THE NORDIC IMPRINT IN THE CANADIAN By John Bechtel, Freelance Writer

ince many place names of the provinces and parts of the states of North American Arctic may not North and South Dakota, Minnesota Sbe well known to the general and Montana. It is the second largest reader, your enjoyment of this article bay in the world, and connects with will be enhanced by referring to the both the and the Atlantic. maps. Here are some fun facts which If the were a landmass may help you to follow the story: instead of body of water, it would be is the largest island in the about the size of Iran. world. It has a population of 56,000 but If the province of were is bigger in size than Mexico that has a a country, it would be 15th in size, population of 122 million. Greenland worldwide. It is also the most desolate has about the same population as and least populous political national Minot, North Dakota, where this subdivision in the world. magazine is published, and they have Most searches for the Northwest been known to share similarities in Passage began by proceeding weather. Greenland has semi-autonomy northward on the western side of under the crown of . It is not Greenland, between Greenland and a part of . to the Parry Channel The is the large which went due west to the Beaufort group of Arctic islands north of the Sea, and separated the Queen Elizabeth Canadian mainland. There are more Islands to the north from Victoria than 36,500 of these islands of varying Island and Banks Island to the south. sizes, including Victoria Island and Once in the Beaufort Sea, ice was , both among the the only obstacle on the way to Alaska’s ten largest islands in the world. The Prudhoe Bay and Point Barrow on archipelago is 1500 miles wide at its the north shore. Successful explorers base, and stretches 1200 miles from followed the bend south through the the mainland of Canada to the most Chukchi Sea, and then through the northern tip of Ellesmere Island. Bering Strait. Depending on their final The is the long destination, they followed the west sought-after navigable water route coast of Alaska southward to Nome through these mostly barren islands (home of the Nome Gold Rush) and as a short cut from the Atlantic to farther south and east to Kodiak Island the Pacific. Arctic ice blocking the or Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian waterways has almost always made this Islands. passage incredibly dangerous if not There are a number of variations impossible. of this Northwest Passage, including Hudson Bay is the huge bay in the beginning in Alaska and working subarctic region south of the Arctic your way through the archipelago to Circle west of , north of Greenland in the east. Going either , and east of Nunavut, the way, much depends on ice conditions, newest and largest of the Canadian which can fluctuate by the day and provinces. It drains six Canadian even the hour. (Continued on page 34)

BACKGROUND PHOTO: WWW.NSIDC.ORG 3@ SPRING 2016 | Scandinavian Press Scandinavian Press | SPRING 2016 3# (Continued from page 32) Climate change changes or hundreds of years the Northwest Passage was the stuff of legend, protected him. everything F passionately believed but never verified. Incredibly, the story begins with His travelogue on the Silk Road Fate intervened in two unanticipated a family of adventurers and merchants, the greatest of which was Marco became the most authoritative and ways that changed the course of that Polo, the godfather of travel writing as we know it today. Marco’s overland trip influential such document ever. And little bit of history. on the ancient Silk Road took him from Venice to Beijing, China, then known as as translations of it spread, it made First, there was climate change. Cathay. His trip there, his stay, and his return took a total of 26 years, from 1271 to nascent and developing European What is referred to as the “Little Ice 1295 CE. monarchs hunger for similar wealth Age” came to the , including He was both a man of his time, and ahead of his time. He was able to and power as he described at the court Greenland. As the temperature comprehend and marvel at cultures totally alien to his own, as he traveled of Kublai Khan. They wanted to see dropped, navigable waters vital to thousands of miles through countries that are known today as Georgia, Iran, it, verify and emulate it, experience shipping and trade with the homeland Afghanistan, their spices and other treasures, and countries became clogged with ice Mongolia, China, bring them home. And they were in a where little or none was known before. Indonesia, India, hurry. Twenty-six years was too long. It became increasingly difficult to

and many others; They wondered if they could get to maintain and feed herds of cattle, WWW.MAPSINTERNATIONAL.CO.UK MAP: across uncharted Cathay and the by going in the traditional occupation of Norse deserts, dangerous the opposite direction; by going west. farmers. mountain passes, Every European monarch who had Secondly, the Black Plague was . Once they figured out that they extreme weather, an empire or who lusted for one, got sweeping through , and as had bumped into a minor obstacle hostile locals, and in on the act. The search was on for shipping died, essential supplies and between their home countries and wild animals. a Northwest Passage. As they turned tools from home were no longer their intended destination—namely the He became a their attention westward, they may available to the colonists, and interest North American continent—the rush Red: Polo’s route to China Green: Polo’s return route trusted confidant have discovered, to their surprise, that in Greenland ivory was being replaced was really on to get over it or through MAP: WWW.IDMARK.COM MAP: of Kublai Khan, they were not the first Europeans to by cheaper ivory from Africa. Life it, in order to get to where they thought Marco Polo’s historic route from Italy to China-1271-1295 CE. who hosted and have done so. got a lot harder. The Norse colonists the wealth really was—in the Far East. could abandon farming and adapt Compared to Marco Polo’s travel

Why the Norse got there first farms. These Norse people accepted the Today there is an uninhabited to an lifestyle and means of reports from the East Indies, the North The first known Europeans in North sovereignty of Norway, and they traded Skraeling Island in the Arctic survival, but there were limits to American continent had little to offer; America were Norse seafarers who with the , whom they called Archipelago, about 1½ miles long and how far they wanted to assimilate a lot of wilderness and uncivilized first settled , which—in time, Skraelings. The seal furs and walrus 1 mile wide, and its chief claim to fame without losing their cultural identity. indigenous people who ran around half became a useful stepping stone to ivory found attractive prices back in the is a large and successful archaeological Or they could go home. Farm land naked. The term “northwest passage” further westward exploration. Some home countries, and the trans-Atlantic site providing proof that the Vikings in the home countries was becoming was coined in 1587 by a geographer of them made it to what is today shipping brought supplies to the Norse traded with the Inuits in a relationship available as previous owners died of named Richard Hakluyt who thought Newfoundland. Eric Asvaldsson (the colonies vital to their survival and that was not always tranquil. the Plague, and perhaps this tipped the there had to be a passage “to go to Red), was banished from Iceland for culture. scales in favor of leaving. Within 500 Cathay and the East Indies.” killing a couple men, and he explored years of its founding, ‘Little Europe’ (Continued on page 36) disappeared shortly before the next the southwestern corner of Greenland, Below: The four trips of Christopher planning a colony of his own. Not wave of Europeans began. Each of the newcomers suffered from the Christopher Columbus, by artist Columbus to America, based on a map one to quibble over details, he called Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547). in Lisbon, Portugal, circa 1490. it Greenland to entice recruits from same conceit; that they were the first back home, arguably the first instance to arrive—completely unaware that of misleading real estate advertising in a previous European civilization had . already come and gone. This was about 1000 C.E., long before Marco Polo. The northern European The North American continent region that these Norse had previously disappoints again called home was enjoying unusually In the late fifteenth century, Spain warm weather that encouraged sent Christopher Columbus to find a exploration to distant shores. They were way to the East Indies by going west, farmers looking for land, not a passage and planted the English to the riches of the Far East, something flag on what he thought was Asia and they knew nothing about. promptly claimed whatever it was to At their peak, Norse settlements in now belong to the Crown. No one Greenland had a combined population knows for sure, but he had probably of 3,000 to 5,000. Archeologists have landed on what is today the Canadian confirmed remains of at least 400 “Summer in the Greenland coast” circa 1000, by artist Jens Erik Carl Rasmussen. provinces of Newfoundland or Nova

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(Continued from page 35) and set hapless Henry, his son, and a explorers for a couple hundred years. Amsterdam. He worked on Danish few others adrift, never to be heard By this time, people were wondering, whalers in the North Atlantic and had from again. did a Northwest Passage even exist? occasion to visit European colonies in Then there was , who the Caribbean and even the eastern served as pilot under English Captain Russia gets curious seaboard of North America. He was , who was employed by the Meanwhile, on the other side entrusted with two expeditions by Danish King Christian IV to reestablish of the North American continent, Peter the Great to find out if there was dominion over the Norse settlements the question of the day was, could navigable deep water between the two in Greenland and to ascertain what had a passage across the continent be continents. Both expeditions were happened to them. The three voyages achieved by going in the opposite named after the Kamchatka peninsula on behalf of the Danish Crown failed in direction, from west to east, from the from where they originated. Even their purpose, and a fourth sponsored Pacific to the Atlantic, from Asia to though he did not actually see North by some investors, was directed to find Europe? Was there a break between America on the first expedition, he the ever-elusive Northwest Passage the eastern Asian landmass and the believed it was obvious that there was instead. However, some annoyed Inuit western edge of the North American clear unobstructed sea between the two put a spear through Captain Hall. continent? Vitus Jonassen Bering continents. In 1741, he sailed for North William Baffin escaped, and after was a Danish seaman who enlisted America, sailed past Kodiak Island and a brief stint working for a in the Russian navy and trained in made a landing at Kayak Island. On company at Spitzbergen far above the his return trip he discovered some of Arctic Circle, came back to further the Aleutian Islands. Unfortunately, he A 1587 illustration from a report on England’s Sir ’s third trip explore for a Northwest Passage. He and 28 of his men never made it home, to North America in search of the Northwest Passage in 1578, describing the progressed farther north on the west apparently succumbing to scurvy. inhabitants as “strange unknown multitudes”. side of Greenland than anyone had Captain , an excellent the Dutch , the served as an entrance to the Northwest before, and discovered a new bay that seaman, explorer, surveyor and Dutch claimed and colonized the area. Passage except for the fact that the path now bears his name. Because he had cartographer, had already mapped out Henry did get the river that flows past through was always blocked by ice proved that there was no passage to (Continued on page 38) the city and empties into New York farther ahead. But Henry didn’t know the west that was not blocked by ice, harbor named after him, however. that. He did discover an immense bay, his steps were not retraced by other Sir Martin Frobisher portrait (1577), On his last voyage, Hudson found a and both the strait and the bay were by artist Cornelis Ketel (1548-1616). strait between Baffin Island and the named after him. He wanted to press The rush is on! northern tip of Quebec that could have on farther west, but his men mutinied The next two hundred years saw a steady stream of explorers and adventurers poking around the east coast of North America, looking for a way to connect through to the other side on the Pacific Ocean. You may be familiar with some of the names, if for no other reason than many locations in North America carry their names to this day: Martin Frobisher, privateer for the Crown and pirate by avocation, led three expeditions looking for the Northwest Passage and kept landing in eastern Canada, near Resolution Island and . (What a coincidence!) He lugged 1500 tons of gold ore back to England, only to discover it was iron pyrite (fool’s gold), but no matter, he made up for it with profits sinking French ships. He was knighted by the Crown for his troubles. was looking for a sea route to Cathay and landed near

today’s New York City. But since at WWW.ARTLEO.COM PHOTO: the time he was in the employment of Henry Hudson’s expeditions to North America in 1609, and in 1610-1611. Sunrise on Eclipse Sound, which opens into —named for English explorer, William Baffin.

3^ SPRING 2016 | Scandinavian Press Scandinavian Press | SPRING 2016 3& (Continued from page 37) correctly guessed the route through. the coast of Newfoundland in great Even though the history books detail, and had circumnavigated the credit him with the (at last!) globe; from Australia and New Zealand of the Northwest Passage, Sir Robert to Hawaii; around South America never got to confirm his conviction by and Africa; and he mapped out the sailing on through, because, of course, west coast of North America from ice blocked everything. He was locked Mexico to Alaska. In 1778, while the in the ice for three winters before he American colonists battled the British and his starving crew were rescued by in a war of independence on the east a search party from another explorer’s coast, Captain Cook sailed through ship. Sir Robert gets credit for the Bering Strait on the west coast of discovering the Passage, even though Alaska, concluding that a water passage he barely made it out alive. across the North American continent was unlikely. In passing through A Norse seafarer the first to sail the Bering Strait he noticed that he through the Northwest Passage was west of Hawaii, longitudinally We have to fast-forward another half speaking. That’s where he went next, century before someone actually made Beautiful Arctic landscape and unfortunately the natives there a verified and complete crossing of the bludgeoned him to death on the beach. Northwest Passage by sail only. JL PEABODY PHOTO: In one of the last 18th century Perhaps learning from the Franklin and sailing home. to have returned to California with explorations of the high northwest “The Franklin Expedition” oil painting debacle, Norwegian polar explorer Since then, all kinds of people and the tidy equivalent of over $2 million coast, George Vancouver, an officer in the National Maritime Museum, decided to keep it ships have found their way through dollars in today’s money. It must have under Cook in a prior voyage, also Greenwich, England. small, with only six crew members, the Northwest Passage. As the ice been hard to leave. After all, there’s no agreed that there was no passage, at Left: Sir and they made the crossing in three cap melts, there are now up to seven place like Nome. least not south of the Bering Strait. years. Amundsen finally anchored in potential different routes through the This conclusion was supported by incredibly, by means of DNA, forensic the west on Herschel Island, ironically ice pack. Adventurers of every stripe Alexander Mackenzie, who explored science may even yield the precise Look for Part II in an upcoming issue discovered and named by Sir John have completed the Passage, from the Arctic and Pacific Oceans in 1793. identity of the subjects. of Scandinavian Press: “A Finnish Franklin half a century before. What is row boats to cruise ships. Even with perhaps as remarkable as Amundsen’s captain closes a very long chapter and modern technology, satellite phones opens another”. Sir Robert McClure crossing of the Northwest Passage itself, and ice updates every few minutes, limps across the finish line is the fact that he was so exultant with the trip is fraught with danger, people Contemporaneously with the travails his achievement the he skied 500 miles continue to die and ships are lost. of the dying crew of the Franklin one way to Eagle, Alaska, so he could Even passage through the Bering Strait could seem to get through because of expedition, another explorer, Sir Robert telegraph his success to the world, on the western side of the continent the ice. According to one source, the McClure, finally connected all the dots before skiing 500 miles back to his ship is no final guarantee of safety, and heavy ships were equipped with the at the center of the archipelago and ships—and their masters, breathe a latest scientific instruments, over 1,000 sigh of relief only when they make it to books, a crew of 128 men, and enough safe harbor in Nome, Kodiak Island, or food stores to last three years. They left Dutch Harbor. England, crossed the Atlantic, sailed Nome, of course, has a reputation up the west coast of Greenland, turned all of its own to uphold, as the home of westward into uncharted waters, and the Nome Gold Rush. As luck would were never heard from again. It took have it, it was a Norwegian-American Never underestimate more than150 years before scientists and two Swedish-Americans who the Arctic pieced together all the evidence: the discovered the gold on a beach near In 1845, the British Crown decided ships became landlocked, the food Nome. Word spread and soon people the only way to get to the bottom of supply was tainted, and after two years, all over the world descended on Nome this Northwest Passage mystery was the crew abandoned the ships and to find gold. John Bechtel is a professional freelance to throw overwhelming resources into attempted escape overland by sledge. While Amundsen was completing his writer for the food, wine, and tourism the effort, in true empire fashion. They Apparently the last starving crew Northwest Passage, the population of lavishly equipped two ships led by Sir members survived by cannibalism. One Nome was swelling to 20,000, including industries; ghostwriting non-fiction John Franklin. As far as they could of the doomed ships from the Franklin prospectors, gamblers, claims jumpers, books; and web content strategist for tell, the entire Arctic Archipelago had expedition was discovered quite prostitutes and saloon keepers, businesses. been mapped out except for about by accident just last year and some including Wyatt Earp, who established You can follow him on his website 500 miles in the center that no one skulls of sailors have been found, that Sir Robert McClure Roald Amundsen the Dexter Saloon and who is reputed www.greatplainsdrifter.com.

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