greenland was suddenly cut-off from its main source of supplies, and the Canadian Government chartered Nascopie for a voyage with essential supplies to Ivigut in June. The voyage, planned amid much diplomatic manuevering between the Canadian and U.S. Governments as to which, if any, would be the wartime "caretaker" of Greenland in the absence of occupied Denmark, was decided upon at the last moment and Nascopie was pulled out of lay-up. Plans to arm her were postponed and instead she was provided with three Vickers machine guns, 60 Lee Enfield rifles and an RCMP detachment of six men, commanded by Major D.L. McKeand.
Nascopie, commanded by Capt. T.F. Smellie, carried the new Canadian consul to the country, Kenneth P. Kirkwood and A.E. Posild, new vice-consul, who was a Greenlander by birth. Nascopie arrived at Ivigut on 3 June 1940 amid more diplomatic exchanges which delayed her discharging her cargo and the loading of cryolite which was completed on the 27th, only to have bad weather delay her departure until the 29th.
As in the First World War, the Second did not divert or distract Nascopie from her "lawful occasions" and in 1940, she completed the 271st voyage "of the Governor and Company and Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay."
Wartime restrictions precluded much of the published detail of the voyage as enjoyed during peacetime. But the 19th Eastern Arctic Patrol, again commanded by Major D.L. McKeand, was, in his words, "the longest and in many respects, the most momentous cruise the Nascopie or predecessors ever made."
Owing to a concern of some intervening war emergency, it was decided that Nascopie would carry a full two-year supply of necessities to each of her ports which included 667 tons of government cargo. This required her to completely reload at Churchill upon arrival from Montreal.
The war did not end the accommodation of commercial passengers, almost all of whom were Americans and for the 1940 trip, four embarked in Montreal and eight in Churchill.
Nascopie was now defensively armed with a 3.7-inch naval gun aft and an anti-aircraft gun.
Departing from Montreal on 17 July 1940, Nascopie called at the usual ports including Lake Harbour 20 July, Churchill 15 August and Craig Harbour 8 September.
The second of two marriages during the voyage had the honour of being the most northern of such ceremonies performed aboard the ship, Lance Corporal R.W. Hamilton and Miss Dorothy Boehmer taking their vows approaching Thule, Greenland, "in truly impressive Arctic scenery." There was also an engagement aboard.
The highlight of the voyage was a return to Greenland. in between the call at Craig Harbour and before Fort Ross, Nascopie called at Thule on 9 September 1940 to collected two families of RCMP Eskimos.
During the voyage, Nascopie established two new radio stations at Clyde and Pond Inlet. At Fort Ross on 12 September, Postmaster F.R.E. Sparks opened a new post office there.
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| Majestic Greenland mountain scenery greets Nascopie at Ekaluit, Greenland. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
After calling at Pangnirtung, Nascopie returned to Greenland and on 28 September 1940 arrived at Godthaab which was busy with ships including the Greenland Government's Hans Egede, USCG Cayuga, the 2,000-ton steamer Belize with a load of coal from the U.S., a small schooner and other lesser craft. Nascopie was visited by the Canadian vice-consul, and her passengers toured the port. Nascopie landed supplies as well as the complete building materials and furnishing for new house for the Canadian consul there. On the 29th, USCG Northland arrived from the north with Governor Svene of Greenland and the U.S. consul to Greenland aboard.
Nascopie continued on to Ekaluit where she anchored after "a perfectly grand approach to the rugged Greenland coast at Arsuk fjord," (The Beaver) which was used an anchorage for ships waiting their turn to load cryolite at Ivigtut. The passage there was marred by the accidental death of Able Seaman Charles Blagden and he was buried ashore in an impressive service conducted by Bishop A.L. Fleming and attended by Capt. Smellie and most of the ship's company.
On 3 October 1940 Nascopie took her turn to load cryolite at the mine at Ivigtut which occupied her until the 5th, the 1,705 tons being all consigned to the Aluminum Co. of Canada, Port Alfred, Que. From there, Nascopie sailed to Hebron in heavy weather but enjoyed a "very fine and quick run down the Labrador coast."
Staunch voyage of the Arctic seas, the ice-breaker Nascopie, Capt. T.F. Smellie commanding, is back in the friendly waters of the St. Lawrence river, having completed the 19th eastern Arctic patrol of almost 12,000 miles, including several stops in Greenland.
The Carbon Chronicle, 31 October 1940.
Nascopie docked at Port Alfred, Quebec, at 2:30 a.m. on 14 October 1940, to discharge her cargo of cryolite. Her consignment of furs and HBC cargo was transshipped to Montreal by Roberval. She returrned Halifax on the 20th.
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| War or no war, HBC continued to accept commercial passengers on Nascopie's annual voyage although this advertisement, in the September 1940 issue of The Beaver, was the last and 1941 would be the final year cruise passengers sailed in the ship. |
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| The March 1941 issue of The Beaver featured this photo of Inuit boys aboard Nascopie during her 1939 voyage. Credit: The Beaver. |
1941
The Nascopie last winter, instead of lying idle at dock in Halifax, as she did during peacetime, carried cargoes between there and United States points, and down to the West Indies.
Beaver September 1941
So it was that Capt. Smellie's beloved Nascopie, already suffering in the hands of strangers to the ship and her ways, entered a dismal, humiliating phase late in her long career. In his words, "The ship had become nothing but a tramp. She had lost all her identity, taking any cargoes, ordered to ports where she could not load to her capacity, wallowing at six knots when she could have been doing ten-- a battered and limping ship manned by crew with no identity either; the scum of the waterfront, without passports and without pride." (Arctic Command).
Rather than be laid up in spring 1941, Nascopie was chartered for tramping out of New York where she arrived from Halifax, in ballast, on 25 March. She made a round voyage to Cuba 14-30 April, presumably carrying sugar and another voyage there commencing 4 May returning to St. John, NB on the 22nd. From there, she sailed on the 28th for La Romana (Dominican Republic) where she called 6-8 June and returned to Louisbourg, NS, on the 14th. Nascopie left Louisbourg on the 18th and arrived Montreal on the 22nd to begin loading for the North.
That ship of lonely seas and strange cargoes-- R.M.S. Nascopie-- will do her bit for the war savings campaign, for the defence of Canada and for the safeguarding of northern natives when she makes her annual eastern Arctic cruise this year. The Nascopie will travel for thousands of miles through northern seas, officials said.
The Ottawa Citizen, 19 May 1941
The 1941 Eastern Arctic Patrol was announced on 18 May 1941 although again wartime censorship precluded any details as the exact itinerary or dates of the voyage. It was mentioned that the ship's post office and those at the northern posts were now selling war savings stamps whilst it was noted that that those in the north, "white men and natives alike," were now aware to be on the look out for any suspicious plane or ship. " It was also mentioned that "in addition to the officials, company and government, who make the annual voyage, there will be passengers who make the trip for pleasure. The Nascopie cruise had caught the interest of many United States residents and it is expected that some Americans will be among the passengers this year." That year which proved the last berths were offered, Nascopie embarked five commercial passengers in Montreal and an equal number in Churchill.
Despite a near "black out" of press coverage of the wartime voyage, J.W. Anderson contributed, as usual, a superb resume of the trip and photos to The Beaver, December 1941:
The 272nd annual voyage made by the Company vessel "Trading into Hudson's Bay" was successfully completed in October by that veteran ship R.M.S. Nascopie under somewhat difficult conditions. This 272nd voyage had probably been one of the most arduous in the thirty-year history of this ice-scarred ship.
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| The theme of the 1941 voyage: Nascopie in ice. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
Due to a late spring and prevailing northerly winds, the field ice was all driven on to the south shore of Hudson Strait for a depth of thirty-five to forty miles, down the Labrador coast and down the east coast of Hudson Bay as far as Cape Smith. The first ice was actually seen in the Straits of Belle Isle, north bound, but as we were able to keep well out to sea, no delay was occasioned until we attempted to enter Hebron. We lost three days getting into Hebron and another three days getting out.
The voyage was relatively ice-free to Resolution Island and Lake Harbour; but once the Hudson Strait was crossed, we were again held up trying to enter Sugluk. From Sugluk to Wolstenholme is only a distance of some sixty-five miles, but it took two arduous days for the Nascopie to reach there. Only by dint of continual driving, backing up and trying again, was the short distance accomplished even in two days. But the good old ship worked splendidly, and only when she encountered solid masses of ice was she completely stuck. A whole day was lost, held fast in the ice, after leaving Wolstenholme; but once out of this ice field a clear run was enjoyed to Cape Dorset, Nottingham Island and Southampton Island. We ran into ice again off Cape Smith and lost time entering this port, but we had a clear, ice-free run to Port Harrison and Churchill, where we arrived eight days late.
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| "Doing her Bit," Nascopie sold $12,000 in war bonds during her 1941 voyage. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
At Churchill we took on bunkers and made connections with the annual Canadian National Railways' Churchill excursions. The ship was dressed for the occasion, and practically all the excursionists made a visit on board the Nascopie. After leaving there we enjoyed an almost ice-free run to Chesterfield, Notthingham Island, Wolstenholme, Lake Harbour, Cape Hope's Advance, Fort Chimo, Port Burwell and Resolution Island.
Numerous icebergs were encountered north of Davis Strait, and in Prince Regent Inlet we ran into a considerable amount of new ice. Conditions at Fort Ross were very wintry, indeed, with ice forming along the shoreline, and, what was still more unusual, forming along the water line of the ship.
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| Passengers enjoying some rare nice weather aboard and each other's company. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
The voyage down Admiralty Inlet to Arctic Bay was very forbidding, inasmuch as the inlet was frozen right across, and the good ship was cutting a lane through quite heavy ice. In fact, an Arctic blizzard, coupled with a relatively sharp drop in temperature, might have made it difficult, if not impossible for us to get out of the inlet. Thus, while we had the previous winter's ice in Hudson Strait and Bay, we had next winter's ice in the far north. While we were encountering such frigid conditions in the far north, the Hudson's Bay schooner Fort Severn was ice-bound while attempting to reach Igoolik, and the RCMP schooner St. Roch was already frozen in for the winter on the southwest portion of the Boothia Peninsula, while the Roman Catholic mission ship Lady of Lourdes was frozen in for the winter in the Western Arctic.
However, we had a veteran ship and a veteran commander in the person of Captain T.F. Smellie, so that we successfully cleared both Prince Regent and Admiralty Inlets, the two dangerous 'bottlenecks' of the far north. Once back in Lancaster Sound, on the way home, we were relatively free from the danger of being ice-bound.
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| Nascopie at Clyde showing her a black hull with grey upperworks. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
Nevertheless, our arrival at Pond's Inlet was very impressive. We were steaming through a heavy snow storm, when all of a sudden the storm lifted, and there, a mile or two distant, was Pond's Inlet post, covered with a heavy mantle of snow. Clyde also presented quite a wintry appearance, but the weather had modified somewhat by the time we came south to Pangnirtung.
Once clear of ice, we had a good deal of heavy weather both from Pangnirtung to Ivigtut and Ivigtut to Hebron, and coming down the Labrador coast we had quite a gale of wind, speeding us on our way. The call at Ivigtut was for the purpose of carrying of a load of cryolite for Canada's war-time industries. One the return from Ivigtut to Hebron, passengers had the unusual experience of witnessing a large school of killer whales playing about the ship for half an hour.
In all, we made twenty-six calls during the voyage, and notwithstanding the delays caused by ice on the first part of the voyage, favourable conditions enabled us to make up for lost time and to complete the voyage on schedule time, so that we docked at our destination in Eastern Canada on October 12.
The ice was bad and it caused a delay of a day here and a day there," Major D.L. McKeand told reporters after Nascopie arrived after her 98-day voyage to 26 ports. He said she was due back on 14 October and made it in two days earlier. During the voyage, a new post office was established at Fort Chimo. Nascopie carried 10 American passengers and they proved to be the last commercial travellers the ship would carry when, following America's entry in the war following Pearl Harbor, HBC stopped selling berths.
Nascopie, which arrived at Port Alfred on 12 October 1941, completed her discharge of cryolite there on the 14th and proceeded to Montreal where she docked on the 16th.
Late autumn was occupied by a round trip to St. John's, NF: 8-25 November and then Montreal to St. John's 28 November-4 December and thence to Sydney, NS, 16-19 and winding up in Corner Brook, Newfoundland on 20th.
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| The acclaimed wartime film "The 49th Parallel" featured Laurence Olivier's character contemplating HBC's 1940 calendar with Lauren Squire's photo "Ship Day at Pangnirtung" and mention of Nascopie. |
Nascopie had already been a film star in the 1920 "Romance of the Far Fur Country" and also figured in "The 49th Parallel" (released in the United States as "The Invaders"), the acclaimed proto-propaganda portrait of Canada at war by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, released in the U.K. in November 1941 and the U.S. in April 1942. The story of a group of German seamen, led by Lt. Ernst Hirth (Eric Portman), who were ashore in Wolstenholme Bay when their submarine is sunk by the RCAF, and have their first encounter with Canadians at the Hudson's Bay Trading Post there with the Post Factor (Finlay Currie) and French-Canadian "Trapper Johnnie" (Laurence Olivier),
One scene revolves around HBC's famous 1940 calendar featuring Lauren Squire's Kodachrome photo taken on Nascopie's 1938 call there: "Ship Day at Pangnirtung" where Nascopie is out of the picture:
Trapper Johnnie: Say, where's the ship?
The Factor: I've been answering that question till I'm sick and tired of it.
Everyone who comes here asks it.
Where's the ship, boss? Where's the ship?
Trapper Johnnie: Bien. Where is she?
The Factor: Behind the hill.
Trapper Johnnie: Oui, bien sûr.
Another introduces Lt. Hirth to the reality of geography and logistics in Canada's vast northland:
Lt. Hirth: What transportation have you to the outside world?
The Factor: Transportation! I'll have to walk to the railway or else wait for the boat.
Lt. Hirth: When's the next boat arrive?
The Factor: The Nascopie?
If the weather's good, she'll be here this July.
If the ice closes, the July after that.
Lt. Hirth: I want the truth.
The Factor: You're calling me a liar?
Lt. Hirth: Yes.
You ask me to believe you've one ship a year?
The Factor: Believe it or not, it's all the same to me, my wee man.
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| Photos from Nascopie's 1941 voyage. Credit: Kingston Whig Standard, 27 January 1942. |
1942
The year which saw Allied fortunes at low ebb, was also a difficult and dismal one for Nascopie.
Beginning her Annus horribilis, fittingly on New Years Day 1942, Nascopie sailed from Corner Brook, Newfoundland, for Louisbourg, NS, (3 January) for coaling and arrived at New York on the 12th. She then made a voyage back to Halifax and St. John's (12 January-6 February). Nascopie was in New York from 11 February-13 March where it is believed she was refitted there and Capt. Smellie later made reference to new armament being fitted and costing $35,000 for the mountings alone.
Nascopie departed New York on 13 March 1942, calling at Hampton Roads 14-15th and arriving at Charleston, SC. late on the 15th. There, she took on a full cargo of fertilizer which, to the dismay of Capt. Smellie, was not bagged but merely dumped in bulk into his once pristine holds. It was the first time fertilizer had been loaded in bulk and the white residue of it clung to every surface for weeks afterwards. With this foul cargo, she sailed for Matanzas, Cuba, via Jacksonville, arriving there on the 25th. After unloading and hopefully after her holds were cleaned, she proceeded to Antilla on the 28th to load sugar, sailing from there on 6 April for New York. Her cargo was unloaded at a refinery there on the 14th-18th. After calling at Providence on the 22nd, Nascopie arrived at Halifax on the 25th.
Carrying supplies for the construction of the massive U.S. military base and airfield there, Nascopie left Halifax on 2 May 1942 with convoy LC.11 for Argentia, Newfoundland, arriving on the 6th and sailing for Sydney on the 9th where she coaled before departing on the 14th for Corner Brook where she called 15-23rd. After another diversion to Sydney (26th) with convoy SQ.4 , Nascopie called at Three Rivers 29 May-3 June) and then arrived at Montreal late on the 3rd to prepare for what would be an very eventful trip North.
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| Nascopie (foreground) sails from Halifax on 2 May 1942 for Newfoundland as Baron Kinnaird passes inbound. Credit: H.B. Jefferson Nova Scotia Archives 1992-304 / 43.1.4 65 |
Somewhere in northern Canadian waters the famous Hudson's Bay Co. mailship Nascopie is making her appointed rounds in wartime secrecy. Ottawa officials today would only confirmed that the vessel which annually visits scores of eastern Arctic outposts, left some time ago to make her annual rounds. Her destination, her dates of depature, and arrival, and the length of her cruise, are all kept secret.
The Province, 15 July 1942
The 1942 voyage of Nascopie was notable for its length-- 135 days in all, its weather (which frustrated even this staunchest of vessels from reaching Fort Ross and offered up the worse storm in the ship's long career) and its being conducted in almost complete obscurity at the height of the war and with censorship also at its most constraining.
Sailing from Montreal on 8 July 1942, Nascopie and did not return (to Port Alfred, Que.) until 19 November and made a total of 36 calls. Major D.L. McKeand again was in charge of the government party and in addition to other duties, the partrol serviced the radio stations at Resolution Island, Cape Hopes Advance, Nottingham Island, Port Harrison and Chesterfield. On 31 July the Star Phoenix reported that the cost of that year's patrol was $47,885 as opposed to 1941's $60,540 owing to the two year supplies being carried.
Nascopie joined Convoy QS.17 from Quebec on 11 July 1942 whose speed was based on that of the slowest ship in it, an aged coal-burner bound for Newfoundland with building supplies for the American airbases being built there. So it was that a precious week was lost in the six-knot run up north and looming in Capt. Smellie's mind already thought was being able to reach Fort Ross before it was iced in. Irrespective of its commercial and symbolic importance, Fort Ross became an obsession each trip, being so far off Nascopie's route and so late into season as to risk not only not being able to reach it on account of ice but the real danger of being trapped in it for the season.
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| Nascopie as she appeared during the 1942 Eastern Arctic Patrol. Note the gun and anti-aircraft gun aft and the quick release liferafts fore and aft. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
Calls were made at Hebron 17 July 1942, Lake Harbour, Port Burwell and a detour across Hudson Strait to Resolution Island to land a deck cargo of kerosene and diesel fuel for the RCMP motor schooner St. Roch, then Sugluk, Cape Dorset, Woltenholme, Coral Harbour where Nascopie grounded briefly, Cape Smith and Port Harrison. She arrived at Churchill 7 August. Then began the "race" to reach Fort Ross before the dreaded Prince Regent Inlet froze up. Nascopie hurried on her rounds of Chesterfield Inlet, Wolstenholme, Lake Harbour and across Hudson Strait to Cape Hopes Advance. Sensing the weather conditions deteriorating, Capt. Smellie proceeded at full speed (12 knots or 250 miles a day) towards Fort Ross.
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| Nascopie's armament aft consisting of a 3.7 inch naval gun and an anti-aircraft machine gun. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
J.W. Anderson, in the March 1943 issue of The Beaver, picks up the story:
Ice conditions, except in Prince Regent Inlet, were relatively normal. We encountered scattered field ice in the easten part of Hudson Strait and quite heavy ice in the western end, but very little in Hudson Bay. In Prince Regent Inlet, however, on the way to Fort Ross, we had both the old and new ice to contend with. Never before have we seen ice of such solidity, for every time the good ship hit it in trying to force the passage, it was just as if she had hit a floating rock. In spite of very persistent and strenuous efforts, and when only about one hundred and fifty miles distant, Captain Smellie was reluctantly obliged to give up an idea of visiting Fort Ross in the 1942 season. Even at that the ship showed visible evidence of buffeting from heavy ice. Admiralty Inlet too presented a very bleak and wintry appearance, while at Pond Inlet, Post Manager Swaffied informed us that a week after out departure he would be travelling by komatik over the site of our anchorage. The season was well advanced, conditions at all of the northern ports were very wintry and cargo had to be handled under much difficulty.
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| Nascopie in heavy ice off Fort Ross in 1942. Credit: Peter Candy collection, The Beaver. |
After three days, and threats from some of the crew to call off the attempt or risk a mutiny, Capt. Smellie gave up the effort, appreciating, too, that the 1941 trip had delivered two years of supplies to Fort Ross and other posts, and then concentrated on getting Nascopie free of the ice which was achieved on 20 September 1942. She then headed north to Arctic Bay where she called on 22 September 1942. It was then that he received orders to proceed to Greenland to, once again, load cryolite for shipment to Canada on the way home. It was a remarkable, even for wartime, additional obligation after three months hard voyaging in the Arctic. Nascopie, after calliing at Clyde River and Pangnirtung, transited the across Davis Strait in two days and arrived on 10 October at Arsuk Basin, Greenland, at the entrance to the fjord which led to the cryolite mine at Ivigut.
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| Nascopie at Pangnirtung in 1942. Credit: N. Ross photograph, The Beaver. |
By then, Nascopie had run out of coal not to mention food after her long voyage, none of which were available in some anchorage in Greenland, and she was dispatched south to Julianehab where she arrived on 23 October 1942. There she found a large pile of coal but no dock or labour to load it aboard. Local Inuit women were enlisted for the task and carried it aboard in baskets on their head up planks to a barge at low tide and it was hauled aboard in empty oil drums. Nascopie's larder was replenished with locally raised lamb and fish and after a busy four days, she sailed from Julianehab on the 27th. She headed north right into a storm brewing up from the southwest. It was three days of the worst weather that Nascopie would encounter in her 34 years and vividly recalled by Peter Candy, than a teenage steward aboard, in The Beaver April-May 1989:
The storm increased in intensity all day as we careered north on a following sea. Dead empty except for coal, the Nascopie cockscrewed down towering waves, at times yawing almost out of control. Daylight ended early, too late to make to shelter. Captain Smellie had no choice but to turn west and head away from the coast for fear of his ship being driven again the rock-and-ice bound shores. Against waves mounting mast-high 60 feet and more and swells running up to 400 feet long, he back the Nascopie's engine in an attempt to ride out rather than drive through the seas. With freeboard from deck to waterline of 14 feet, the gigantic waves bearing down on the ship would seem to bury her completely and yet somehow the bow rose to meet them each time, half submerging the foredeck. A deafening tumult rose fro the alternatively roaring and screaming wind, the din of the pounding waves, and clattering objects breaking loose. In his 50 years at sea (and he had started in sailing ships), Captain Smellie had never experienced anything worse in storms. The gusts reached 100 miles an hour. In later years, he confided to a friend that at the time he doubted the Nascopie would survive. As an icebreaker she was not designed to weather open-ocean storms.
All night the storm raged unabated. Remarkably, our accommodation in the stern kept fairly dry. The crew's quarters forward had been abandoned the previous evening as soon as the Nascopie had turned on a westerly course. The seas tumbling over the bow had flooded the anchor chain locker and then spilled into the crew's quarters through an inspection panel in the floor. A deck ventilator had been swept away, adding to the flooding. No one could walk on the forward deck anyhow.
The scene on the morning of 28 October when we emerged from our quarters below decks aft to the comparative shelter of the deck house was as unreal as a dream. The ship had developed a starboard list. When she rolled, you could balance adroitly with one foot on the deck and other on the wall all the while moving up and down 30 or 40 feet on the forward and backward pitches. As she quartered into the waves, scud swept across the port while the more protected starboard side rolled rail under. It reminded us of the National Geographic illustrations of clipper ships rounding the Horn…
By mid morning, conditions worsened to the extent that the stokers could no longer shovel coal into the furnaces, not being able to stand on their feet and the engine stopped and the rudder secured to one side. Except for the donkey boiler to keep the lights on and pumps working, Nascopie was powerless and adrift. It was not until the third day that the weather abated enough to get underway again.
On the afternoon of 29 October the Nascopie sidled into Arsuk Basin looking like a scarred and wet alley cat. On the salt-encrusted superstructure, patches of loose paint blasted off by the wind ran red with rust. The ship also listed to starboard, and a motor lighter protruded over the side where 20 feet of railing had been sheared off.
Peter Candy, The Beaver April-May 1989.
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| Nascopie at Ivigut, Greenland, waiting to take on her cargo of cyrolite. Credit: Peter Candy collection, The Beaver. |
Finally loaded with her precious cyrolite, Nascopie sailed from Arsuk Basin on 3 November 1942, celebrated by the funnel catching fire owing to a build up of soot from the poor quality coal she took on at Julianehab. More miserable weather was encountered on the run across the Labrador Sea and the ship coated in frozen spray. She called at Cartwright on the 9th and then on to Port Alfred, Quebec, to unload her cryolite, where she arrived on the 19th. She returned to Montreal on the 24th where Nascopie was taken in hand at Vickers Canada for much needed repairs.
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| A wartime Arctic sunset. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
At dinner on Sunday, October 11, Major McKeand gave a toast to Captain T.F. Smellie on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his taking command of the good old ship. In reply, Captain Smellie recounted the outstanding events since October 11, 1917, and how, with the aid of Chief Steward A. Reed, he had built up an Eastern Arctic freight and passenger service for the comfort and convenience of Arctic travellers. Captain Smellie has had in many ways a remarkable seafaring career, and it was a pleasure for the ship's company to do him honour on this occasion.
J.W. Anderson, The Beaver, March 1943
Upon return to Ottawa on 20 November 1942, Major McKeand told reporters "Everyone returned in perfect health and good spirits, due to the skill of Capt. T.F. Smellie, his able officers and crew." One ssuspect most were just happy to be home and see the end of 1942.
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| Credit: The Beaver. |
1943
It was like a reprieve when, at last, in 1943, the Nascopie returned to the Hudson Bay run and winters in Montreal-- the role for which was built and which was worth of her stout heart. 'Extensive deck repairs were made,' says the Captain. For long periods at a time he was able to forget how low she had sunk, how casually she had been treated as she loaded sugar in Caribbean port, how vile had been the crews. The Captain's pride in the gallant ship was restored.
Arctic Command
Of all Nascopie's voyages north, that of 1943 (8 July-16 October) was perhaps the most challenging, frustrating and ultimately triumphant for the ship and her captain.
The year had started out well for Nascopie which was spared the indignity of tramping that winter nor would there be another diversion to Greenland tacked on the Eastern Arctic Patrol which again was under the command of Major D.L. McKeand, Dr. A.H. Collins as Medical Officer and F.R.E. Sparks as Postmaster.
Departing Montreal on 8 July 1943, Nascopie joined convoy LN.15 at Quebec on the 10th. The voyage had its share of frustrations which began almost at once when Nascopie's boilers failed soon after departing Quebec and she was delayed two weeks there for repairs. Capt. Smellie attributed this to his inexperienced crew which increasingly played havoc below decks. To make up the delay, the call at Chesterfield and Southampton Island were cancelled and they, instead, were provisioned via smaller craft from Churchill. Further delays were encountered at Churchill where a shortage of labour delayed loading her heavy cargo and already Capt. Smellie was concerned about being able to get into Fort Ross as the schedule was so far off.
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| Nascopie at Lake Harbour on her 1943 voyage. Credit: NWT Archives/Kirk family fonds/N-2005-001: 0257 |
We had ice in the vicinity of Cape Chidley at the northernmost top of Labrador and in Ungava Bay. Both in entering and coming out of Lake Harbour we had to steam through heavy ice. And more was encountered off Churchill. Icebergs were numerous in Davis Strait, and a few scattered ones were encountered in Lancaster Sound. The voyage was a comparatively smooth one, in great contrast to the stormy weather encountered on the Greenland run in 1942. In Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay the weather was warmer than usual, through much fog was encountered, which caused considerable delay.
J.W. Anderson, The Beaver December 1943.
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| Going ashore on Nascopie's 1943 voyage. Credit: The Beaver. |
But as with the previous year, Fort Ross was the great goal and the greater frustration. So west, its distance so narrowed the window of safely navigating the Hudson Straits late in the season that it was not just the getting there… but getting out and not being stuck for the winter. In 1943, Nascopie would be frustrated in the latter and almost found herself icebound for the effort.
What was aptly titled "The Battle of Fort Ross" was well told by J. Lewis Robinson who was aboard, in the March 1944 issue of The Beaver, began in mid September 1943 when Nascopie passed down Prince Regent Inlet and cleared the first large pan of ice and then off Somerset Island, the isolated patches of ice gave way to a solid mass of heaved up piles of ice through which Nascopie either smashed her way through or, as designed, rode up over the and crushed with her weight. This went on until 9:30 p.m. that evening when Capt. Smellie stopped for the night. By the following morning it was 28 degs F. and Nascopie recorded a run of exactly 50 yards that whole day. Fort Ross, 40 miles distant, might well have been on the moon. The next day brought more progress and Nascopie navigated through some leads in the ice and even worked up to 10 knots to put her past Fury Point on Somerset Island, just 20 miles from Fort Ross, by noon. By the time passengers had finished lunch in the saloon, Nascopie was back buckling and breaking ice blocks and Bellot Strait came into view and by the end of the day, Fort Ross was but 10 miles away.
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| Nascopie icebound off Fort Ross. Credit: NWT Archives/Kirk family fonds/N-2005-001: 0261 |
18 September 1943 recorded a temperature of 10 degrees and a northern wind and Nascopie's progress in increasingly heavy and enveloping ice was several hundred yards.
For an hour the ship plunged into ice. Fourteen times we reversed and came grinding, crashing, pushing forward. Sometimes we made ten yards, but usually less. The youthful enthusiasts on the bow maintained a lively football account of our progress. But at the end of the fourteen 'bucks into the line' we had made only about two hundred yards and the 'touchdown line' was still far away. The tough Nascopie seemed to be taking the pounding without damage. She was losing paint from her hull as the ice blocks scraped under her, but otherwise she was plunging ahead like an all-American fullback.
J. Lewis Robinson, The Beaver, March 1944
By the following day, it was apparent, judging from a handy iceberg as a marker, that Nascopie was not only stuck but was drifting with the pack, "since the current along the west side of Prince Regent Inlet moves southward, we realized that the longer we drifted the greater amount of ice would be piled in behind us. The question uppermost in our mind began to change from 'Will we reach Fort Ross' to 'Can we make our way back out of the inlet.'" (J. Lewis Robinson, The Beaver, March 1944).
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| Baseball game on the ice by some of Nascopie's passengers. Credit: The Beaver. |
On Sunday, a ladder was put over the side to allow those wishing to "stretch their legs" and walk on the ice pack that held Nascopie fast and there was even a softball game to pass the time of day in 28 degs and the sun never going below the horizon... and Fort Ross still ten miles distant.
Day Four of "The Battle" was occupied shifting her deck cargo of oil drums from forward to aft to raise her bows to better ride over the floes and crush them. Short on coal, Capt. Smellie had made the agonising decision that it was impossible to reach Fort Ross and now all efforts were made to just get Nascopie out before she was marooned for the winter.
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| Nascopie stuck in the ice as she was for six days. Credit: NWT Archives/Kirk family fonds/N-2005-001: 0262 |
On 21 September 1943, the end of "summer", the temperature was 24-26 degs F. in midday and a dozen efforts yielded 100 yards. When Nascopie first encountered heavy ice on the 16th, she was 37 miles north of Fort Ross and five days later she was 13 miles distant. The people at the post could even make out her trademark coal smoke but that would be the last they'd see of her.
The post was eventually relieved by air when the USAF lent a Dakota which parachuted emergency supplies of food first and a captain who helped prepare a makeshift runway on a frozen lake nearby where a successful landing was made on 4 November 1943. Fort Ross was relieved and fortunately Nascopie had not been stranded for the winter or worse.
On 22 September 1943, Nascopie finally broke free:
However, the trite saying about 'seeming darkest before dawn' very aptly fitted our situation. Just at noon the propellor started turning again, and the ship slowly slid backward. The rising temperature on the steel sides had melted the ice and released us. And how the Nascopie lunged at her former captor, smashing in the huge ice blocks eight to ten feet thick! We stood at the bows shouting words of encouragement to the ship and defiance to the ice. Being ice-bound was no longer a game.
At 1.30 we pushed the last cake of ice out of the way and entered the narrow lead. It certainly felt good to look down at foam curling up from the prow instead of seeiing ice being shoved under. All eyes watched the white horizon to discover how long our good fortune forward would last. The lead zig-zagged into the sky ahead like a trail twisting up to a baron's castle. Sometimes it broadened out into a lake-channel; at other rimes it faded into a dead-end. But Capt. Smellie was not to be denied. Another channel always miraculously appeared beyond the last one. Our course shirted east and west, but always maintain a northward direction. Soon we passed far to the east of lone companion, the iceberg, and had regained the distance of two days' drift.
For the remainder of the afternoon the Nascopie earned her title of ice breaker. Blocks a hundred yards across and five to eight feet thick split before her power and were pushed aside. Soon the leads became broader and broader and we neared the northern end of the ice field. Between the large ice blocks new ice had formed to a thickness of three or four inches; the pack ice of the following winter was being born. With a crackling, swishing sound the sharp steel prow cut through the ice as easily as a knife cutting paper. By six we were in smooth open water, with only the occasional floating ice-pan. The treacherous ice field stretch to the horizon behind us.
The Nascopie had failed in her mission, but had won the fight for survival. And she will be back in the Arctic in succeediing years, continuing the struggle with the ice to serve the lonely posts of the Arctic
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J. Lewis Robinson, The Beaver, March 1944.
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| Passing icebergs en route to Pond Inlet. Credit: NWT Archives/Kirk family fonds/N-2005-001: 0265 |
Nascopie returned to Montreal on 16 October 1943.
On New Years Day 1944 it was announced that the last week the Lieutenant-Governor had conducted an investiture at Government House on behalf of the Governor-General of Canada. His Honour R.F. McWilliams invested Thomas F. Smellie with the Order of the British Empire.
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| Capt. Thomas F. Smellie, OBE. Credit: Lauren Squire photograph, Archives of Manitoba. |
1944
It was reported on 24 January 1944 that Nascopie, a bit bruised and battered from The Battle for Fort Ross, was getting "a slight face lift here [Montreal] in preparation for her annual voyage."
It had been a decade since HBC last sponsored a Boy Scout to make the annual Eastern Arctic Patrol but on 24 June 1944 it was reported that four Ottawa boys, all former members of the 30th Ottawa Sea Scout troop, would sail on that year's voyage in the capacity of stewards.
The official Government party included an expanded medical team, lead by Dr. George Hooper of Ottawa, from Montreal to Churchill, and for the remainder of the voyage, Dr. Dennis Jordan of Toronto. A dental officer was also aboard. As part of the ship's refit before the voyage was a new dispensary to accoomodate the expanded health care aspect of the annual voyage.
Among her passengers were Mr. and Mrs. W.A. Heslop and who had to be rescued from Fort Ross the previous year and who were bound for a posting in Cape Smith this time.
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| Fresh from her refit, an immaculate Nascopie sails from Montreal on 2 July 1944. Credit: Toronto Star photograph, Toronto Library collection. |
Nascopie sailed from Montreal on 2 July 1944. Three days into the voyage, an emergency appendectomy was performed on Terry Bickley, a 16-year-old cabin boy, by Dr. George Hooper, in the ship's new dispensary. Bickley, who fully recovered from the operation, was landed at Cartwright and flown home from there.
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| Still looking smart early in the voyage, Nascopie at Cartwright, Labrador on her 1944 voyage. Credit: Pierre Dagenais photograph. |
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| Credit: The Beaver, December 1944. |
The voyage offered plenty of ice as described by J.W. Anderson in The Beaver of December 1944 in his annual account of the trip north:
Of icebergs and pack ice there were more than enough for one voyage. Hardly had Nascopie left the Straits of Belle Isle before bergs were encountered, and at the entrance to Hudson Strait we had the unusual experience of steaming alongside probably the largest iceberg ever to be seen in those waters. It was not particularly long, but it was nearly five miles long. As usual, we saw a great many icebergs while steaming north on Davis Strait, but the most spectacular display was on leaving Clyde southbound, when we encountered a veritable forest of icebergs stretching almost to the horizon.
Field ice was encountered practically all the way from Hebron to Churchill. At Wolstenholme a number of passengers had the unusual experience of being marooned on shore for the greater part of the day, due to pack ice coming in and filling the harbour. And a fine sight it was to see the Nascopie bucking the heavy ice on leaving that port, with a polar bear, perched on a hammock, calmly surveying the scene and no doubt wondering what it was all about. A solid week was lost in ice between Wolstenholme and Port Harrison. It was so heavy, in fact, that the ship was unable to approach Cape Smith-- where the Heslops from Fort Ross were to be put ashore-- though the buildings could be seen in the distane. So the Cape Smith call had to be postponed until after the departure from Churchill.
Sunday was a red letter day at Manitoba's only seaport. The Hudson's Bay boat, Nascopie, docked. The entire Churchill population, White, Indian and Eskimo, turned out.
The boat was due Saturday. The news was cause for excitement, and when it didn't show up, for speculation.
But this was philosophical. It would arrive when it arrived, no sooner, no later. Maybe it had run into ice in the strait. The bergs may show 25 feet above water but they still carry 500 or more underneath. Not pleasant to argue with.
But the good ship Nascopie would arrive. Of that everyone was confident. It docks in Churchill once a year. It never misses.
Sunday morning the word went out. The Nascopie was in the bay. By 10 a.m. it had steamed up the mouth of the Churchill river. It was high tide. By 10.30 a.m. it was moving into the dock, a tough-looking little boat with its iron hull rust-streaked and ice-gouged. Capt. Smellie was at the helm.
Citizens lined the dock. Passengers lined the boat rail. This is their last stop on the way north to island outposts. Passengers were mostly men, but there were a couple of women aboard. One of them had a small baby. They go north for one, two, three or more years. They see no white people in that time.
Winnipeg Tribune, 9 August 1944.
Whilst at Churchill (arriving there on 6 August 1944), Nascopie was inspected by the Hon. Malcolm Donald, British High Commissioner for Canada who also visited HBC's Fort Prince of Wales. She reached the port, the traditional "midway" of her annual voyage two weeks earlier than 1943 despite the icy conditions. Nascopie, after coaling, sailed on the 9th.
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| Credit: The Beaver, December 1944. |
The big event of the 1944 voyage was indeed the successful call, after two failed efforts in as many years, at Fort Ross, on 1 September:
Heavy ice was again encountered in Prince Regent Inlet, but the sturdy vessel was equal to the task and finally steamed in and dropped anchor off Fort Ross post on the first day of September. There was considerable ice in the harbour, so that part of the cargo had to be landed on the beach about a mile below the post in Depot Bay. On the second day, however, the ice opened up sufficiently to allow the remainder of the cargo to be landed at the post.
As was to be expected, the Eskimos were on hand to give us a great welcome, for the supply ship means much to them-- boats, rifles, ammunition, tea and the beloved tobacco, not to mention the thousand and one items of "white man's goods' to which they have become accustomed and which help make like easier for these primitive people of the far Arctic.
The Beaver, December 1944.
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| Credit: The Beaver, December 1944 |
There was a ceremonial raising of the HBC flag at the flagstaff which was symbolic in of itself as the lower part was made of one of the yard arms of the old Pelican.
Nascopie sailed from Fort Ross on 3 September 1944 but not before a civil wedding was performed there, officiated by Major McKeand. There would be two other weddings during the course of the voyage, one at Southampton Island and another at Pond Inlet.
From Pond Inlet, Nascopie took a new route:
Next day the fine weather continued as the Nascopie, for the first time in all her thirty-two years of Arctic voyaging, steamed northward through the fjord-like scenery of Navy Board Inlet along the west coast of Bylot Island. She has made the north-south voyage on Navy Board inlet several times, but this was the first northward voyage, and the weather, the snow-capped hills, the glaciers, and the bold Arctic scenery, all combined to make a truly magnificent spectacle.
... on the second half of the voyage we made very good time, and, with no call at Greenland, we were able to return to southern waters in September while the weather was still warm and salubrious. By October 1st we were back in Montreal-- just a month after our arrival at Fort Ross.
The Beaver, December 1944.
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| Credit: The Gazette, 2 October 1944. |
Homewards, Nascopie joined convoy NL.28 off Labrador on 25 September 1944 and on the 29th was reported to have passed Father Point and had a good fast passage down and arrived at Montreal the next day.
The Nascopie came back from the North today, to report 'a fine trip' and everything well with residents of Canada's outpost high above the Arctic Circle.
The Hudson's Bay Company ship completed her three-month, 12,000-mile jaunt with hardly a hitch and right on schedule. That was a far cry from the terrible ice conditions of last year which forced the temporary closing of Fort Ross on the southern coast of Somerset Island and delayed the veteran icebreaker almost a month.
Fort Ross was reopened this trip, when the 32-year-old Nascopie crashed through to the site with comparative ease. It was the first time in three years that she had been able to reach Fort Ross, the port having been closed and the post manager and his assistants brought out by plan after the Nascopie had failed to run in supplied last year and in 1942.
Capt. T.F. Smellie, OBE, of Winnipeg and Major D.L. McKeand of Ottawa, superintendent of Arctic control for the Dominion Government, agreed that 'everything went fine' this time and that the 6,500 white and Eskimo residents of the north were 'in good condition.'
The Nascopie carried 35 passengers when she completed her trip, including a two-month-old baby, two other children and an Eskimo dog.
Only the baby and the dog were catching their first glimpse of civilization as the ship came up the St. Lawrence, and neither seemed impressed. Amid the shouted greetings as the icebreaker was warped into berth, the baby cried and the dog yawned.
The Ottawa Citizen, 2 October 1944.
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| Credit: Ottawa Citizen, 18 November 1944. |
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| The cover of The Beaver, September 1945, featured Nascopie at Port Burwell as photographed by Max Sauer on her 1934 voyage. Credit: The Beaver. |
1945
The year (1945 also marking the 275th anniversary of the founding of the Hudson's Bay Co.) began with the first of several "ends of eras" associated with Nascopie with the announcement on 23 February 1945 that Major David Livingstone McKeand, "The Little White Father" of Canada's eastern Arctic, aged 67, was retiring in June. He had made 14 voyages, 12 in Nascopie, totalling 168,000 miles as chief of the Eastern Arctic Patrol.
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| Capt. Thomas F. Smellie, OBE. Credit: The Beaver |
This was followed on 30 May 1945 with the report that Capt. T.F. Smellie, OBE, would also be retiring following that year's Eastern Arctic Patrol, his 23rd voyage as Nascopie's captain. Also retiring was her long serving Chief Steward Arthur Reed. Another familiar face aboard Nascopie "swallowing the anchor" was veteran Montreal pilot Capt. J.C. Gauthier.
The ship's sailing date was also announced: 7 July 1945 from Montreal and for the first time in many years owing to VE Day and press censorship eased up. Her announced calls were Sugluk, Wolstenholme, Cape Smith, Povungnetuk, Port Harrison, Churchill, Chesterfield, Southampton Island, Cape Dorset, Lake Harbour, Pangnirtung, Clyde River, Ponds Inlet, Fort Ross and Arctic Bay.
Unlike the blacked-out war years, the Nascopie will steam into the Arctic this year with her lights ablaze and her guns gone. Both anti-submarine and anti-aircraft guns have been removed by the navy. Her only wartime touch will be the grey-coated hull which Admiralty regulations declared must still be retained.
The Montreal Star, 30 June 1945.
During her annual overhaul at Vickers Canada, Montreal, her armament was removed and on 1 June 1945 Nascopie shifted to Alexandra Pier to begin loading.
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| Just a small sampling of Nascopie's "outfit" for her 1945 trip. Credit: Montreal Daily Star, 30 June 1945. |
In addition to 1,900 tons of the most miscellaneous cargo carried by any ship, Nascopie's government party that year would comprise 28 led by J.G. Wright of Ottawa. Although Major McKeand had retired, he would be joining the ship in Churchill to serve as a magistrate in a murder trial of an Inuit wife accused of killing her husband. This cruise would have a further expanded medical team including an optometrist for the first time, a dentist and three medical officers. F.R.E. Sparks, "Canada's only seagoing postmaster" would again be dealing with the thousands of pieces of mail processed during the voyage whilst the RCMP detachment of 10 was lead by Inspector J.H. Peacock. Clerics aboard including Catholic and Anglican missionaries and Rt. Rev. A.L. Fleming, Bishop of the Arctic, would again be making the trip, but embarking at Churchill.
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| Nascopie at Alexandra Pier, Montreal just before departure. The officer on her prow gives an indication of the size of this gallant little ship. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. |
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| Immaculate but still in wartime grey, Nascopie waiting for the tug to take up the strain on her towline as she sails from Montreal in July 1945. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. |
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| Outfit 276 is on its way as R.M.S. Nascopie is pulled out into the St. Lawrence, Arctic-bound. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. |
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| Anti-aircraft guns removed but the gun mounting still present along with her Carley floats, Nascopie in the St. Lawrence. Note the foredeck crammed with boats for delivery north. Credit: Toronto Star photograph, Toronto Library collection. |
All along the sweeping shores of Canada's great inland sea, white men, red men, squaws and papooses are watching for R.M.S. Nascopie, the little trading steamer that each year thrusts her sturdy bows into Hudson Bay on a mission of life-- and sometimes death.
The Nascopie steams out of Montreal for the far north this morning. For days she has been lying in the shadow of the harbor bridge while medical supplies, whaling boats, gunpowder and gasoline have been stowed in her holds.
Among the small company of adventurers that will embark today are doctors, men of God, mounties and a magistrate who will preside at an Eskimo murder hearing.
Under a blazing July sun yesterday, sweating longshoremen worked fast and hard so that the Nascopie would be ready for sailing time. But to one man aboard the grey-hulled, 3,000-ton vessel the winches were clanking out their last cargo song.
Up in his cabin, Capt. Thomas F. Smellie was reading the charts that have guided him and the Nascopie during 22 voyages toward the land of the midnight sun.
Today as the little ship noses out into St. Mary's Current, Capt. Smellie will ring down full speed ahead for the 23rd and last time. After he brings his ship back home in September, he will pack up his gold braided uniform, put away his sextant and walk down the narrow gangplank to a seadog's retirement.
The Gazette, 7 July 1945.
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| Credit: Owen Sound Daily Sunday Times, 10 July 1945. |
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| Credit: The Beaver, December 1945 |
J.W. Anderson, that faithful and erudite recorder of Nascopie's annual voyage for The Beaver, wrote in the December 1945 issue:
On 3rd September, 1939, the good ship Nascopie was in Lancaster Sound when, over the BBC short-wave from London, we heard the words of Prime Minister Chamberlain announce the declaration of war with Germany. Exactly six years later, while again in the same far Arctic waters, and over the same BBC network, we heard the announcement of peace by Prime Minister Attlee.
During the years between, the Nascopie had made many hazardous voyages. Every summer she had run the gauntlet of submarines as well as icebergs, but now victory had been won, and we could proclaim our staunch old ship the distinction of being a veteran of two wars.
Nascopie's 1945 voyage spanned VE and VJ Days and her lack of armament but fresh Admiralty grey reflected a world half at peace and half at war upon her departure. As it proved, the 1945 voyage was one of her most ideal in terms of weather and the old ship thrived as never before. She clocked some record passages like Pond Inlet to Clyde in 26 hours and from there to Pangnirtung in 55 hours. In all, she accomplished the whole trip from 7 July to 26 September, her best overall performance since before the War as if Nascopie was giving her beloved skipper a fitting retirement gift.
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| Nascopie at Pond Inlet August 1945. Credit: Arthur H. Tweedle photograph, Libraries and Archives Canada. |
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| Nascopie in Dundas harbour, 1945. Credit: The Beaver. |
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| Nascopie outward bound from Churchill, August 1945. Credit: Ted Clymer photograph, The Beaver. |
It was a full eight days into her voyage until Nascopie had to slow for ice on approach to Lake Harbour and her arrival at Wolstenholme on 21 July 1945 was the earliest she called there. During all of the calls, the expanded medical team was kept busy and even at sea, steaming west in Lancaster Sound, three delicate eye operations were successfully performed on Inuit patients by Dr. W. Crewson. A ship that had witnessed so many marriages and proposals, hosted her first baptism at Churchill when the infant son of Post Manager and Mrs. Chesley Russell was christened by Rev. A.C. Herbert.
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| Ceremony on board commemorating the centenary of the last sailing of the John Franklin Expedition through Lancaster Sound. Credit: Libraries and Archives Canada. |
In Lancaster Sound, off Beechey Island, Capt. Smellie presided over a ceremony on deck commemorating the centenary of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated last voyage to the Arctic and a wreath (possibly another creation by Chief Steward Arthur Reed?) was cast overboard where Franklin's wintered in 1845-45 and perished in 1847.
The ship's saloon acted as a courtroom during the long delayed trial at Fort Ross of an Inuit woman accused of murdering her husband. The charge was reduced to manslaughter and the woman sentenced to a year in custody of the RCMP when it was proved her husband was "a poor hunter, and therefore a poor provider. In a land like the Arctic, where there is a constant struggle for existence, this point is all important." (The Beaver, December 1945).
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| Capt. T.F. Smellie on the bridge of Nascopie at the end of his final voyage in command; his 16th trip to the North. Credit: The Montreal Daily Star, 26 September 1945. |
After Nascopie returned to Montreal on 26 September 1945, docking at Shed 47, Capt. Smellie told The Montreal Star that the" ice conditions were heavy in the Arctic but in favorable winds the Nascopie was able to navigate around the ice floes. Good progress was made throughout the voyage." (Montreal Star, 26 September 1945). In two weeks, after seeing Nascopie unloaded and laid up for the winter, Capt. Smellie was off to Vancouver where was settling for his retirement.
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| These Ottawa lads returned from their stint as stewards and cabin boys aboard Nascopie. Credit: The Ottawa Journal, 27 September 1945. |
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| R.M.S. Nascopie at Pangnirtung, August 1946. Credit: George Hunter photograph, Libraries and Archives Canada. |
1946
Curiously (and a bit prematurely) The Montreal Star of 23 February 1946 reported that "when the Arctic ship Nascopie pulls out from Montreal this summer on her annual jaunt into Canada's northland, she'll be making her final voyage. Plans are being completed to replace the 32-year-old [sic] stubby nose ship next year with a new passenger-cargo vessel, and one of Canada's most colorful little ships will pass forever from the maritime scene. The 25 trips into the north with the Eastern Arctic Patrol have taken their toll on Nascopie's tough reinforced hull and it is doubtful she will ever be placed in any other service."
It was added "there is also a possibility that Capt. T.F. Smellie, OBE, skipper on many of her epic voyages, will come out retirement to make the final voyage" noting that no new captain had been yet appointed for her upcoming voyage and that "the ice-bound Arctic waters are not the most pleasant spot for an inexperienced officer." It was further speculated that any new ship would named after her.
Hudson's Bay Co. officials on the 25th denied the ship was to be retired, "The Nascopie is frequently reported on her last voyage, but she always manages to turn up for another,' said Clifford Watson, HBC's publicity manager.
On 20 March 1946 the Gazette reported that as soon as the "river permits," the Nascopie, wintering alongside Shed 2, would head for Vickers Canada's yard for her annual refit and overhaul for her July voyage to the Arctic. She had the spent the winter laid up with the Canada Steamship Lines' City of Montreal and Saskatoon.
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| Capt. James Waters, Credit: The Beaver |
It was made known by mid-May that Nascopie's new captain would her former First Officer (for the past nine years), Capt. James Waters, and she would follow N.B. McLean in dry dock at Vickers around 20 June. The Gazette informed its readers that Capt. Waters, "is a Scot from Angus Coupar." It was further noted that the old Nascopie was good for about 11 knots and would sail with 1,000 tons of coal from Montreal and load another 800 at Churchill.
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| Nascopie's new radar installation and radar technician Adam Hood at the instrument board with Chief Officer L. Adey. Credit: National Film Board, The Beaver. |
During her refit, Nascopie was fitted with radar and there were few Edwardian Era bridges to indeed feature a navigational device that surely would have proved useful on her past voyages as the Gazette remarked, "But science this year has removed all the guesswork from the Nascopie's annual Arctic jaunt. Instead of having to butt her way through uncharted icefields, shrouds of icy fogs, an unseen pilot will guide the 1,900-ton ship through the chilly seas. When she turned her nose eastward today on another three-month trek to the north, the eyes and ears of her newly equipped radar set were geared to go into operation once her prow drives towars the northerly wastes of Hudson's Bay." It's worth considering that Nascopie was of such an age that she had been progressively fitted with wireless, gyro compass, direction finding equipment and echo sounder… and finally, radar. Her little wheelhouse was all the more cramped for it all.
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| One of Nascopie's masts getting a fresh coat of buff at Vickers Canada yards in Montreal prior to her first peacetime voyage north in 1946. Credit: The Winnipeg Tribune, 24 May 1946. |
Nascopie was but one of three ships HBC sent north that season to stock up war-dominished stocks, the schooner Blackwood having sailed a few days previously and two more, including Mont Murray, would shortly follow Nascopie.
There would be no resumption of accommodating commercial passengers on Nascopie's voyages, the official reason being the concern of spread of diseases brought by outsiders among the Inuit population as had been witnessed during the war. Then, too, the expanded role of the Eastern Arctic Patrol, in particular, its medical team, left little room for tourists. Forty-two passengers would sail in Nascopie that season, including the first representatives of the Department of National Health and Welfare and medical team was left by Dr. H.W. Lewis, medical superintendent for the Eastern Arctic. A complete radiography facility was installed aboard and it was expected that between 1,200-1,500 persons would be "x-rayed" during the voyage with particular attention paid to diagnosing tuberculosis which had been ravaging the Inuit communities. As in 1945, specialists were also aboard to check eyesight. All those aboard had to undergo medical examination themselves to prevent any spread of diseases north.
This was the first Nascopie voyage in many years, of course without Capt. Smellie and Chief Steward Arthur Reed and Major D.L. McKeand. Her new Chief Steward was George Fioratos and the Government Party was led by James G. Wright, acting superintendent of the Eastern Arctic, Bureau of Northwest Territories and Yukon Affairs. The RCMP detachment was led by Inspector J.A. Peacock.
As usual, the true Arctic voyaging would commenced after calling at Churchill (9-19 August 1946) and include calls along the eastern coast of Baffin Island: Clyde River, Fort Ross and, the most northerly port to be visited, Devon Island on or around 15 October. There, the RCMP would establish a new station or rather re-establish the one that was moved to Craig Harbour in the mid 1930s. Nascopie was expected to return to Montreal on 10 October. In all, she would steam 10,50 miles on her 13th Eastern Arctic Patrol and her 32nd voyage north.
The vessel presented a strange sight as she cleared the dock on the long three month northerly trip. Lashed on her decks were several surf boats to be used at Arctic outposts by the RCMP. Below deck were hundreds of items which officers said consisted literally of everything from a needle to a haystack. There was ammunition, medical supplies, fuel, foodstuffs, canoes, high octane gasoline, almost everything under the sun. The supplies are the first into the northland in more than a year.
Nascopie got a a big send-off as she pulled into the river and many with relatives aboard remained on the dock until the gaily painted ship disappeared from view. It is her first peacetime voyage in six years.
The Gazette, 6 July 1946
Although the Nascopie has made thirty-five annual trips to the Eastern Arctic, it is well known that no two voyage have been alike. The 1946 voyage was outstanding for a number of reasons. It was the first peacetime voyage in seven years; the ship had a new commander in the person of Captain James Waters, successor to Captain T.F. Smellie, OBE; George Fioratos succeeded out old friend Arthur Reed; the voyage was definitely milder than normal with consequent increase in foggy weather; and, keeping abreast of the times, the Nascopie was fitted out that latest of navigational aids-- radar.
With her normal pre-war crowd of well-wishers on the dock to bid her farewell on yet another adventurous Arctic voyage, we sailed from Montreal on 7 July with a record cargo and passenger list. The ship had cast off the drab grey of wartime and reverted to her normal colours of black hull, white superstructure and yellow masts and funnel, and she look very smart as she sailed away, being flag be-decked or, as mariners say, 'fully dressed.'
J.W. Anderson, The Beaver, December 1946.
Few ships reached the age of 34 years old, serve in two wars and be rewarded with settling back into her familiar routine and colours, and only a new skipper to indicate the beginning of another chapter in a long career as Nascopie looking her old self except for her new radar, sailed from Montreal on 6 July 1946.
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| Summer cruise idyll: it was warm and sunny enough for sunbathing on deck as Nascopie voyaged up the Labrador coast. Credit: The Beaver. |
After wartime voyages in which the elements not the enemy tested Nascopie like never before, her return to peacetime trading was enjoyed in remarkably mild weather. As Nascopie steamed north along the coast of Labrador, it was warm and sunny enough for sunbathing on deck.
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| Boats working cargo from Nascopie at Lake Harbour, established as an HBC post in 1911, it was served on every one of her voyages. Credit: The Beaver. |
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| R.M.S. Nascopie in Pangnirtung Fiord. August 1946. Credit: George Hunter photograph, Libraries and Archives Canada. |
As if to remind those aboard it really was a voyage to the Arctic, field ice was met 100 miles south of Cape Chidley and Nascopie crunched her way through 75 miles of it off Port Harrison, heading west for Churchill. She set a new record for slow passage from Cape Smith to Port Harrison when heavy field ice took a normal 26-hour run of 240 miles and turned it into a seven-day slog of "grinding, pushing and crunching through the ice. She was constantly shrouded in heavy fog until the seventh day, when the fog cleared to allow us to pick up the Port Harrison beacons at five in the morning. But so slow and arduous was the ship's progress through the ice, only at five in evening did she pass the beacons to enter at last the ice-free harbour of Port Harrison." (The Beaver, December 1946).
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| Inuit fishermen swap catch of salmon trout for canned goods and hardtack with George Fioratos, chief steward of the Nascopie. Credit: Libraries and Archives Canada. |
During the voyage, Nascopie's her new radar was of great utility in picking up landfalls especially the entrances and approached to her ports of call even in foggy and snowy conditions but less useful with ice. It could detect large icebergs but not the even more danger "growlers." The lookout "in the barrel" in the masthead remained as invaluable as ever.
Nascopie encountered numerous icebergs in the Davis Strait and Cape Smith harbour was so filled with ice, that cargo for there had to be landed two miles across the bay.
Churchill was reached on 14 August 1946. The port, which had been closed to commercial shipping during the war, had just re-opened with the arrival of the first two grain ships the previous day, Mount Revelstoke Park and Hillcrest Park to begin loading some of the 2,000,000 tons of grain stored in the huge elevator there. Nascopie was slightly delayed by heavy ice floes on approach to the post
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| Even Prince Regent Inlet, en route to Fort Ross, was beautiful, placid and largely free of ice. Credit: The Beaver. |
As the previous year, there was no difficulty calling at Fort Ross where Nascopie lingered for but 14 hours before heading for Arctic Bay where she arrives on 12 September 1946 shortly after the first snowfall of the season. The highlight of the voyage was Dundas Harbour, the farthest north she reached, where a new RCMP radio station was set up and the most northern post office in the British Empire set up shop. Regular medical clinics were run during each of the calls for the Inuit men, women and children with x-rays (totalling some 1,500), ocular and dental examinations.
But all good voyages come to an end, and in due course the Nascopie touched at Cartwright, Labrador, where the passenger motor boat and cargo scows are always wintered. The trees of Cartwright and the autumn tints of the Gulf of St. Lawrence were a welcome sight to the ship's company, especially to those returning to the Outside after a spell in the Arctic. The veteran ship-- far from 'limping into port,' as one of the Montreal papers described her arrival-- made record time up the St. Lawrence to dock in Montreal on October 3, five days ahead of schedule, having completed her voyage of some 10,000 miles with twenty ports of call in exactly ninety days.
The Beaver, December 1946.
Scarred and rusted from a three-month struggle aginst the relentless ice floes that litter the frost-shrouded seas in the land of the midnight sun, the Hudson's Bay Company's aged steamer Nascopie limped into Montreal harbor yesterday with her holds filled with the bounty of the Arctic Circle-- silver fox skins for which the white man paid the Eskimo $20 a pelt. For which the white man's woman, the furs will cost $400 each.
Despite treacherous bergs that drifted without warning through the 240 miles between Cape Smith and Port Harrison on the east coast of Hudson Bay, Capt. James Waters brought his small vessel back to Montreal five days under scheduled time. The Nascopie had been away three months.
The Gazette, 4 October 1946.
Nascopie, already five days early, was expected to arrive at Montreal the afternoon of 3 October 1946, but after an especially fast run up the St. Lawrence, docked at 10:30 a.m. to complete the 277th annual HBC outfit delivery north.
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| Credit: The Gazette, 4 October 1946. |
Capt. Waters, completing his first voyage as captain, told a reporter from The Gazette: "we had radar aboard for the first time this voyage, but you need more than that for when you're gripped in the ice floes. One week we saw nothing but fog. Sometimes though, bergs would brush past our bows and we could see seals and walruses sporting around with freshly caught fish." The paper added, "Capt. Waters' chubby face was bronzed and wind-burned from long hours on the exposed bridge of his little vessel. He was looking forward to a rest after three months of peering over a frozen canvas dodger into waters ahead that were crusted with danger."
The Ottawa Journal, 5 October 1946, noted the booming mail business done by the Royal Mail Ship Nascopie with Postmaster Sparks and his assistant Robert Hadden handling 500 bags of post on the trip. The medical team had examined and treated 1,547 Inuit residents during the voyage during which observed during which "a great spirit of comradeship developed among the 45 passengers and 50 crew," observed Superintendent James G. Wright.
Nascopie, after she finished unloading, was laid up until spring at the King Edward Pier, Shed 2 "where she will ride out the winter in care of watchmen and a skeleton crew." (Gazette, 3 December 1946).
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| Cover Girl: Nascopie had the cover of The Beaver for the last time in September 1947, featuring one of George Young's superb photographs taken during the 1946 voyage at Pangnirtung. Credit: The Beaver. |
1947
The old Nascopie is still the same. All winter, engineers have been poking into her engines, throwing out the old, clamping in the new. Nascopie's decks and superstructure are scarred and weathered from years of travel among the lands of the midnight sun but her hull is as sound as the day she slid down Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson's yards in Newcastle in 1912. After a spell in drydock here, Nascopie will be thrusting north again for new adventures and furs for Canadian women.
The Gazette, 24 March 1947
On 22 April 1947 the Gazette reported that "seamen and engineers aboard the old Nascopie yesterday were preparing her for the new season, although she will not sail for the Arctic until July."
Nascopie's 35th voyage north was announced on 17 June 1947: departing Montreal on 5 July and returning on 6 October after an 11,000-mile, 22-port voyage. The ship was expected to reach Churchill by 11 August and from there call at River Clyde and sail directly to Fort Ross, arriving about 7 September and then Dundas Harbour by the 12th.
The government party would again be led commanded by James G. Wright, assisted by Alex Stevenson whilst the RCMP detachment would be commanded by Inspector W.H.G. Nevin and R.A. Hadden of the Ottawa post office as Postmaster. The Meteorological Service was sending relief personnel for their weather stations at Port Harrison, Southampton Island and Arctic. The medical officer, Dr. H.W. Lewis, led a team that again included a dentist and optometrist. Among her HBC passengers were Mr. & Mrs. Allen Scott of Aberdeen, Scotland, bound for a post with their eight-week-old daughter, Lareen, believed to be the youngest passenger ever aboard Nascopie.
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| A new addition to Nascopie's boatage in 1947 was this specially designed and constructed "landing ship" like motorised lighter. Credit: Russel Bros. |
New that year to the ship was a specially built (by Russel Bros. Ltd. of Owen Sound, yard no, 331) steel lighter, described as resembling "a combination between a barge and a wartime landing craft" with a ramp at the bows to facilitate the landing of barrels of oil and other heavy supplies. Power by a 37-hp Gray marine motor, it measured 31 ft. x 10 ft.. and drew just 24 inches. Completed just in time for Nascopie's her upcoming voyage, it was shipped on 25 June to Montreal.
Within sound of the hustle and clatter of downtown Montreal traffic the Nascopie was having her face lifted Tuesday, receiving a new coat of paint before she ventures her annual pilgrimage into the Arctic seas.
Her cargo always is something to marvel at and this year her supplies for the HBC outposts will be just as varied as usual. "We'll have about 1200 tons and it will comprise everything from frigidaires, stoves, furnishings, bathtubs, sewing machines to drugs. We take anything and everything that pertains to livelihood,' said one crew member.
The Province, 18 June 1947
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| Credit: Ottawa Journal, 7 July 1947 |
On 19 June 1947 it was announced in Ottawa that the "Department of Transport is taking over the Eastern Arctic patrol next year and has a design now complete for a $2,500,000 Canadian-built ship to replace the colorful old Hudson's Bay Company ship Nascopie which will wind up her career after her 33rd trip to Arctic seas this summer." The new 3,500-ton, 300-ft. long ship would be "built in an eastern Canadian shipyard." It was added that "up to present the Nascopie, now preparing at Montreal for her annual Arctic cruise, had been adequate for the Arctic job, but now 'the job was getting too big and she is getting too old' and "it is understood the Hudson's Bay Company also planned a new ship to be built probably this year which would be used in supplying company posts chiefly in Hudson Bay."
Another pioneer of Canada's far north has reached retirement age and will complete a lifetime of Arctic service by next fall. With the Hudson's Bay Company ship Nascopie completes her thirty-third annual trip to Arctic seas this summers it will be last, and although she has earned a rest, many will regret the ending of her exciting career.
The old ship is held in affectionate regard through the eastern Arctic. She has tried hard to keep abreast of the times but the march of progress have caught up with her. Use of radar for first time in 1946 was not enough and the Nascopie can no longer serve the north as it should be served.
… The 'Old Lady' will be missed in the north but she will not be forgotten.
Edmonton Journal, 30 June 1947.
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| Credit: Calgary Herald, 12 July 1947 |
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| R.M.S. Nascopie sails on her 33rd voyage to the Arctic, 5 July 1947. Credit: digitalarchiveontario.ca |
With the last of her varied cargo piled to her gunwales, Canada's most colorful ship-- the Nascopie-- was scheduled to set sail this morning to deliver literally tons of good news for the folk who people the Arctic.
There was historic significance in the last minute loading of the Nascopie last night, for this will be the 33rd and last voyage for Canadian Government officials aboard the sturdy little Hudson's Bay supply ship. By next year the Canadian Government is to have its own ship for officials traveling into the Far North.
Under Capt. James Waters, a Scot who came to Canada in 1941, the Nascopie will carry a 1,400-ton cargo and some 50 passengers on her 10,000-mile journey of three months into the Polar islands and shoreline. Twenty-two ports will be visited.
The passengers include a surgeon, a dentist and an occulist, who will check the health of the northern people, Eskimo and white, and administer aid where necessary.
The Gazette, 5 July 1947
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| Nascopie sails from Montreal 5 July 1947. Credit: Edmonton Journal, 22 July 1947. |
The Canadian Press (CP) commented that "it turned out today that despite earlier reports to the contrary, this 33rd voyage to the north is not to be Nascopie's last. Probably it is nothing more than the last time she will carry Federal officials and do Government work. Capt. Waters said it was known the Transport Department had a design now complete for a $2,500,000 Canadian built Arctic ship to patrol eastern Arctic seas but Nascopie would still carry on supplying Hudson's Bay Company outposts." It was added that she would be taking out 43 passengers and, "from what the Captain said, it won't be a dull time. They will have the benefit of movies and all other games which played on any ordinary ship."
With 37 passengers and 59 crew, Nascopie sailed from Montreal 5 July 1947.
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| Map showing Nascopie's route from Montreal to Cape Dorset. Credit: Kingston Whig Standard, 23 July 1947. |
The voyage encountered easy ice conditions in the Hudson Straits and Nascopie was three days ahead of schedule after calling at Lake Harbour, Sugluk and Wolstenholme. She departed Wolstenholme on the morning of 21 July 1947, bound for Cape Dorset. Here, the entrance to the harbour was tricky, being between two reefs only 500 yards apart. It was common, therefore, to engage the experienced service of the local Inuit pilot, Peter Pitseolak, to guide ships through the channel and avoid the many uncharted reefs and rocks that he so familiar with. But Capt. Waters elected to bring her in himself, relying on his depth sounder and radar, instead.
The Bay manager had radioed the ship's captain that I should go down and meet the ship to pilot it into to Cape Dorset. The captain said no. He thought he knew everything. If I had steered the ship, it would never have gone aground. I had been steering the ship for three or four years. The new captain did not want me to meet the ship.
Since it was such a nice day I went hunting for seal. I wanted meat! The captain did not want my help so I went hunting; I got two seals!
People from Our Side: A Life Story with Photographs and Oral Biography, Peter Pitseolak and Dorothy Eber
On 21 July 1947, in "dull, overcast and threatening" weather but a "quiet sea," Nascopie was steaming from Wolstenholme to Cape Dorset where she was expected to arrive at 5:00 p.m. Instead, at 3:20 p.m., when near the entrance to the harbour, five miles from the coast, the depth sounder picked up an obstruction, Waters ordered the enginers hard astern but the obstruction was nearly vertical, and there no time to check her forward movement and rode right on the reef ahead.
At first Nascopie touched the rocks lightly, then took a second heave and landed more firmly on the reef. Although the engines were full speed astern, even before she struck, the ship failed to budge. Mrs. Norman Ross told reporters that "there was not much of a shock when the Nascopie hit the reef, and at first we thought it was ice." Amid the rapidly falling tide (some 25 ft.), the position of the ship, with her icebreaker bows fully exposed and resting atop the reef reminded some of how she looked crunching an ice pan. The ship was sounded immediately afterwards and not found to be taking on water.
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| Nascopie "on the rocks" as photographed an hour or so after she went aground. Credit: H.W. Chitty photograph, The Beaver. |
It was Monday, July 21, 1947, the 278th annual voyage "trading into Hudson's Bay." Captain T. F. Smellie and his faithful Chief Steward Arthur Reed had retired in 1945, and the new master was Captain James Waters who had sailed as first officer on the Nascopie since 1941. We had sailed away from Wolstenholme at four that morning to steam across Hudson Strait for Cape Dorset, the next port of call on our itinerary. That afternoon the sky was overcast and threatening but the sea was smooth. I was in my office-cabin packing my brief case with such documents as would be required ashore and looking forward to the usually busy session at Cape Dorset. Suddenly at 3.20 P.M. our ship ran almost gently on an uncharted reef off Beacon Island at the entrance to Dorset Harbour. It was just as if she were sliding up on an ice floe, though I knew immediately that such was not the case, for long experience had given me the 'feel' of the ice; this was something solid and immovable. Dashing out on deck, I could see what had happened, but the tide was falling and notwithstanding the reversing of the engines she stuck fast in a perfectly upright position.
Fur Trader's Story.
At 3:45 p.m. Capt. James Waters issued orders for all passengers to take two blankets and proceed ashore via the ship's boats. Some thought of taking some essential toiletries, the most cautious even small suitcases, but most left with their clothes on their back. Most were confident the ship would soon be free again and on her way. Most went in the new new steel landing barge and others in the ship's passengers boat and accompanied by the Purser, Mr. H.W. Chitty who later returned to the ship in Nascopie's Peterhead motorboat. Those evacuated reached the mission post at Cape Dorset by 6:00 p.m.
Remaining at his post, Postmaster R.A. Hadden, prepared the ship's 80 bags of mail for removal and landed all of the registered mail. Later, almost all of the other mail and parcels were saved, although many were water damaged.
For the first night the 39 passengers were housed in the HBC manager's house and in a heated Eskimo house.
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| Purser H.W. Chitty photographed Nascopie on the reef initially as he was escorting evacuating passengers ashore in a lifeboat. Credit: H.W. Chitty photograph, The Gazette 28 July 1947 |
The next high tide, around midnight 21-22 July 1947 offered the best last opportunity for Capt. Waters and his crew to save Nascopie.
A heavy kedge anchor was put out astern, deck boats removed and at high tide the efforts were made to pull her off. But the hawser to the anchor snapped without the vessel having moved. Capt. Waters, out of precaution, ordered the Chief Steward and catering staff and some of the firemen ashore in one of the cargo scows. But with some help from her engines and the fast rising ride, Nascopie suddenly floated free of the reef and she was anchored in deep water. Soundings showed she was leaking badly forward although the pumps initially keep pace with the inrushing water. The old stalwart was afloat and holding her own, and "hopes for a satisfactory salvage job were high."
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| The Nascopie shortly after grounding, photographed from one of the boats evacuating passengers. Credit: Times Colonist, 29 July 1947 |
But the Arctic elements Nascopie had battled for 35 years finally would defeat her. That night (21-22 July) the weather turned "cold, wet, dirty and miserable, with a considerable breeze blowing." Even so, one of the boats put over for letting out the kedge anchor was recovered and put back aboard as was one of the big cargo scows amid growing confidence she could be saved.
At 1:00 a.m. on 22 July 1947, HBC Post Manager R. Cruickshank and Inuit pilot Peter Pitseolak came out to the ship to render any possible assistance. In an effort to move Nascopie to a more sheltered anchorage amid the rising wind, she weighed anchor and Capt. Waters attempted to get her underway but with so much water in her bows, she was unmanageable in the dangerous riptides around Beacon Island. "She simply would not respond to the helm, and her bow touched on another part of the same reef. To avoid this she was driven full speed astern and it was then that she drove hard aground with her propellor half out of water."
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| Credit: R.B. Tinling photograph. |
Nascopie, giving up the fight, took on a 30 degree list to starboard and began taking on considerable water forward. She was doomed. Capt. Waters gave the order to abandon ship, fearing his vessel might at any moment slip off the reef and founder into the 17 fathoms of Arctic water around her. In two lifeboats and the remaining cargo scow, Nascopie's crew, Purser Chitty, Postmaster Hadden (who carried off all of her registered mail and most of the remaining post, including parcels was later removed) and finally, Capt. Waters, left her by 4:00 a.m. and landed at Cape Dorset by 6:00 a.m.
It was indeed fortunate that Cape Dorset was so close but its normal community of six whites and a nomadic population of 400 Inuit made adequate housing and provisioning, even for a short stay, difficult, for 82 (50 crew and 32 passengers) unexpected guests of uncertain tenancy. The women, children and passengers were housed in the heated Port Manager's residence, the chief steward and catering staff and firemen were quartered in the Eskimo rest house and the boatswain and deck crew in the unheated HBC warehouse.
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| Original Toronto Star caption: Held fast by Rocks; her stern high out of water; the gallant Nascopie is pictured as she was seen by Ross Harkness; Star staff writer; as he flew over the scene of the wreck off Cape Dorset. On rock at right; the larger of four in a straight line stretching like sawteeth from the cape; may be seen the small beacon light. The settlement where Nascopie passengers and crew sought reefuge when the ship ran aground is just over the rock ridge in background. Credit: Toronto Star photograph, Toronto Libraries collection. |
The weather remained miserable with "cold, lashing rain," and frustrated plans for a midnight high tide "raiding party" of Nascopie by volunteers to bring back provisions and essentials. At midday on 23 July, Chief Officer Len Adey and volunteers, including Government Party leader J.G. Wright, RCMP Inspector S.W. Parsons, Postmaster Haddon, succeeded in getting aboard the ship and scrounging a good quantity of provisions as well as taking off almost all of the remaining mail as well as the government allowance and medical records. They returned with the heartbreaking news that the old lady was "a total loss both hull and cargo."
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| Nascopie at high tide in August 1947 by which all of her boats have been removed. Credit: arctic daze/Flickr. |
With Nascopie's foredeck submerged at high tide, her deck cargo of gasoline in 55 gal. drums floated off and local Inuits salvaged them before they drifted too far out to sea. Large quantities of butter and tea, still salvageable in their crates, floated drifted ashore on Salisbury Island and the 40 Inuits who inhabited the barren isle traded the fruits of their beachcombing with the staff of the government radio station at Nottingham for tea. Over the next few days, salvage parties managed to save some of her silver and her bell (the whereabouts today of which are unknown) but oddly not her logs.
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| The first survivors from Nascopie on arrival at Winnipeg aboard HBC's PBY Canso. Credit: Winnipeg Tribune, 26 July 1947. |
Rescue plans were immediately put into effect by HBC and the Government. The HBC PBY-5A Canso Polar Bear was immediately dispatched from Churchill with food and supplies and arrived at Cape Dorset 6:00 p.m. on 23 July 1947 and embarked 11 high priority passengers, including James W. Anderson, Eastern Arctic manager of the Hudson's Bay Company, Purser H.W. Chitty, Mr. and Mrs. S.A. Sigvaldson and Mrs. Norman Ross and her four-year-old son, for Winnipeg, via Churchill, where they arrived on the 25th.
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| Crew members of Nascopie landing from N.B. McLean at Churchill. Credit: Toronto Star photograph, Toronto Libraries collection. |
The Government immediately ordered CGS N.B. McLean, then 1,500 miles distance near the Belle Isle Straits, to proceed immediately to Cape Dorset to embark the survivors. She arrived at Cape Dorset at midnight on 27 July 1947 to take off the 70 passengers and crew of Nascopie as well the salvaged mail. The big icebreaker then sailed 700 miles south to Churchill. The McLean's captain, after inspecting Nascopie, said " there was no possibility of salvaging the ship." N.B. McLean arrived at Churchill on the 31st, most of her passengers boarded a special train for Winnipeg whilst some of the Government Party, including James G. Wright, flew via RCAF Dakota.
Having called at only three of her 22 scheduled ports and her remaining 1,500 tons of cargo lost, there was also the urgent issue of finding a replacement vessel and restocking an almost complete "outfit" for those posts Nascopie had missed. On 28 July 1947, HBC announced they had chartered from Clarke Steamship Co., the "China Coaster" North Pioneer, which would take cargo to the settlements north of Baffin Island (including Arctic Bay, Fort Ross, Pangnirtung, Clyde, Pond Inlet and Dundas Harbour) and sail from Montreal by 16 August. The posts in Hudson Bay would be served by smaller boats from Churchill. Additionally, some replacement cargo was put aboard Regina Polaris, already scheduled to sail for Hudson Bay under charter to the Oblate Fathers, from Montreal on 1 August.
Commanded by Capt. James Waters and with four of Nascopie's original crew aboard, North Pioneer sailed from Montreal on 18 August 1947. Chief Officer Leonard Adey was also aboard and told reporters he was really happy they would not be going into Dorset Island and pass the wreck of Nascopie, "I don't think I could stand to look at what is left of that ship. You know, she was home for me for a long time." When North Pioneer returned to Montreal on 26 September having successfully completed a six-week, 5,000-mile emergency voyage replenishing those ports missed by Nascopie, she had lashed to her fore deck the old ship's new motor landing barge.
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| Believed to be the last photograph of Nascopie, taken by the Inuit pilot Peter Pitseolak showing the stern section, aft of the funnel, still on the reef before it, too, slid off and sank on 15 October 1947. Credit: Peter Pitseolak photograph, The Beaver. |
The Nascopie hung on to her reef for a few weeks but the impact of heavy seas eventually broke her back; one-half dropped into deep water, to be followed soon thereafter by the other half. Now she lies in the icy waters she had navigated so often and for so many years. The Arctic would never be the same without her. World War II was over, and great changes were in the offing for the Arctic and for the Eskimo. Verily, it was the end of an era.
Fur Trader's Story.
By then, Nascopie had finally gone to her watery grave. On 25 September 1947 a storm broke the staunch ship's back and the half-submerged forward section extending to just aft of the funnel, slid off the reef and sank. Another storm on 15 October claimed the twisted and listing stern section and Nascopie was gone. She lies at 17 fathoms at position 64° 12ˈ-78° 26ˈ
There would indeed never be another like her and Nascopie took with her a lot of the already fast fading ethos of the "Ancient and Honourable Company of Adventurers" when she went. Even Fort Ross, that last great merchant adventurer achievement of Hudson's Bay Co., that Nascopie built and strove to maintain all those years, was closed a year after she sank. The future of the HBC lay in conventional retail operations and the Inuit now were absorbed in the evolving social welfare schemes of post-war Canada and a cash economy. HBC would commission their last new ship, the 600-grt Rupertsland in 1948, built by Fairfields and designed, like Nascopie, by Goodwin-Hamilton, but she lacked the icebreaking capability of her predecessor and never went beyond Pangnirtung and was sold in 1960.
The Canadian Government took delivery of the new CGS C.D. Howe in 1950 to maintain the Eastern Arctic Patrol and doubtless had she survived, the old Nascopie would have been pressed into service for at least two more Arctic patrols while her replacement was built. In the end, she opted for the relative dignity of ending her life in her true home waters in what many saw as a well-earned Viking's Funeral.
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| Credit: North Bay Nugget, 23 July 1947. |
There remained but the epitaphs, memories and tributes for a ship that managed to inspire affection and appreciation well beyond the barren reaches of the Arctic. If there was a Canadian Ship of State, it well might have been Nascopie rather than the grand White Empresses, and no ship before or since elicited such widespread and genuine regard and reflection upon her passing.
Like the true sea Viking she was-- the R.M.S. Nascopie foiled the designed of men that she should end her days in dock by sailing into the cold, blue waters of the Arctic which she knew so well and finding there the watery grave that legend required for the northern sailors of an earlier era.
Today the ice-chilled brine, through which she sailed for 35 years under the colors of the Hudson's Bay Company, sweeps above her deck. The icebergs she battled on 34 previous voyage that gained her fame as the friend of the Eskimo and trappers of the lonely outposts skirting Hudson's Bay and the waters north of the Canadian mainland glide by the stilled hulk.
Near Baffin Land she picked her resting spot in the region she knew so well without the loss of any of the 50 passengers and crew aboard her. No more will the Nascopie bear the mail and supplies on the 11,000 annual voyage to Royal Canadian Mounted Police, missionaries, trading port agents and Eskimos who had other transportation to the outside world.
Her owners had announced this as her last voyage and as she sailed down the St. Lawrence from here early this month vessels all along the line saluted a bon voyage to the old lady of the North whose shrill whistle blew out a happy thank you.
North Bay Nugget, 23 July 1947
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| Uktukaluk Junior, of Lake Harbour, Baffin Island, Visits the Nascopie and Discovers the Source of All Good Things. Credit: The Beaver, December 1933. |
Of all the ships, the Nascopie was the most appreciated by the Eskimo people. The Nascopie's old cook used to feed the Eskimos, and the Nascopie helped the Eskimo people by taking them along where they wanted to go. We were sorry when she sank. She carried many things to buy that were useful and helped us very much. Since the Nascopie sank, the ships that come are not so much appreciated. When the Nascopie could been seen in the distance, many people were happy.
People from Our Side: A Life Story with Photographs and Oral Biography.
Probably the best words ever used to describe the Nascopie were those uttered by a 16-year-old school boy, a steward on the ship, as he stepped down the gangway when the ship docked in Montreal three years ago. They are simply: 'She's a grand old lady.'
The Gazette, 23 July 1947
Grieve not for our Nascopie: long she plied
Her cold, deep cherished seas; watched glaciers break
Precipitous in thunder, icebergs take
The low sun's prism'd tints; saw sleek seals slide
Or dive from floes which mighty polar bears ride;
And clove chill fjord whose Northern bastions shake
From storms that sweep the tundra sand that rake
The reefs whereon she rests, in battered pride,
To dream, throughout the starlit Arctic night
That veiled by Borealis, swift and strong.
To gay-decked houses in each bay she moves--
'Mid thankful prayers, as dusky faces light
In eager welcome, she sails on among
Warm hearts that love her in the land she loves!
O.J. Lummis
The Montreal Star, 20 January 1948
It was just like hearing that his own son had been lost when wrecking of the veteran Hudson's Bay Co. ship Nascopie near Cape Dorset was announced, Capt. Thomas Smellie, commander of the Arctic supply vessel for 28 years, said.
'It's too bad she had to meet her end in Hudson Strait, though,' he remarked sadly. 'It would have been more fitting if she'd ended up 900 miles farther north around the Northwest Passage.'
'She's outlasted many ships which plied these treacherous waters and ended up on the rocks. She had all the luck in the world with her-- until this happened.'
The Vancouver Sun, 23 July 1947.
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| Inseparable: H.B.S.S./R.M.S. Nascopie (1912-1947) and Capt. Thomas F. Smellie, OBE (1880-1963). Credit: The Beaver. |
Did I, the R.M.S. Nascopie, have a soul? For thirty-five years I had braved the Atlantic storms, fog and blizzards, seen more icebergs than any other ship, been struck by large growlers, crushed, damaged, and lifted out of the water by ice press in the White Sea.
I had passed over glaciers and stopped in time during blizzards in the Arctic with a headland close under my bows. My internals had been ruined by inexperienced engineers. I had lost my identity, treated like a tramp by shipping agents. I was manned by beach combers who also had lost their identity as they had no passports. At the end of 1945 two of my companions who through thick and foul times had stuck together, left me. Now I was alone.
My 1947 voyage began in July in Montreal, carrying passengers, Government personnel, and a crew of forty-five men. Only one of them knew my past. To the others I was merely a ship. They had no knowledge of my capabilities, my knowledge of my past, or they would have given me a better place for my bones to rot.
So ended a noble ship's life, whose memories will last many a decade. Rest in peace.
Captain Thomas F. Smellie, OBE, 1880-1963
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| A Mari Usque Ad Mare. Nascopie's Red Ensign which she carried to the northernmost reaches of The British Empire, 1912-1947. Credit: J.W. Anderson photograph, The Beaver. |
H.B.S.S. Nascopie as she should be remembered-- in the ice fields off Wolstenholme.
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| Credit: McCord Stewart Museum. |
Built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Neptune Yard, Low Walker, Newcastle-on-Tyne, no. 870
Gross tonnage 1,870 (as built)
2,521 (1928)
Length: (o.a.) 285 ft. 6 ins.
Beam: 43 ft. 6 ins.
Machinery: one three-cylinder (25½", 35½" and 58" dia) triple-expansion engine,
2,500 bhp, single screw
Speed: 12 knots service
14.1 knots trials
Passengers 16 (as built)
26 (1921)
36 (1933)
Officers & Crew 38 (as built)
50 (1933)
Arctic Command, The Story of Smellie of Nascopie. Roland Wild, 1955
Canada Moves North, Richard Finnie, 1942
Fur Trader's Story, J.W. Anderson, 1961
The Fur-Trade Fleet: Shipwrecks of the Hudson's Bay Company, Anthony Dalton, 2011
The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson's Bay During Two Hundred and Fifty Years, 1670-1920, Sir William Schooling, 1920
The Ice Hunters: A History of Newfoundland Sealing to 1914, Shannon Ryan, 1994
RMS Nascopie, Ship of the North. Doug Gray, 1997
People from Our Side: A Life Story with Photographs and Oral History. Peter Pitseolak and Dorothy Eber, 1993
The Last Gentleman Adventurer, Edward Beauclerk Maurice, 2005
ICI Magazine
Newfoundland Quarterly
Page's Engineering Weekly
The Beaver
The Canadian Magazine
The Railway and Marine World
Syren & Shipping
Shipbuilding & Shipping Record
The Shipbuilder
Brantford Daily Expositor
The Carbon Chronicle
Daily News
Edmonton Journal
Evening Chronicle
Evening Telegram
Evening Telegraph
Gazette
Harbour Grace Standard
Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail
Illustrated London News
Kingston Whig Standard
Liverpool Journal of Commerce
Mail & Advocate
Montreal Daily Star
North Bay Nugget
Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa Journal
Owen Sound Daily Sunday Times
Rapid City Journal
Star-Phoenix
St. John's Daily Star
Telegraph
Times Colonist
Philadelphia Inquirer
The Province
Vancouver News Herald
Vancouver Sun
Victoria Daily Times
Western Daily Press and Bristol Mirror
Windsor Star
Winnipeg Tribune
A special note appreciation to the superb on-line collections of
Archives of Manitoba
Libraries and Archives Canada
Lloyds Register Heritage
McCord Stewart Museum
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia
Nova Scotia Archive
NWT Archives
Canada's History Archive (with its full collection library of The Beaver)
www.ardrossanherald.com
https://www.canadashistoryarchive.ca/canadas-history
https://catapultdotblog.com/
www.c-and-e-museum.org
www.clydeships.co.uk
https://gnwttest.accesstomemory.org/
www.hbcheritage.ca
https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng
https://www.library.mun.ca/
www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
https://www.lrfoundation.org.uk/
https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/
https://ofpenguinsandpolarbears.ca/history-cruising-canadian-arctic/
https://www.musee-mccord-stewart.ca/en/
https://naukatehnika.com/
https://archives.novascotia.ca/
https://www.nwtarchives.ca/
http://russelbrothers.ca/
www.postalhistorycanada.net
https://www.shippinghistory.com/index.php
https://www.shipsnostalgia.com/
Additions/Corrections/Contributions welcomed
contact the author at posted_at_sea@hotmail.com
© Peter C. Kohler
Congratulations, Peter, on documenting this legendary ship! I savored every bit and especially appreciated the kitten, cubs and pups angle!
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