![]() Fort Chesterfield crew, May 1926. Photo by L. T. Burwash. | |
History | |
---|---|
Name | Fort Chesterfield |
Owner | Hudson's Bay Company |
Route | Hudson Bay |
Builder | B. Burry, Glovertown, Newfoundland |
Completed | 1920 |
Acquired | 1921 by HBC |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | motor schooner |
Tonnage | 72 tons |
Length | 80 ft (24 m) |
Beam | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
Height | 9 ft (2.7 m) |
Propulsion | 75 hp (56 kW) motor |
Crew | ten crewmen |
Fort Chesterfield, known as Umiajuatnak by the Inuit, [1] was a Hudson's Bay Company motor schooner which distributed supplies arriving in Chesterfield Inlet to isolated communities along Hudson Bay, including Repulse Bay, Eskimo Point, Coral Harbour, Fullerton Harbour, Wager Bay, and the inland community of Baker Lake, during the 1920s. It established a transportation and communications network for the entire region. [2] [3]
The two-masted, 72-ton, 80’x21’x9’ vessel was built in 1920, by B. Burry, in Glovertown, Newfoundland, and was sold in St. John's, to the Hudson's Bay Company in the first half of 1921. [3] [4] [5]
Originally named the L. Burry, it was renamed Fort Chesterfield by July 1921. Capt. Jean Berthe, an HBC employee, formerly of the Nelson River district, oversaw the overhauling of the vessel for ice conditions and the installation of a 75 hp motor, and accompanied it to Chesterfield Inlet in August 1921. [6] [7] [8]
By June 1924, Capt. George Cleveland of the HBC had assumed command of Fort Chesterfield. [9] Capt. Berthe evidently left the HBC to join the rival trading company, Revillon Frères. [10]
In August 1924, Fort Chesterfield left for Coral Harbour, on Southampton Island, to establish a trading post there. In addition to Capt. Cleveland, his engineer Mr. H. E. Weller, and the crew of seven Inuit men and two boys, they were joined by Harry Stallworthy of the RCMP, Capt. G. E. Mack, Dudley Copeland, and Bill Peters of the HBC, and two Inuit families. [2] Chesterfield arrived at the island on 4 August 1924, and found a suitable site for the new post, a campsite already inhabited by Aivilingmiut families. They landed about 100 tonnes of building materials, fuel, food, and trade goods, and began construction of the new post. Bill Peters, Dudley Copeland, and the two Inuit families who that had accompanied them remained behind to operate the post, and Capt. Cleveland returned with Fort Chesterfield to Chesterfield Inlet. [2] Capt. Cleveland fell sick and died that winter. [9]
The Hudson's Bay Company is an American and Canadian-based retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, it became the largest and oldest corporation in Canada, before evolving into a major fashion retailer, operating retail stores across both the United States and Canada. The company's namesake business division is Hudson's Bay, commonly referred to as The Bay.
Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of 1,230,000 km2 (470,000 sq mi). It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast of Nunavut, but politically entirely part of Nunavut. It is an inland marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. The Hudson Strait provides a connection between the Labrador Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the northeast, while the Foxe Channel connects the Hudson Bay with the Arctic Ocean in the north. It drains a very large area, about 3,861,400 km2 (1,490,900 sq mi), that includes parts of southeastern Nunavut, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, all of Manitoba, and parts of the U.S. states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana. Hudson Bay's southern arm is called James Bay.
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Pitsiulartok or Pituilaktok is a small, uninhabited island located at 63°15'N, 90°33'W in Hudson Bay, about 13 km from the community of Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, Canada. The narrow island is about 3.5 km in length and barely 1 km wide at its widest point. Traditionally it was a walrus-hunting ground for the local Inuit, and a landmark for southern whalers. It is part of a loose chain of small islands running along the coast, including Sakpik Island and Promise Island.
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