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"One of the Great Polar Navigators": Captain T.C. Pullen's Personal

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Documents on Canadian Arctic Sovereignty and Security “One of the Great Polar Navigators” Captain T.C. Pullen’s Personal Records of Arctic Voyages Part 1: Government Roles Edited by P. Whitney Lackenbauer & Elizabeth Elliot-Meisel Documents on Canadian Arctic Sovereignty and Security (DCASS) ISSN 2368-4569 Series Editors: P. Whitney Lackenbauer Adam Lajeunesse Managing Editor: Ryan Dean “One of the Great Polar Navigators”: Captain T.C. Pullen’s Personal Records of Arctic Voyages, Volume 1: Official Roles P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Elizabeth Elliot-Meisel DCASS Number 12, 2018 Cover: Department of National Defence, Directorate of History and Heritage, BIOG P: Pullen, Thomas Charles, file 2004/55, folder 1. Cover design: Whitney Lackenbauer Centre for Military, Security and Centre on Foreign Policy and Federalism Strategic Studies St. Jerome’s University University of Calgary 290 Westmount Road N. 2500 University Dr. N.W. Waterloo, ON N2L 3G3 Calgary, AB T2N 1N4 Tel: 519.884.8110 ext. 28233 Tel: 403.220.4030 www.sju.ca/cfpf www.cmss.ucalgary.ca Arctic Institute of North America University of Calgary 2500 University Drive NW, ES-1040 Calgary, AB T2N 1N4 Tel: 403-220-7515 http://arctic.ucalgary.ca/ Copyright © the authors/editors, 2018 Permission policies are outlined on our website http://cmss.ucalgary.ca/research/arctic-document-series “One of the Great Polar Navigators”: Captain T.C. Pullen’s Personal Records of Arctic Voyages Volume 1: Official Roles P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Ph.D. and Elizabeth Elliot-Meisel, Ph.D. Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................. i Acronyms ............................................................................................................... xlv Part 1: H.M.C.S. Labrador ...................................................................................... 1 Pullen’s Personal Record of HMCS Labrador, 1956-57 ........................................... 3 1956 Diary ................................................................................................. 5 1957 Arctic Voyage .................................................................................. 64 Proceedings for June 1957 .......................................................... 65 Diary, 25 June-30 July 1957 ....................................................... 68 Proceedings for July 1957 ........................................................... 74 Diary, 1 August – 30 August 1957 .............................................. 84 Proceedings for August 1957 ..................................................... 100 Diary, 1 September – 11 October 1957 .................................... 111 Part 2: Manhattan Voyage.................................................................................... 122 Draft Memorandum for the Cabinet, “Canadian Sovereignty in the Arctic,” 20 March 1969 ....................................................................................... 123 Memorandum: Letter of Instruction to Pullen from Admiral A.H.G. Storrs, 11 July 1969 ........................................................................................... 159 Memorandum from Captain T.C. Pullen, 25 July 1969 ......................... 162 1969 Northwest Passage Voyage of S.S. Manhattan: Personal Journal. .... 163 Pullen, Northern Associates Registered Report to the Canadian Hydrographic Service, “The Northwest Passage Voyage of the S.S. Manhattan, 1969. ................................................................................... 287 Report on the Arctic Tanker Test (S.S. Manhattan) August-November, 1969, compiled by Pullen, 13 January 1970 ........................................... 317 Appendix A: Captain T.C. Pullen - Record of Service .......................................... 349 Appendix B: Captain T.C. Pullen, curriculum vitae (1999) .................................. 354 Captain T.C. Pullen’s Personal Records of Arctic Voyages, vol. 1 Appendix C: List of Northwest Passage Voyages, 1906-89 ................................... 362 Appendix D: Sea Ice Glossary .............................................................................. 371 Further Reading ................................................................................................... 377 About the Editors ................................................................................................. 380 Introduction Introduction: “Pullen of the Arctic” [Captain T.C. Pullen, RCN] had become, and to the last remained, one of the great polar navigators. - Graham Rowley (1992)1 Captain Thomas Charles Pullen (1918-1990), RCN, OC, CD, D.Sc., FHSC, a fifth generation naval officer, commanded numerous ships during his career with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) from 1936-65. He became a noted authority on and explorer of the Arctic after he took command of the naval icebreaker HMCS Labrador in 1956. Retiring after thirty years of active naval service, Pullen served as an advisor and consultant to government and industry on arctic marine operations for another twenty-four years. An officer of the Order of Canada and the recipient of the Massey Gold Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for his contributions to Arctic knowledge, “Pullen of the Arctic” (as he became widely known) earned the reputation as North America’s foremost expert on Arctic navigation and icebreaking over the course of his life.2 A note on Pullen’s biographical file at the Department of National Defence observes that he was a “compulsive diary writer dating back to 1931.”3 Consequently, his personal writings provide unparalleled, first-hand insights into seminal moments in the naval and maritime history of Canada’s Arctic during the latter half of the twentieth century. Drawing upon this rich resource, this volume publishes key documents on Arctic operations that Pullen wrote in various official capacities over his career. The first part documents his role as the commanding officer of the Labrador, as senior officer of the United States Navy, US Coast Guard, and Canadian ships deployed to the Eastern Arctic during the construction phase of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line in 1956 and 1957, as well as his role as US Navy Task Group Commander for Operation Bellot in 1957. The second part reproduces his observations as the Government of Canada’s official 1 Graham Rowley, “Captain T.C. Pullen, RCN: Polar Navigator,” The Northern Mariner 2/2 (April 1992), 47. 2 W.O. Kupsch, “Thomas C. Pullen,” The Musk-ox 38 (1991), 69; David Maclellan, “Pullen of the Arctic,” Canadian Geographic 104/2 (1984), 26. 3 “Captain T.C. Pullen: Naval Service,” notes on DHH 2004/55, file 1. i Captain T.C. Pullen’s Personal Records of Arctic Voyages, vol. 1 representative onboard the icebreaking tanker Manhattan during its two transits of the Northwest Passage. His diaries and reports cut through the hyperbole that surrounded this controversial voyage, addressing both legitimate concerns and unwarranted criticisms, and pointed the way forward for Canadian Arctic policy. By bringing more of his ideas into public circulation, we hope to stimulate informed discussion and debate on the history of maritime operations in the Canadian Arctic, and to ensure that “Pullen of the Arctic” gets the credit that he so richly deserves for his contributions to polar navigation, knowledge, and practice. Background Thomas Charles Pullen was born in Oakville, Ontario, on 27 May 1918, into a proud nautical family with a record of naval service dating back to the eighteenth century. His great-great-grandfather, Nicholas Pullen, and sixteen of his shipmates aboard a small vessel trading in the West Indies were press- ganged into the Royal Navy in 1780. Subsequently, sixteen of Nicholas’ descendants became naval officers, including four flag officers, two captains and two commanders. The Arctic brought the family particular fame, beginning with Tom Pullen's great-uncles Commander (later Vice-Admiral) W.J.S. Pullen, who commanded the depot ship North Star on the 1852-54 Belcher expedition to find Franklin, with his younger brother T.C. Pullen (later Captain) as his second-in-command.4 Thanks to their exploits, when Tom Pullen sailed in the Arctic a century later, “there were four Pullen place- names to remind him of his great-uncles.”5 After attending Lakefield College School, a private boarding school in the picturesque Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario, from 1929-35, Tom Pullen spent one year at Oakville High School where the principal prepared him for the Royal Navy officer cadet entrance examination.6 He entered the RCN as a cadet in 1936, sailed in RMS Ansonia to the United Kingdom in 4 Maclellan, “Pullen of the Arctic,” 27. 5 Captain Tom Pullen obit, Daily Telegraph [London]. 6 James Goodwin, Our Gallant Doctor: Enigma and Tragedy – Surgeon Lieutenant George Hendry and HMCS Ottawa, 1942 (St Catharines: Dundurn, 2007), 96. ii Introduction August, and took his early training on ships of the Royal Navy.7 First he was sent to the British training cruiser HMS Frobisher where he developed his skills in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and West Indies. The next two years he spent in the First Cruiser Squadron of the British Mediterranean fleet onboard HMS Shropshire and Sussex, as well as three- months of destroyer training with HMS Hotspur and Hostile of the Second Destroyer Flotilla. His first appointment came onboard Shropshire at the rank of Midshipman. He went on to serve on the Nyon
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