THE NORDIC IMPRINT in the CANADIAN ARCTIC Part II
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THE NORDIC IMPRINT IN THE CANADIAN ARCTIC A Finnish Captain Part II closes a very long chapter and opens another By John Bechtel, Freelance Features Writer Part I in the Spring 2016 issue of Scandinavian Press fter 400 years of trying to find a Northwest Passage across the Far North of laconically summarizes a millennium of trial, effort, and countless tragedies the North American continent, it took Roald Amundsen three years on the attempting to prove the existence of, and successful crossing of the almost Asmall ship Gjoa to make his passage, and many of the waterways he chose mythical Northwest Passage: “Finnish multi-purpose icebreakers MSV Nordica were too shallow to carry commercial ships. By contrast, a century later it took and MSV Fennica completed their voyage through the challenging late-season another Norse seafarer, Finnish Captain Matti Westerlund of the MSV Nordica, ice conditions of the Northwest Passage and arrived in Nuuk, Greenland on just 15 days to travel 4,000 deep-channel-miles from Dutch Harbor in Alaska to October 31st. This marked the first time Finnish icebreakers have sailed through the city of Nuuk in Greenland from October 16, 2015 to October 31, 2015. multiyear sea ice in the sound of the NWP. Both icebreakers returned from their In their corporate press release about the achievement of their ships Nordica summer season ice management missions in the Chukchi Sea, off the coast of and Fennica, the Finnish company Arctia, in typical Nordic understatement, Alaska.” Just another day at the office? (Continued on page 32) 3) SUMMER 2016 | SCANDINAVIAN PRESS SCANDINAVIAN PRESS | SUMMER 2016 3! PHOTO: WWW.POLAR-DISCOVERIES.COM (Continued from page 31) MOV_PEOPLEOFAFEATHER_WWW.STRAIGHT.COM PHOTO: or perished. The vanished Viking a change to the division of powers The ice problem the status and sovereignty of the But in the Far North, as we will see civilization in west Greenland is a between the federal government and There is a difference between the indigenous people continues to evolve. over and over again, ice was the great good example, but more about that in a the provinces requires a constitutional natural and the legal attributes of The mass migration of Europeans to equalizer. future issue of this magazine. amendment, a similar change affecting Canada, as with all of the other seven the New World brought two different The indigenous tribes had developed Since we are talking about the the territories can be performed Arctic nations. There is a history to civilizations into contact with each a survival culture for the extreme Northwest Passage, let’s take a brief look unilaterally by the federal Parliament their development as nation states that other, and the results varied from place climate that was completely foreign to at the political development of Canada. or government. Moreover, in modern we cannot ignore if we are to truly to place, from conflict to cooperation. the Europeans, and the early Europeans Our thanks to Scandinavian Press Canadian constitutional theory, the understand current events. Nowhere The Europeans brought superior either learned from them and adapted; reader Richard Bennett from British provinces are considered to be co- is this truer than in the Arctic, where technology, especially with weaponry. or abandoned the area to the natives Columbia, who shares this with us: sovereign divisions, and each province “The provinces and territories has its own “Crown” represented by of Canada combine to make up the the lieutenant governor, whereas the world’s second-largest country by area. territories are not sovereign, but simply In 1867, three provinces of British parts of the federal realm, and have Pack ice North America—New Brunswick, a commissioner who represents the Nova Scotia and the Province of federal government.” Canada (which, on the formation of The Far North is a geographical, not Canada, was divided into Ontario and political, term and in Canada it applies Quebec)—united to form the new to the area between the main landmass nation. in lower Canada and the North Pole, “Since then, Canada’s external and this area is comprised of 36,500 borders have changed several times, islands separated by innumerable and the country has grown from waterways, many of which are too the original four provinces to ten narrow or shallow to allow for large provinces and three territories. The ships to pass through, and most if not ten provinces are Alberta, British all, of these waterways at certain times Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, of the year are impassable due to ice, Sheet ice Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova either sheet ice or pack ice. Some of Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, these waterways are impassable most may have exceeded the size of some of Quebec, and Saskatchewan. The three months out of the year due to ice. The the sailing vessels of the 19th and early territories are Northwest Territories, thickness of the ice may be just a few 20th centuries. Many a ship and its Nunavut, and Yukon. feet to multiyear ice of 12 feet or more. crew vanished when they anchored for “The major difference between a Pack ice is when sheet ice breaks the night and nearby ice locked them Canadian province and a territory into large floating slabs that bump and into place and then crushed them like is that provinces receive their power grind against each other, and moved by a vise as horrific pressure turned their and authority from the Constitution currents and tides in the water beneath, ship into kindling wood. The unlucky Act, 1867 (formerly called the British pile up onto each other into small hills crew would be plunged into dark water North America Act, 1867), whereas and mountains of ice that fail to melt so cold death came within minutes, or territorial governments have powers entirely in the summer and grow larger at best were thrown onto the ice where delegated to them by the federal with each successive winter, but still they starved or froze. government. This means that while floating on the surface. Some of this ice (Continued on page 34) 3@ SUMMER 2016 | SCANDINAVIAN PRESS SCANDINAVIAN PRESS | SUMMER 2016 3# (Continued from page 33) unknown regions, by sail, by sled, and by foot, and they charted, mapped, The USS Jeanette and measured coastlines, rivers, and A good example of this is the landmasses and bequeathed this ill-fated expedition of the U.S. Navy knowledge to those who followed. Jeanette that sailed north from San Even with today’s advanced Francisco towards the Bering Strait technology, the Arctic is still deserving in July, 1879. Believing that certain of great respect for would-be travelers warming currents from the Pacific and shippers. What was most passed through the strait and provided remarkable about the brief voyage an ice-free water route to the North of the Nordica and Fennica was its Pole, they quickly encountered ice daring timing, late in the season, conditions that worsened as they when the waterways of the passage pushed north. By September 7, the were freezing up again, and it gave ship got stuck in the ice and for 21 the Finns a chance to display their months the ship floated in a generally confidence in their ships. Global northwest direction at the top of the warming notwithstanding, satellite world, above Siberia, locked in place photos indicate ice conditions are still and moving randomly and erratically severe and hazardous even in July and by the ocean currents beneath the ice. Fortified ship Fram breaking through polar ice. The crew of the USS Jeanette August, and passage by ships can never Imagine the sense of barely controlled abandoning the ice-trapped ship. be taken lightly. panic and despair of a crew essentially Painting done in 1883 based on Due to a cold Canadian Arctic under a house arrest imposed by drawings of Captain De Long. spring last year (2015), there was so nature as they drifted hither and about, much ice choking Frobisher Bay that backwards and forwards, towards no found the frozen bodies of their former even by the second week of July the known destination, surrounded only comrades. by endless sheets of ice, a diminishing Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker supply of food on board, and the Polar drift CCGS Pierre Radisson and the sealift encroaching long Arctic darkness. Incredibly, two years after that, cargo ships it was escorting sat nearby Almost two years from when they first on June 18, 1884 wreckage from the waiting for the weather to warm up set sail, on the night of June 12, 1881 Jeanette was found on an ice floe and the ice to melt more before they the inevitable happened: the pressure thousands of miles to the east, on the could offload their resupply cargo of the ice crushed the ship. During southwestern coast of Greenland. This to Iqaluit, the largest town (about that long, dark, and cold night the indicated there is a west-to-east current 7,000 population) and capital of the despairing crew offloaded provisions across the polar seas. This gave another territory of Nunavut. Iqaluit is about and equipment before the ship finally polar explorer, Norwegian Fridtjof Polar explorer Roald Amundsen 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle. sank. George Washington De Long, captain Nansen, the idea that a specially was loaned the Fram for his Depending on the weather, sometimes They had three small boats and of the ill-fated USS Jeanette. fortified ship shaped to prevent it successful expedition to the South helicopters are sent out ahead of ships supplies, which they loaded onto from being crushed by the ice could Pole, 1910-1912.