Four Degrees Celsius (2 page)

Leaving for the Barrens

September 20, 1929

Richard Pearce's Diary

This is zero hour at Stony Rapids. We were due there to-day and there is quite a lot of talk as to how our absence will be dealt with. If Bathurst wireless station is working we have no doubt planes are searching for us now….

The Dominion Explorers Expedition (Domex) left Winnipeg on August 24, 1929. Seven men aboard two planes lifted into the sky and headed northward. Their goal was ambitious: a 20,000-mile flight across northern Canada. The plan was to head north to Hudson Bay then along the west shore to Chesterfield and Baker Lake. From there, they aimed to fly westward to Pelly Lake along the Back River then follow the Western River to Bathurst. Upon reaching Bathurst, they would head southwest to Dismal Lake and along the Arctic coast to the Coppermine River, up the Dee River to Great Bear Lake, and on to Fort Norman, then head north again to Aklavik. From Aklavik they would follow the Mackenzie River to Fort Simpson, and continue on to Fort Reliance along the Slave River. Following the Slave River they would proceed to Lake Athabasca, The Pas, and then return to Winnipeg. Their mission was to pick up Domex prospectors and to do some surveying. The men would also check on the Domex bases and bring in winter supplies.

The Fokker Super Universal, built in the 1920s, was a conventional high-wing monoplane. The weight of the fifty-foot wingspan was supported by a cantilever construction. It could land on wheels, floats, or skis, making the aircraft well adapted to withstand the conditions of Canada's North.
Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Canadian Air Lines Collection #600.

Richard Pearce stands beside the plane, ready for the Dominion Explorer's expedition. The Pearce brothers purchased The Northern Miner in 1916. This newspaper would be considered the voice of the Canadian mining industry.
Courtesy of Daryl Goodwin.

The expedition was comprised of a small group of seven men. Major G.A. “Tommy” Thompson piloted G-CASP ('SP), a Fokker Super Universal leased from Western Canada Airways (WCA). He was accompanied by his twenty-five-year-old mechanic, Don M. Goodwin; forty-three-year-old Colonel Cyril D.H. MacAlpine, president of Dominion Explorers Ltd.; and thirty-six-year-old Richard Pearce, the editor of
The Northern Miner
. Twenty-eight-year-old Stan MacMillan piloted Fairchild FC-2W2, CF-AAO ('AO) (owned by Domex), accompanied by his mechanic Alex Milne and E.A. “Brodie” Boadway, a Domex mining engineer and pilot. Boadway was twenty-eight and Milne was twenty-five.

From the air, the Barrens seemed to roll on forever — its vastness stretching beyond any visible boundaries. There was no place for the eye to pause or to rest. Below the stretched fabric of the fuselage, steel-coloured lakes seep from gashes in the landscape where, true to its name, nothing much grows other than surface root flowers, mosses, lichens, grasses, and an occasional twisted willow. Known in the summer as the wettest desert in the world, every depression in the land is filled with water, some of which finds a way to empty into massive, sluggish rivers. This land is both hauntingly beautiful and forebodingly harsh, and its immense size has a power that fuels the imagination.

In August, when the planes took to the sky, autumn in the North was just ending. When one is heading towards the northern latitudes, a mere three hundred miles can make the difference between one season and the next. Despite the starkness of the landscape it was a beautiful time. As one pilot observed of the northern fall, “The hills were tinted with exquisite colours obtainable only through the artistic endeavors of frost.”
[1]
The intense brilliance of autumn flares only briefly before the onset of a cold, inhospitable, dark winter, but, for now, one would have thought that nature, decked out in its flora in golds, greens, reds, and purples, was preparing for a celebration. However, her malevolent side was soon to emerge.

Colonel MacAlpine had chosen to ignore the warning of experienced pilots who cautioned that the expedition had been scheduled too late in the year. Indeed, he felt he had no choice. A feasibility probe was crucial in order to avoid any further loss of claims for Canada's metal and mineral resources. Domex had been recently beaten by Cyril Knight Prospecting in the race to stake a claim on a nickel deposit in Rankin Inlet. When stormy weather had grounded Domex planes, Jack Wilson, working for Cyril Knight, had ignominiously trumped the aerial prospectors by travelling in a canoe! Ironically, the same stormy weather that had immobilized the Domex planes had swept the Knight prospectors directly to shore at the claim site.

In the 1920s, aerial prospecting was in its infancy, but, despite setbacks like this, still offered the advantage of covering vast areas in a relatively short time. From the air, mining geologists and prospectors had a panoramic view of the mineral-rich rock below, where thousands of northern lakes made it possible to land almost anywhere on floats. These resource hunters sought rust stains, which indicated the possible presence of iron ore, copper, or nickel, or streaks of white, often quartz veins, which, if they were lucky, would be speckled with gold. Zinc, radium, pitchblende, oil, diamonds, emeralds, and rubies — the Canadian Barrens were a wealth of riches for the taking. The newspapers of the day characterized expeditions like MacAlpine's as “the quest for the golden fleece.”
[2]

Cyril MacAlpine's vision was that through the development of its natural resources, Canada would become a civilized nation. He was a gold-medal graduate of the University of Toronto in 1907, prior to completing a law degree from the University of Manitoba.
[3]
In 1928, MacAlpine teamed up with four of Canada's top mining men, establishing a publicly traded company called Ventures Limited. Brothers Thayer and Holstead Lindsley, Joseph Errington, and Major-General Donald Hogarth, along with MacAlpine, were developing Falconbridge Nickel Mines in the Sudbury Basin. Its stock had a value of $14.85 in August 1929.
[4]
MacAlpine was a strategist, setting up bases at Bathurst Inlet, Baker Lake, Stony Rapids, and Tavane with gas and provisions, which would allow airplanes to penetrate further into the Barrens. Because the Dominion government of the time took little interest in mining, it was private businessmen like the Dominion Explorers who financed and flew out in search of mineral wealth. In fact, it was the early prospectors and bush pilots who initially propelled this exploration of the North.

The Canadians were by no means alone in their quest. American investors and prospectors were hot on their heels to lay claim to the riches of the North. The stock market was on the boil, and money flowed like rivers, fuelling the frenzy to strike it rich. But Dominion Explorers had their “ace in the hole” with Thayer Lindsley.
[5]
In mining circles he was known as the man who could look at rock and rock formations and see the potential inside. He also had tremendous personal wealth and used this to strengthen Dominion Explorers. The transformation of the Northwest Territories from an area of hidden wealth into a mining mecca was beginning to occur with electrifying suddenness, and the aircraft was at the heart of the transition. Domex had access to planes, cash, and expertise. They were a force to be reckoned with — a group of men who met the Northern revolution head-on. This late expedition into the Arctic was meant to be complete before the end of float-flying season. Heading north into the Arctic to lay more claims at this time of year with the use of planes equipped with floats was still viable, though risky. However, the new claims would add value to the developing holding company of Ventures Limited.

As the Fairchild and Fokker headed north, they encountered haze produced by bushfires, and the rising hot air created updrafts, bouncing the planes around like toys. Flying in these conditions rattled not only the plane, but also the nerves and bones of the passengers. To the bush pilot, however, this was part of the fun, because he knew literally how to “fly by the seat of his pants.” Feeling the air pressure and wind currents under his seat, he deftly worked the controls to keep his fragile craft on course.

On this expedition, Thompson and MacMillan dexterously navigated the bumps and grinds of the turbulent air to reach their destination, landing safely on floats at Churchill, 640 miles north of Winnipeg, by late afternoon on August 26. Upon arrival they anchored the Fokker 'SP and Fairchild 'AO in the harbour. There they awaited the arrival of the
Morso
, a ship that was bringing supplies to equip the expedition, the Domex bases, and northern posts for winter.

When the
Morso
failed to appear, Stan MacMillan and Colonel MacAlpine flew out in 'AO to search for it but had no luck. The mystery of the missing ship was solved, however, when two lifeboats carrying the crew of the
Morso
and its captain were sighted heading toward Churchill Harbour the following day. Captain Mack explained that fire had broken out in the engine room from a carelessly tossed cigarette
[6]
and the crew had narrowly escaped before the dynamite and fuel-laden ship exploded. The Domex men decided to keep both planes at anchor — 'AO at the RCAF buoy and 'SP out in the harbour — in case a crew member, who had been badly burned, needed immediate evacuation.

During the night, while the men slept, 'SP dragged its two twenty-five-pound aircraft anchors and went out on the riptide, and was drifting away.

August 28, 1929

Richard Pearce's Diary, Churchill Harbour

Awakened at four this morning by Thompson, who reported that the CASP had dragged its two anchors and drifted out to sea. The tug Graham Bell had reported passing the plane in the tide rip. At daylight the plane was spotted by the SS
Acadia
five miles out, with all but its wings submerged. The
Acadia
towed the SP for an hour when it was decided to try to lift it out of the water. The rope used in hoisting parted and our ship [plane] sank. When the Acadia pulled her anchor, the plane was found hooked to it and the wreck was hoisted onto the steamers deck. It was brought to Churchill at 6 p.m. and in the meantime Western Canada Airways was notified at Winnipeg and the reply was received that Buchanan was leaving for Churchill at once [with a replacement plane].

Fokker Super Universal G-CASP lies in pieces after its immersion in Churchill Harbour. The wings of the plane were cut off so the wreckage could be hoisted and carried onboard the SS Acadia.
Courtesy of Daryl Goodwin.

On August 28, Colonel MacAlpine wired Prime Minister Mackenzie King, requesting that Ottawa send the tug, the SS
Ocean Eagle
, and the tow schooner,
Neophyte
, to bring winter supplies and gas for the northern communities that would otherwise have been served by the
Morso.
Still optimistic, he did not yet realize that his carefully plotted expedition had already begun to come apart at the seams. To further complicate matters, on August 29, Domex's second plane, Fairchild CF-AAO, pulled its anchor and drifted out on the riptide to the mouth of the harbour. Luckily, this plane was successfully towed back to shore.