Trafford Publishing: Under Sand, Ice & Sea

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Under Sand, Ice & Sea

by A. Bryce Cameron; co-published with Erracht Publishing

380 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #99-0069; ISBN 1-55212-319-7; US$31.00, C$35.50, EUR25.50, £18.00

Sample Chapter

From Chapter 15

On arrival at Resolute, we were met by our man on the spot, Art Wootton and the two Piper Cub pilots, Des Sherin and Noel Rogers, as well as Cam Sproule, who had been retained by Bankeno Mines to survey their lands in the Arctic. The two aircraft had flown in from the Polynia Lake camp on Melville for supplies some ten days earlier, however, the thick fog and low cloud conditions at Resolute had prevented their return so they were trapped. Meanwhile, as we learned later, during those same ten days, the Melville weather, with exception of one day, was quite clear and suitable for flying but poor Bob Craig did not have an aircraft! As it was, if it hadn't been for a forty-mile-an-hour wind blowing across the runway when we reached Resolute, the heavy ground fog that had blanketed the area for the past ten days would still have been present and delayed our arrival.
Despite the time we had already spent in the air, Dick de Blicquy, piloting the four-passenger Beaver, took Cam, Tom, Jeff and me for a short evening flight. First, I pointed out the features of the Resolute and Central Dome structures (three years later, Bankeno joined our consortium to drill on these sites), after which we turned northwards to Little Cornwallis. Here, Sproule pointed out the area where one of his earlier field parties had discovered large veins of lead and zinc. From the air we could see a marked discolouration of the surface soil - a large patch that was considerably darker than the surrounding ochre-coloured formations. We landed close by and walked over to the spot. There on the surface were large, heavy, glistening pieces of metallic ore. The samples that Sproule had already sent to Bankeno showed that the ore was of a high grade and was sufficiently rich to have encouraged them to ship in a diamond test drill with the convoy that had just arrived at Resolute. From there, the Inuit would take the equipment in their umiaks to the site on Little Cornwallis where drilling was scheduled to begin in September and continue as long as the weather permitted.
Day and Charlewood explained that if the drill test holes proved that the grade of ore was high and the body proved to be extensive and thick, a major development project would immediately get under way. The ore was close enough to the shore that it would be comparatively easy to ship out during the open-water season. As it turned out, however, Bankeno reached a favourable financial agreement with Cominco Limited of British Columbia and farmed-out their finds to them. Some years later, after bringing in a barge-mounted zinc and lead processing plant, Cominco began shipping out concentrates to smelters in the south. The mining industry was far quicker than the oil industry in putting to use the natural resources of the Arctic Islands. Oil and gas have been found, but commercial production has still to commence - but, I get ahead of myself.
Amongst the many things our group wanted to see and do was to be in Resolute at the same time as the annual convoy of cargo ships. We had timed it well for there, on our arrival, was the icebreaker, d'Iberville , lying at anchor outside the bay. It was not the most powerful of the Canadian icebreakers but was just right for leading this five-ship convoy. The C.D. Howe , closer to shore, could also be used for ice-breaking duties, but on this particular voyage was serving as a hospital ship and transport carrier. The two freighters, Federal Voyageur and Maclean , were anchored in mid-bay. The fifth vessel in the convoy was the oil tanker Irvingwood . Moored closer to land than the others and, using a floating pipeline, she was pumping ashore the annual fuel requirements for Resolute and three other weather stations, Isaachsen, Mould Bay and Alert. The drums containing our own gasoline supplies for the 1961 season were also in this convoy along with the 'Round Valley Oil-Resolute Bay Guest House.' This was a prefabricated hut that could accommodate ten men and had been especially designed for Arctic use by George Jacobsen's firm in Montreal, Tower Construction. While watching the Irvingwood unload her cargo, I made a point of having a look at the pipeline they were using. I wondered, if the Irvingwood could use a floating line to pump bulk oil ashore, would it be possible to use the same line to load crude oil from a shore-based tank farm? If so, I thought this would be particularly useful during the initial stages of developing a near-shore oilfield. The crude carried by the vessel to Montreal would not amount to very much but at least it would demonstrate that it could be done. I expanded on this train of thought some years later at a symposium held in Montreal - but more of that later on. Another vessel, that we only caught a glimpse of, was the U.S. nuclear-powered submarine, Sea Dragon . She was on her way from east to west along the Parry Channel and surfaced in the bay for a short while. The sight of this vessel and the memory of the polar exploits of the U.S. submarines, Nautilus and Skate , gave support to the views of those who favoured underwater tankers for taking the crude to market.
Our party set out in the Ventura the next morning with the object of seeing the structures on Bathurst and Melville Islands. For this trip, Graham Rowley stayed behind in Resolute and his place was taken by Captain Hans Christian Petersen of the Copenhagen-based Lauritzen Shipping Company. This company, with its fleet of ice-strengthened vessels, was well known for its work in the Polar regions and I had been in touch with them for several months. Eventually, it was arranged that they would send one of their skilled polar navigators to have a look at our area of operations. Captain Petersen had travelled to Resolute from Montreal with the annual convoy and now he was a guest of Round Valley. While with us we wanted him to inspect the waterways we planned on using to bring in equipment and supplies and later, for exporting our petroleum. We also showed him some of the beaches where we thought landing craft, shuttling from ship to shore, could unload our drilling paraphernalia.
The Ventura first took us over the structures on Bathurst and the Edmond Lyons feature on Melville. We then went over to Polynia Lake, flew low over Bob Craig and his men and saw them waving heartily at us. Unfortunately we could not land, the plane being too large for the small, rough landing strip. After that, we went along the coast a little and looked down on Winter Harbour, made famous by the stay of Lieutenant Parry, R.N. and his ships, the H.M.S. Hecla and Griper . On the return journey, the plane headed off over Melville Sound for an over-water flight to Resolute with Captain Petersen in the co-pilot's seat making notes about the ice conditions below. Petersen observed that the ice floes did not pose a problem for shipping, all the waterways were clear even as far west as Winter Harbour; at least this was the case in 1960. I was particularly interested in his observation that ocean-going ships would have no trouble sailing right into Bridport Inlet on Melville Island as I had envisioned this location to be the harbour handling the export of our crude from the Edmond Lyons structure! I thought that we were most fortunate in having Captain Petersen with us and in being able to get his professional opinion on these navigational matters. It was particularly gratifying when his judgment tallied with the guesses made by 'landlubbers' like ourselves!
On our arrival back at Resolute, the weather was still good and Dick de Blicquy's Beaver was ready for take-off. So, after a meal in the mess hall, I embarked on another flight, the purpose of which was to look for beaches where landing craft could unload heavy equipment. I also wanted to check out all the possible routes from the beach to the potential drilling sites and see what groundwork would have to be done. In order to get an assessment of the situation from the perspective of the drilling contractor, Bill Booth and Don Connolly from Commonwealth accompanied me on this trip as did Captain Petersen. He wanted to examine the anchorages and the approaches to the beaches as well as the beaches themselves. He certainly was the right man to have with us as he had extensive experience landing large tonnages of cargo on the shorelines of the Antarctic. After stops at points of interest on Bathurst, we landed at our geological party's campsite on Polynia Lake and were greeted by Bob Craig and the others. After some shop talk about what had been accomplished and discussing plans for the future, we all went off to bed.
My sleeping bag, a special one I had bought from the Arctic Department of the Hudson's Bay store in Winnipeg, was, as usual keeping me warm and comfortable - but for one small matter. I had neglected to zip and button up the foot of the bag with the result that my big left toe spent the night slightly out of the bag and got pretty well frozen stiff! Happily though, no harm was done! While on the subject of sleeping bags, I should point out that we took them with us whenever we went flying - no matter how short the distance - we even took them with us when using the Land Rover. In the Arctic, you never know when you might get trapped for days in some remote location, socked-in by low-lying clouds and dense fog. Sleeping bags and parkas are kept close at hand at all times - even if at the time of departure it seems like a warm and sunny summer's day. Like my sleeping bag, my parka came from the Hudson's Bay Arctic Department. It was large, warm, with capacious pockets for maps, a compass, slide rule, etc., and came with a wolverine ruff extending beyond the front of the hood. This particular fur was popular as a head ruff because it protected the face against frostbite in that it could withstand the combination of very cold air and the warm moisture of a person's breath without creating icicles of condensation. Other pieces of equipment that the northern adventurer should always have with him are sunglasses, toques or balaclavas, scarves, two pairs of gloves, viyella (or similar) shirts, pullovers, thick trousers, several pairs of woollen socks, ordinary shoes and overboots. Oh, and I nearly forgot - long johns or 'pants woollen long' as they were called in my British Army days!
The next morning poor weather delayed us a little but after a couple of hours the sun broke and we left for Bridport. This was the same place we had flown over in the Ventura the previous day and where Petersen had remarked that there would be no difficulty in ocean-going vessels sailing into the inlet. Unlike the large Ventura, the Beaver with its balloon tires could land at this location. Our ground inspection showed the roadstead, beaches and routes to the uplands to be satisfactory. So, as far as transportation was concerned, our reconnoitering was successfully completed and we were ready to start drilling on the Edmond Lyons structure!
From Bridport we flew to Winter Harbour but before I give an account of Lieutenant Parry's overland trek and the observations that he made concerning the presence of petroliferous rocks on the surface of Melville Island, I want to describe two interesting relics of his stay there. The first was an enormous rock on which was it was written that the Hecla and Griper wintered in the area during 1819-20. Parry tells us in his journal that while searching for a safe, sheltered bay to spend the winter months, he found a spot that he thought would do very well. To the southwest point of this inlet was, "... a remarkable block of sandstone, somewhat resembling the roof of a home, on which the ships' names were subsequently engraved by Mr. Fisher. This stone is very conspicuous in coming in from the east and forms a good leading mark for the channel into the harbour."
The second place of interest was the gravestone of Able Seaman William Scott who died on June 27th, 1820. His was the only fatality that occurred during this remarkable voyage. Parry in his journal says that at the burial, divine service was held with the two ships' companies present. All ensigns and pennants were lowered to half-mast and Scott's body was committed to the grave at a spot a little above the high-water mark. Later, a neat tombstone was placed at its head with details of his name and the date carved on it.
After our short delay in the morning, the weather for the rest of the day had been quite good for flying and we got a lot accomplished. However, as we were preparing to return to Resolute, we heard on the radio that strong winds were blowing there - blowing right across the runway. I remembered last year when we took off in a Cessna with a cross-wind such as this blowing - it was definitely a hair-raising experience. This strong cross-wind from the east was not an uncommon occurrence, perhaps due to the fact that there is a hill on that side of the runway. The air on the top of the hill gets colder and heavier than elsewhere; then it simply avalanches down across the runway. Dick de Blicquy, using the radio, arranged to have the couple of planes parked on the small tarmac at the northern end of the air strip moved out of the way. Then, flying into this sixty-mile-an-hour wind at a right angle to the normal landing approach, he touched down on the tarmac and actually came to a stop before reaching the runway! Oddly enough, as soon as he reduced power, the plane began to move backwards as if it wanted to position itself in the correct parking spot! In the end, our Land Rover was hitched up to it and towed this remarkable little Beaver to its normal place where it was firmly secured!
We were naturally weary after our long day's reconnaissance but, despite this, we had a little jollification with the Peter Bawden party who had arrived in Resolute the night before. Peter ran a successful drilling company based in Calgary, Peter Bawden Drilling. Even though Peter's company and Commonwealth were competitors, in the oil exploration business, contractors such as these two firms, as well as owners or operators like ourselves and the other people such as miners and financiers, always seem to mix very well together. Moreover, once you had title to your own oil Permit you could talk to one another in an open, frank and helpful way. Peter's party included his father, a senior executive with Dominion Securities, another stockbroker by the name of Goodfellow and Dan Ion of Triad [a subsidiary of British Petroleum], who had been a friend of mine dating back to our time together in the oilfields of Persia. Completing the Bawden group was Mackenzie of American Climax and McCardell of Texaco's office in Calgary.
For the next two days we were grounded by that persistent cross-wind blowing continuously across the runway at 60 miles per hour with gusts going even higher. So here we were, a crowd of oil people, stuck in the Far North surrounded by dreary, bleak and barren terrain. But we certainly were not suffering any hardship as we were able to enjoy the comfortable quarters and hospitality provided by the R.C.A.F. In fact, not a bit of our time was wasted. We had much to talk about with the Bawden party and also with Dr. George Jacobsen and his Jacobsen-McGill University Research Group. I had met George a couple of years before this particular encounter and, as noted earlier, had recently purchased a pre-fabricated hut from his firm, Tower Construction, the prime contractor for the eastern portion of the DEW Line. To round out the group of stranded individuals were some members of the Canadian Government's Polar Continental Shelf Exploration Project en route to their base at Isaachsen on Ellef Ringnes Island. This group, like ourselves, had been trapped at Resolute and were waiting for the weather to clear before flying on to join Dr. Fred Rootes and his crew of fifty-five scientists. Our two day spell of being 'confined to barracks' turned into an unorganized convention - with much conviviality leading to many hilarious anecdotes but also some serious discussions. As well as grounding all the aircraft, this fierce wind was causing some ruckus down at the bay itself. It was blowing so strongly that it made the free ice pack up against the shore and, of course, under these conditions the landing craft could not unload any cargo from the freighters in the convoy. This was an unexpected benefit for the stevedores, flown in for the job from Montreal, as it gave them a couple of days rest!

I have already referred to Winter Harbour as being the refuge during the winter of 1819-1820 for Lieutenant Parry, R.N., and his ships Hecla and Griper . This outstanding explorer and his famous voyage of discovery deserve a brief description here.
His expedition of 1819-1820 was quite remarkable in that the true Northwest Passage was at long last discovered. After leaving the already charted waters of Baffin Bay, Parry sailed along hundreds of miles of an unexplored waterway that led ultimately to the Polar sea and beyond to the Pacific. During the voyage, accurate maps of the many new lands were drawn and a lot of scientific data gathered. That the expedition did not sail on past Dundas Peninsular on Melville Island was not surprising considering that in 1969 even the 150,000 ton tanker, S.S. Manhattan with 43,000 H.P. engines could not do it! Parry's incredible voyage gave rise to further Arctic expeditions, the full fruits of which may, in the forthcoming years, ripen so that these channels will see ice-breaking oil tankers and cargo vessels plying the seas on shortened journeys between Europe and the Orient. Moreover, Parry, by remarking on the presence of fetid limestone had, without realizing it, raised the possibility of modern geological explorers finding oil in the region. He was the first Arctic oilman!

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