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Arctic and Northern Nautical Heritage

ARCTIC BACKGROUND

  • North Polar Geography

    • Some detailed notes on aspects of north polar geography such as the Arctic circle, the North Magnetic Pole, and the North Pole.

  • Navigating With Compasses in the North

    • Navigating with magnetic compasses can be problematic due to the proximity to the North Magnetic Pole.

  • Arctic Seamanship Skills

    • Arctic navigation skills build upon and sometimes contradict best practices from those of the Pacific Ocean. Contributor Captain Sven Johansson shares the traditional navigational and seamanship skills he learned as an early independent mariner in the Western Arctic.

THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE

  • The Northwest Passage

    • What and where is the fabled Northwest Passage? What is the history of its exploration, mapping and transiting? Why is it so important to all Canadians today and why is it often in the news?

  • List of Complete Transits of the Northwest Passage

    • A detailed list of the successful transits of the Northwest Passage including ship names, dates, name of Master and other details. This covers the period to about 2010 at which time the regularity of transits, and the easing of transits as a result of climate change and icebreaker escorts make a further catalogue a list in a different order of magnitude from the pioneering transits. Originally published in 1990 - and revised and put on line in 2003, and revised again in 2011 & 2012.

  • List of Partial Transits of the Northwest Passage

    • In the early days of the exploitation of the Northwest Passage there were a series of significant partial-transits. These were carried out before climate change and the brute strength of polar icebreaking made passages a simpler affair. A list of the most important partial transits of the Northwest Passage including ship names, dates, name of Master and other details. Originally published in 1990 - and revised and put on line in 2003, and revised again in 2011 & 2012.

  • List of Submarine Transits of the Northwest Passage

    • A very complete list of the underwater transits of the Northwest Passage including ship names, dates, name of Master and other details. These voyages were once considered extremely secret - but here is a list based on many souces. Originally published in 1990 - and revised and put on line in 2003, and revised again in 2011 & 2012.

ARCTIC NAUTICAL HERITAGE

  • List of Transits of the Northeast Passage

    • A very complete list of the transits of the Northeasst Passage (through the Russian Arctic) including ship names, dates, name of Master and other details. Originally published in 1990 – and revised and put on line in 2003, and revised again in 2011 & 2012.

  • The Arctic Schooner Anna Olga

    • Contributor George Duddy has extensively researched the long, varied and significant career of the Arctic schooner Anna Olga. In Canada’s Western Arctic this vessel is an example of nautical heritage seldom shown to those of use living in southern Canada and one that touched the lives of many living in the Arctic.

  • Traditional Western Arctic Ocean Seamanship Skills

    • Captain Sven Johansson was the first person in history to conquer the North West Passage from West to East. It took him five years (it was back when the Arctic Ocean still had lots of ice). He spent years before that working in vessels in a very hostile Arctic marine environment. Along the way he absorbed a great deal of traditional knowledge and understanding of special seamanship skills from his Banks Island friends. He shares some of this with us in this article.

  • Angus Brabant – Fur Trade Commissioner and Canadian Arctic Commerce Pioneer

    • Brabant joined the Hudson’s Bay Company as an Apprentice Clerk in 1886 and after serving at Manitoba House, Cumberland House and Fort Smith he became Inspector of the Athabaska District. In 1905. He was serving as the Manager of Mackenzie River District. From 1908-1920 he established HBC fur trade posts on the Arctic Coast. In 1920 he became Fur Trade Commissioner.

  • Captain Christian (C.T.) Pedersen

    • Captain Christian Theodore Pedersen was a pivotal entrepreneur and mariner who opened up the western Arctic to commerce. He is as important to Canadian Arctic history as to Alaskan Arctic history. Larger than life he dominated a whole period of Arctic development.

  • Expeditions to the North Pole

    • A list of some of the the successful challenges by humans on foot and in ships to reach the North Pole.

  • Pioneer Arctic Mariner Ernest J. "Scotty" Gall Remembered

    • Contributor George Duddy has assembled a complete account of the life and work of Scotty Gall, a pioneer Canadian Arctic mariner, fur trader, explorer, adventurer and politician.

  • Ernest J. "Scotty" Gall

    • Captain Scotty Gall was a Hudson’s Bay employee who traded furs, explored the western Arctic and challenged the ice in small vessels long before it was fashionable to do so. His life and accomplishments were colourful.

  • North Star of Herschel Island

    • Captain Sven Johansson restored the Banks Island Eskimo schooner North Star and lived in it in the Western Arctic. Later he brought her down to Victoria BC as a liveaboard turning it into a three masted full–rigged ship.

  • Arctic Vessels Anti–fouling and Other Traditional Ship Bottom Covering Concepts

    • Captain Sven Johansson, Northwest Passage mariner, shares his thoughts on bottom coverings on traditional wooden Arctic ocean vessels based on his personal experience.

  • The EL Sueno – The Crack San Francisco Racing Yacht Which Brought Trade to the Core of the Northwest Passage

    • Contributor George Duddy shares his research into the Arctic sailing trader El Sueno.

  • Fur Trade Travels by Waterway, Railroad and Road

    • Contributor George Duddy shares a history of his father’s participation in in the Canadian fur trade. He relates his dad’s life with the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) from 1923–1944. Extensively illustrated with photographs, it touches upon his life along some of Canada’s waterways that were the original transportation highways of Canada, both in the Company’s Keewatin District in Manitoba and the Mackenzie Athabasca region of northern Alberta and British Columbia. As well his experience along the Hudson Bay Railway and the port of Churchill and the Alaska Highway – the newer forms of northern supply corridors is presented. Also documented are the final days of the York boat in HBC service and the evolution of the bush plane in the North. All this was at a time that the business of the fur trade was evolving into commercial retailing at former fur trade posts.


ARCTIC EXPLORATION

  • Modern Arctic Exploration

    • A chronological list of modern Arctic exploration.

  • Arctic Exploration 1848-1860

    • A chronological list of Arctic exploration 1848 to 1860.

  • Arctic Exploration 1818-1845

    • A chronological list of Arctic exploration 1818 to 1848.

  • Arctic Exploration pre-1818

    • A chronological list of Arctic exploration pre 1818.

  • The Anglo–American Polar Expedition 1906

    • In 1906 Ernest de Koven Leffingwell and Ejnar Mikkelsen search for new lands in the Arctic ocean from their ship base in the Duchess of Bedford. In Mikkelsen’s words the scientific results of the expedition "had ascertained the extent of the Continental Shelf, and even if we had not found the land we had so implicitly believed in, it was a consolation for us to know that to prove the absence of land was of as much scientific value as to find it!"

Nauticapedia

Site News: December 21, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,824 vessel histories (with 16,274 images and 13,929 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).

Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 45,000 processed so far this year (2024).

The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3996 images).

Thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of vessel histories in the database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.

Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he has contributed to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.

My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

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