IDNO

P.86485.PAT

Description

An expedition member in wet weather gear standing in the doorway of the helm of the Isbjørn and using a sextant.

Place

N America; Arctic; Canada; Nunavut; northeast Baffin Island; ?Coutts Inlet; ?Cambridge Gulf; ?Dexterity Harbour [North West Territories]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Paterson, Thomas Thompson

Date

25 August - 7 September 1937

Collection Name

Paterson Collection

Source

Paterson, Erik T.

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Related Image: Same image mounted in James Wordie’s 1937 album with the number and caption:
“August 25 - September 7.”
“From Jones Sound to Baffin, with investigation of the North-East coasts of Baffin Land.”
“704 - 710. All the ships company worked at surveying - led by Paterson. Here are Paterson, Dymond, Carmichael, the Captain, ete, Dymond & Drever, all on various aspects of the job.”
See Related Documents File. [Jocelyne Dudding 6/3/2008]

Bibliographical Reference: J. M. Wordie; H. Carmichael; E. G. Dymond; T. C. Lethbridge, ‘An Expedition to North West Greenland and the Canadian Arctic in 1937’ in The Geographical Journal, Vol. 92, No. 5. (Nov., 1938), pp. 385-418.
Text on pp.403-404 includes:
“Our plans for Baffin Land had now taken definite shape. We had decided to make a running survey of the coast from Cape McCulloch to Cape Adair, the work being done by sextant methods from the ship under Paterson's direction; this we anticipated would take about six days. On the 28th therefore the ship returned to Cape Coutts, circled round the two large islands which lie at the mouth of the Inlet, and in the afternoon steamed south past a low point. From there we headed towards Cape Adair with the intention of locating Dexterity Harbour as early as possible and making sure of this once well-known anchorage. In this way we planned to fix the south-eastern limit of the map, and then work back to Coutts Inlet by a zigzag course closer inshore. The problem up till now had appeared simple and we had no doubt that "Anaularealing" would be as easily found as Coutts Inlet. The two islands mentioned were readily identified as those known to Dundee whalers as Nova Zembla Island and Round Island, and they had in fact been clearly drawn in on Captain Adams's pencil sketch. The low point to the south is the Ragged Point of the whalers, and its position is not far from Ross's Cape Jameson. Ross however must have named a mountain as Cape Jameson, as the actual cape is low and certainly not visible from Ross's position. I therefore prefer the whalers' name which was in use for at least two generations and is descriptive. Ragged Point, except to ships close in, is inconspicuous in comparison with Cape Coutts and Cape Antrobus; it is a low black cliff about 100 feet in height sloping gently inland, and fronted by red hump-backed skerries not much above sea-level.
South of the Point was an outwash region, and then a great gulf opened to the west, bounded on the north by magnificent steep cliffs, appearing almost vertical; several fjord openings were possible, and it was evident that the survey would be more complicated than was at first thought. We held on across the mouth of the gulf and at dusk passed the entrance to Maud Harbour, easily recognized from Adams's sketch by a characteristic group of three glaciers on the north face of the promontory and by a single big glacier reaching sea-level at the mouth of the harbour itself. The ship then continued on a south-easterly course across the mouth of a second large gulf and past a prominent headland 1500 feet in height. Two hours beyond Maud Harbour we were off an opening which in the dark we judged should be Dexterity Harbour, and turning sharp right we crept in slowly for about 6 miles and came to anchor.” [JD 4/7/2007]

P.86084.PAT to P.86583.PAT were found wrapped in the card now numbered C446/1/.

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 7/2/2007]