I was thinking of an appropriate column for Canada 150 celebrations this week and thought about some of the museums I visited and all the antique things I viewed with interest. I love touring museums and looking at the past. I’ve been to marine museums in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. I’ve seen ancient war ships, long Viking boats that were unearthed, and the Kon-Tiki raft that sailed across the Pacific Ocean in 1947. I thought about a Canadian museum I visited a few years ago where I walked aboard a very important Canadian ship —the RCMP St Roch.
While in Vancouver, my brother-in-law, who is also a history buff, took me to see the Vancouver Maritime Museum where the RCMP St. Roch is a tourist attraction.
The St. Roch was built in Vancouver in 1928 for the RCMP. It is 105 feet in length, 25 feet wide and was in service from 1928 to 1954. The ship was used as a patrol and supply ship in the western Arctic for more than 20 years. I was amazed how it was constructed of thick Douglas Fir planks and the outer shell made of some of the hardest wood in the world, Australian Eucalyptus ‘iron bark’, which protected the soft fir from the grinding ice. The bow is protected by an additional layer of metal plating. The saucer-shaped hull allowed the ice floes to slide under the ship rather than crushing it. Three ice beams located in the cargo hold also braced the hull against ice pressure. But what impressed me the most was the sturdiness and thickness of the canvas sails. I have seen sails before on a ship but never actually felt them.
The St. Roch was the first vessel to sail the Northwest Passage from west to east (1940-1942), the first to complete the passage in one season (1944), and the first to circumnavigate North America.
Between 1928 and 1954, St. Roch logged tens of thousands of miles crossing and re-crossing the Arctic, acting as a floating detachment of the RCMP in the North. At various times a supply ship, a patrol vessel and a transport, the St. Roch was the only link between the various scattered northern communities. Yet it had not yet accomplished the feat for which it would become famous. For many years, it had been the dream of Captain Henry Larsen to cross the Northwest Passage, just as Amundsen had done for the first time in the Goja in 1903. But time and time again, the dream had to remain a dream.
Finally, with the outbreak of the Second World War and the Nazi invasion of Denmark (Greenland), the opportunity presented itself. Launched on its famous voyage on a secret mission to cross the Arctic during the war, the vessel traveled through treacherous and uncharted waters to cross the Northwest Passage and the High Arctic, with only a small crew of steadfast men. Incredibly, they managed to make the crossing not just once, but twice, and in only 86 days the second time!
The ship was declared a National Historical Site in 1962. It took Parks Canada four years to restore the ship to look as it did in 1944.
Now, you can walk the decks, feel the sails, tour the interior cabins, marvel at the “ice-bucket”, wonder at the close-knit quarters, and even take the helm to traverse uncharted waters just like the brave men of 1942/44.
Happy Canada Day!
