11:37
We’ll it looks like we are going to be able to make it to Beechy. Chris in his morning remarks said, “I will get your boots on Beechey.” It’s sunny. The wind isn’t too strong and we’re making good time. We did have to make a detour around some ice over night so we will be doing an afternoon landing on Beechey instead of a morning one.
My knee is doing fine. I’m going on the assumption that if I don’t bother it, it won’t bother me. I’ll leave the bandaids on for a few days or until they start to peel off of their own accord. My knee isn’t stiff and I don’t notice it most of the time. Now that was lucky!
There were two talks this morning, one by John Huston about how his father received the first Inuit carving and had the idea that it was of as much value as some of the famous small bronzes in Paris. Sorry, I didn’t take notes and I can’t remember which famous artist did the bronzes. The story goes that James Huston hitched a ride on a plane taking a doctor north. The ride was free if he helped the doctor and pumped gas into the plane at the other end. He did both and when the doctor didn’t need him, he walked down to the beach and began to sketch. It was windy and suddenly he realized that the wind had died down. After a while he became aware that there was someone behind him. He turned around and there were several Inuit blocking the wind and watching him while he drew.
One man extended his hand for the sketch book. James gave it to him and the Inuit looked at the drawing. Then one of the onlookers held out his hand for the pencil. James turned to a fresh page and gave it to the man.I don’t think John told us what kind of a drawing the man made, just that it was unprecedented that someone would ask for the sketchbook and pencil.
Later on in the visit James drew a portrait of one of the woman in the village. She took it home to show her husband whose first reaction was jealousy. He pointing out that they had no frame to put it in and no walls[ they were living in a tent] so he tore it up and started the fire with it. His wife wasn’t impressed and he had second thoughts. That night he began carving and in the morning had a delicate little caribou. He found James the next day and gave him the carving. Since they had no language in common, James didn’t realize that the carving was new. He took it to the guy at the Hudson’s Bay post and asked him how old he thought it was. When the guy told him it had just been carved he realized what kind of skill there was among the Inuit people and that was the beginning of his promotion of Inuit carving.
Aleqa Hammond was the other speaker this morning. I didn’t get in on the beginning of her talk because I was out on deck taking photos of a polar bear on an ice floe. She told the story of being out on the sea ice with 7 men for 7 weeks. They didn’t want to let her come but she promised she would go as fast as they did and pull her weight when it came to chores. Through sheer pestering she got to go out on the sea ice with them. She is a very entertaining speaker and had us laughing at many points during her talk.The guy with whom she was going to travel showed up without any food and Aleqa thought he would be eating all of her food. He turned out to be an expert hunter and fed the whole group and their dogs with what he managed to hunt.
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| Polar bear on an ice flow |
There was a life-changing moment for Aleqa when they told her there was a crack in the ice and the narwhals were coming so she should go and watch. She lay down on her stomach and watched as a hundred or so narwhals swam past her, each one making eye contact. She said she had never experienced anything so profound. It was as if each of the narwhals smiled at her and said, “We see you,” as they passed. As she watched she found herself sobbing with the emotion of the connection.
The routine at night was for her to tell stories but when they asked her that night to tell as story she said she was thinking back on the day and she wanted to keep her thoughts to herself. Her mentor told her that every one of the men understood what she had experienced.
She experienced two polar bear encounters. When the people went to sleep they placed the dogs in a circle around the sledges so if a polar bear came close the dogs would alert the people. One night a bear did wander into the camp and killed one of the dogs. The second time they were traveling over the ice and the dogs were behaving differently. They were raising their noses and sniffing the air as they ran. Her mentor told Aleqa that there was either a bear of a bearded seal in the area. He let five dogs off the leash and they ran away in the direction of the scent. After a few more minutes Her mentor let five more dogs loose and they followed the first batch.
As they continued on, the dog’s barking became louder until they came upon the polar bear surrounded by dogs all barking and dodging it’s great paws as it swung at them again and again but the dogs were too fast. The bear was so distracted by the dogs that it didn’t notice the humans. The mentor took out his gun and took careful aim so as to be able to drop the bear in a single shot. When the bear fell to the ground, the dogs stopped barking, trotted back to the sledges and lay down. They had done exactly what they were trained to do.
She told another story about her mentor finding and killing a walrus in the absolute darkness. She stressed that every part of the animal is used and that if they had enough meat for themselves and the dogs they left the animals alone.
Aleqa returned from the trip with a new appreciation of what the men of her culture could do. She had travelled widely up to that point but it had all been what she wanted to do for herself. After that trip she decided to run for the Greenland parliament. She was elected and sometime thereafter became the first female prime minister of Greenland.
It was a great morning with great stories and a polar bear sighting. My lens was extended to its fullest so the photos may be a bit grainy but I have evidence of having seen a polar bear on an ice floe as we passed. Now it’s time for lunch and to prepare for the landing on Beechey Island.
21:52
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| Franklin graves, Beechey Island |
We made it! We have now put our boots on Beechey Island, on the fifth try. It is just a gravel beach and yet it is so much more. In some ways it’s a memorial to hubris. In others it’s an ongoing mystery. For me it is a link the my 12 or 13 year old self and the desire to see places I could only imagine. The graves are simple, grey wood against grey rocks on the shingle beach, a respectful perimeter marked with the yellow flags our onboard archeologists use to designate a protected site. The wind was biting and we had only a few moments to spend with the graves. I would like to have spent longer there. The sky was first blue and then grey with clouds. Gulls flew close to the zodiac as we neared the shore. It was the light that attracted me. All the time we were on shore it was changing. The graves were in shadow but the ship waiting at anchor glowed in the sun. Then the sun lit up the cliffs at the far end of the island before shifting to cliffs on Devon Island across the water. Then the clouds closed in and everything was flat. Then there was the wind, a constant against the changing sky and sea. The wind, the reminder that in the 21 century with all our technology we, like Franklin and his men, are not in charge.
It was the kind of atmosphere I love. I was warm and safe cocooned in my multiple layers, but my nose was cold and I couldn’t leave my hands out of my mitts for very long without them beginning to sting from the cold. What must it have been like fore these English gentlemen who had all the latest inventions of their time to face down the wind and the snow for two winters? We were small specks on the beach today. We are small specks on the planet and the wind and the waves rule here.
After a couple of hours we were able to climb aboard the zodiacs and return to our ship with its central heating, good food and electricity. I have set my boots on Beechey Island. Has it changed me? Probably not in any important way. I do, however, feel satisfied now. I have memories of sensations, and impressions of a place that has for so long occupied my thoughts. I’m glad we could come. I’m glad we could land so that the loose threads of wondering could be woven into a swatch of memories. The weaving of possibilities, and imaginings, and hopes is now complete.
As we loaded the zodiacs back on board, and raised the anchor to leave the island to the wind, waves and gulls, the sun once again broke through the clouds. So many changes in just a few hours. So few changes in centuries.
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| Northumberland House a staging spot for ships looking for Franklin |
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