Burton Island (AGB 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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' When the ill-fated Franklin expedition disappeared in the EREBUS and the TERROR in 1845, the resultant search for sufrvivors spurred greater exploration of the Canadian North than any previous event. Among the searchers was Commander Robert McClure, who in 1850 in HMS INVESTIGATOR approached from the Pacific side to pass through Bering Strait, along the Northern Alaskan Coast, through Amundsen Gulf, and into Prince of Wales Strait. While wintering in the strait near the Princess Royal Islands, McClure sledged to Point Russell at the northern head of the strait to discover its connection with Vis- count Melville Sound and thus confirm the existence of the Northwest Passage. Bylinking his sled excursion with Parry's first expedition of 1818-20, it may be said that the Northwest Passage was thereby completed in 1851. Several years later Captain Kellett, also part of the great Franklin search, found a note at Winter Harbour left by McClure, a note lending substance to his claim of having linked up with Parry's first voyage. McClure completed the Northwest Passage by sled, but it was not until over a hundred years later that the BURTON ISLAND completed this phase of the Pas- sage in a sixty-five hundred ton sea-going vessel and thus proved the feasibility of an Atlantic-Pacific sea transit across the top of the American continent. The next summer, having been prevented by heavy ice from sailing north in Prince of Wales Strait, McClure headed south around Banks Island and up its west coast to discover McClure Strait and establish this alternate route of the Northwest Passage. He penetrated McClu1re Strait as far as Mercy Bay, where he wintered in 1851-52. The next summer ice remained firm across the exit to Mercy Bay and the INVESTIGATOR was unable to break out. McClure was therefore forced to abandon his ship early in 1853 in order to sledge across the ice in Melville Sound to join Captain Kellett who had wintered with the HMC RESOLUTE and INTREPID at Dealy Island, Bridport Inlet. These ships had left England as part of Sir John Belcher's expedition in search of Franklin and had attempted the passage from the Atlantic side. Transit of the deep water passage was not accomplished until 1944, when Sergeant Larsen of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the motor schooner ST. ROCHE completed the voyage from east to west via Lancaster Sound, Melville Sound, and Prince of Wales Strait. The second passage, and the first by a deep-draft vessel, was not accomplished until this summer. SUMMER 1954-THE BURTON ISLAND Approaching the southern tip of Banks Island, the NORTHWIND and the BURTON ISLAND separated. The NORTH- WIND was to follow McClure's final route up the West Coast of Banks Island to McClure Strait, while the BURTON ISLAND proceeded- via Prince of Wales Strait to attempt the hitherto unaccomplished South-North of the McClure Strait-Melville Sound junction. Good ice conditions in the strait enabled the BURTON ISLAND to run rapidly to its northern exit at Point John Russell on Banks Island. While placing navigational control stations ashore here, a reconnaissance party located remnants of a cache of sleds and tools left by famed Arctic explorer Stefansson in 1917 as he sledged northward. Here Stefansson had found docu- ments left by McClure attesting to his 'discovery of the Northwest Passage. Helicopter reconnaissance by the Commanding Of- ficer revealed that the ice along the north coast of Banks Island should be negotiable by the NORTHWIND. A report of condi- tions sent to the Task Group Commander in the NORTHWIND, then operating to the west of Banks Island, was ,profitably em- ployed hy the NORTHWIND in her subsequent passage through McClure Strait to Mercy Bay. Now the BURTON ISLAND was ready to attack the previously impenetrable ice barrier across Melville Sound. fSee chart on page 50.1 Despite the giant ice Hoes of blue, polar pack ice, pressured into ridges and hummocks to thicknesses of fifteen feet and more, the icebreaker managed to smash through the final link in the Northwest Passage. After investigating the area around Cape Dunas, Melville Island, which no other vessel had been able to negotiate, she returned to Prince of Wales Strait along the boundary between McClure Strait and Melville Sound. . Next the BURTON ISLAND proceeded northwest along Banks Island to meet the NORTHWIND neariMercy Bay, then she turned north alone to attempt to cross McClure Strait toward Cape Russell, Melville Island. Soon heavy pressure encountered in the giant Hoes made bucking the ice so difficult that profitable advance could not be. made. Only 1500 yards were gained in one period of 17 hours. So the BURTON ISLAND turned back from a point a littlenorth of west from Cape James Ross on Dundas Peninsula. This represents the furthest northerly penetration ever attained in McClure Strait. A Departure was now taken from John Russell Point for Bridport Inlet to the northeast of Cape Dundas. Bridport Inlet has been reached in the past from the east but never from the west. Again the BURTON ISLAND successfully crossed the rugged ice barrier to reach her destination. The BURTON ISLAND operated in and through the most difficult section of the most northern of the so-called Northwest Passages. The section between Mercy Bay and John Russell Point on Banks Island was never before conquered. The BURTON ISLAND pushed through to the Northwest on 15-16 August and returned on 16-18 August via nearly the middle of McClure Strait. She also battered directly across McClure Strait from Banks Island to Melville Island four times in one season, where only one ship had been able to penetrate previously.

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W. f r. PM x ,. x - . A ph Q wg K! Q , 3 V. I , H , , ' W.. I ,, W t -, V- 4.-.sw m sawa mf, I. X f , r r f -K 'em , s .f ' ,sw ,r if f JK, Q y H ar ' W 4 K r -SW - i Wi I 4 ' A mi f ., ., ' ,f ..-, HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE The search for the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific spans a period of over 450 years since the pioneering voyages of explorer John Cabot in 14-96-97. A Southern route was finally negotiated in 1903-06 by Roald Amundsen fNor- wayj, but this 'route that avoided the hazardous Melville Sound is not suitable for deep-draft vessels. Long before- even this partial success, it had been concluded that the Northwest Passage had no commercial value, but the search continued. Existence of a deep water route was iirst indicated by Parry's first expedition of 1819-1820, when he sailed with HMS HECLA and HMS GRIPER through Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, and Northern Viscount Melville Sound as far west as longitude 113O46' West. His expedition thereby won a prize of five thousand pounds which had been offered to the first ship to cross the 1100 W. meridian in the Northern hemisphere. On his second trip Parry, searching for yet another lroute, concluded that the Fury and Hecla Strait could be traversed, though he was unable to do so. It was not until 194-8, however, that this route was proven practi- cal when the USS EDISTO and the USCGC EASTWIND finally navigated the strait. With this accomplishment, all possible routes across the top of the continent had been udiscoveredn, though not all had been conquered. A

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Continued from Page 231 Mr. H. Blandford of the Canadian Hydrographic Service and Mr. P. Jamison of the U.S. Hydrographic Office spent their time ashore trying to move down the Banks Island coast to make an accurate survey for the improvement of the Prince of Wales charts. They had 'cweasel trouble -it seems those versatile vehicles cannot stand up in the Banks Island mud. HMCS LABRADOR providedc helicopter support for this party toward the end of the season and only foggy weather prevented them from completing their tas . Mr. J. S. Hogenson and Mr. T. Hillman were in charge of the mass of hydrographic data the ship gathered during the summer. During the coming winter they will process the material in Washington and prepare the fair charts which will sum- marize the miles of soundings made by the BURTON ISLAND. Frequently the ship would stop for an oceanographic station. Then Dr. Willis Tressler and Mr. B. Swanson of the U.S. Hydrographic Office and Mr. J. A. Strickland of the Pacific Oceanographic Group, Canada, would collect water samples, read thermometers and stuff sticky bottom samples into bags. Their findings will be studied at Nanaimo, B. C., this winter and from their studies should come a better understanding of the movement of ice in the Beaufort Sea. As often as possible, Mr. P. Jamison was flown ashore to take a gravity measurement. His delicate instrument could detect the variation in the ea.rth's gravity field as the ship moved from one locality to another. t ' ,Q Q. 5712 . ff , kgsxf ., gk u if , , 'M e 3 1 P- W . M 6 AAN? ,- It 14 fi U.,