NORTH-WEST PASSAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 22, 27 January 1938, Page 23

NORTH-WEST PASSAGE

TWO SHIPS MEET

A NEW TRADING POST

(From "The Post's" Representative.) ~ VANCOUVER, January 5. Another historic stage has been reached in extending civilisation in the Arctic, to the point that makes the ( Northwest Passage an accomplishment —subject to the vagaries of Nature. The Hudson's Bay Company's vessel Nascopie, out of Montreal on her annual voyage to the Eastern Arctic, established a fur trading post at Fort Ross, on Bellot Strait, one hundred miles north of the Magnetic Pole. Before' she left, the company's schooner Aklavik arrived at the new post from the Western Arctic. The ■ new depot will utilise, at long last, the North-west Passage for bringing in supplies r and sending out furs from either direction.

The Nascopie steamed cautiously between the midsummer ice floes to her new landing, just, beyond Possession Point, where Sir John Ross set up a cairn in 1829 and took possession of the region for Great Britain. Three Eskimo families, picked up at Arctic Bay, Baffin Island, with their dozens of dogs, were put ashore to start the new settlement.

"Schooner in sight!" From behind Brown's Island came the Aklavik, frail in the immensity of sea,: ice, and rugged terrain, yet resolute, a white barrel perched jauntily on her foremast. Passengers, thrilled by the romance 'of the occasion, cheered wildly, over a spot where; 79 years before, McClintock- was turned back by the barrier ice,'after five attempts to get through, in; his search for Sir John Franklin.

Scotty Gaul, master of the Aklavik, company officials, and traders, went on board the Nascopie. A bottle of champagne was' dashed over the bow of each shfp to mark a new triumph of exploration. '

For Gaul it was an empty triumph. His , ( wife was to accompany him through the Passage. Together, after year's in the remotest North, .they had planned a' trip ."outside" on the Nflscopie. Consummately feminine, a skilful seamstress,"she was yet versatile enough to run a Diesel engine.- On the eastward "leg," as they were preparing to leave ■ Cambridge Bay, she was' standing by in the engine-room, when they sighted the Audrey 8,, bringing supplies from the Mackenzie Delta, to be relayed by the Aklavik. Gaul raug the bell for "slow; ahead." There,was no response, He went below and,found his \jjife dead.. The shockof -the approaching trip had been too great for a 'heart weakened by long years in the Arctic.