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Called by the North – Extraordinary Adventurers of the Fur Trade, Shipbuilders, Navigators and Traders in Northwestern Canada and Alaska

Book_Cover

The cover artwork is by the well known local marine artist John Horton. It depicts the 1930 meeting of Hudson’s Bay Company schooners Fort McPherson from the west, and Fort James from the east, at Gjoa Haven in the Arctic. (Photo from the George Duddy collection.)

Following the collapse of whaling in Canadian western Arctic waters at the start of the 1900s, vessels facing the perilous voyage around the Alaskan Peninsula came in pursuit of Arctic fur trade. They came initially from the old whaling ports of California and settled locations in Alaska, but after 1914 also from Vancouver on Canada’s west coast. The vessels included those owned – or in support of – large fur trading companies and also those of adventurers bent on making their fortunes in the rich trade. Arctic transportation was also provided by expansion of the existing Mackenzie River system from the interior of Canada through the Boreal Forest and Mackenzie Delta.

This book provides a fascinating account of the ships, shipbuilders and navigators of these waterways, and how the Arctic fur trade, pioneered by American entrepreneurs, was finally taken over by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Expanding eastward, the Company achieved many Arctic "firsts." In 1930 a relay of company vessels successfully made the first west to east transit of the Northwest Passage; and several fur trading posts developed into permanent northern settlements. These, and many other intriguing stories, are enriched through 193 photographs, maps and diagrams; appendices; a bibliography; and an index to full names, places, and subjects, all adding value to this unique work. Published in 2022, 6x9, paper, index, 324 pp.

The book is available directly from the publisher Heritage Books . The author indicates that the book will soon be available from Amazon.


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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