Baffin Island Voyage from Quebec: “Scientific Expedition Into the Great Arctic” 1922
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‘”Canada’s Northern Islands are the object of watchful care by the Dominion Government…In the summer of 1922 an expedition was sent into these Arctic regions for the purpose of survey, scientific research, and the establishment of Police Posts, Customs Houses and Post Offices at various points….This film, which is the first of a series, deals with the voyage from Quebec to Baffin Island.”
Stalled in the ice
Hunting and killing a polar bear
Good footage of icebergs and ice floes
First Nations people
“The intricacies of the White Man’s Jazz held no terrors for the Eskimo maidens!”‘
Silent.
Public domain film from the Prelinger Archive, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
Baffin Island… in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest island in the world. Its area is 507,451 km2 (195,928 sq mi) and its population is about 11,000 (2007 estimate). Named after English explorer William Baffin, it is likely that the island was known to Pre-Columbian Norse explorers from Greenland and Iceland and may be the location of Helluland, spoken of in the Icelandic sagas (the Grœnlendinga saga and the Saga of Erik the Red, Eiríks saga rauða)…
Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, is located on the southeastern coast. Until 1987, the town shared the name Frobisher Bay with the bay on which it is located.
To the south lies Hudson Strait, separating Baffin Island from mainland Quebec…
Baffin Island has both year-round and summer visitor wildlife. On land, examples of year-round wildlife are Barren-ground caribou, polar bear, Arctic fox, Arctic hare, lemming and Arctic wolf…
Gauss was a ship built in Germany specially for polar exploration…
Between 1901 and 1903 the Gauss explored the Antarctic in the Gauss expedition under the leadership of Erich von Drygalski.
In early 1904 the ship was purchased by the Canadian government and renamed Arctic. Under the command of Joseph-Elzéar Bernier she explored the Arctic Archipelago. On 1 July 1909, Bernier, without government approval, claimed the entire area between Canada’s eastern and western borders all the way to the North Pole. The ship was eventually abandoned in 1925 and left to rot at her moorings…
Joseph-Elzéar Bernier (January 1, 1852 — December 26, 1934) was a Quebec mariner who led expeditions into the Canadian Arctic in the early 20th century.
He was born in L’Islet, Quebec, the son of Captain Thomas Bernier and Célinas Paradis. At the age of 14, he became a cabin boy on his father’s ship. Three years later, he became captain of his own ship and commanded sailing ships for the next 25 years. Bernier was named governor for the jail at Quebec City in 1895. From 1904 to 1911, he explored the Arctic archipelago on annual voyages in his ship the CGS Arctic and officially claimed the islands for Canada. Bernier retrieved documents that had been stored in caches by earlier Arctic explorers. He also established Royal Canadian Mounted Police posts in the Canadian north. During World War I, Bernier commanded a ship which transported mail along the eastern coast and carried goods in convoys across the Atlantic. He returned to patrolling the arctic after the war’s end, continuing until his retirement in 1925. Bernier died of a heart attack in Lévis at the age of 82.
He published “Master Mariner and Explorer: A Narrative of Sixty Years at Sea” … in 1939.
Joseph Idlout’s daughter, Leah Idlout, has said that her father was the son of Bernier. It is thought that Idlout may have been the only son of Bernier…
Disko Island (Greenlandic: Qeqertarsuaq, Danish: Disko øer) is a large island in Baffin Bay, off the west coast of Greenland. It has an area of 8,578 km2 (3,312.0 sq mi), making it the second largest island of Greenland (after the main island of Greenland) and one of the 100 largest islands in the world…
Devil’s Thumb (Greenlandic: Kullorsuaq, Danish: Djœvelens Tommelfinger) is a pinnacle-shaped, 546 m (1,791 ft) mountain in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland…
Pond Inlet (Inuktitut: Mittimatalik, in English the place where Mitima is buried) is a small, predominantly Inuit community in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada and is located at the top of Baffin Island. As of the 2011 census the population was 1,549, an increase of 17.8% from the 2006 census making it the largest of the four hamlets above the 72nd parallel…
