[Alexander Forbes—home movies] Reel 1, Accession 2533

Date1931

AbstractCan notes: "Cruise of Ramah 1931" Ramah was a 97 ft. schooner owned by Alexander Forbes. He sailed it to Labrador in 1931, and took an all-male amateur crew, including his brother Edward and other relatives from Cape Cod to Naples, Italy, in the summer of 1933. He left the ship there for the winter, and returned in the summer of 1934 with a crew of seventeen, including his own family, Samuel Eliot Morison, and a group of college boys to make a six weeks' cruise of the Mediterranean. Forbes organized the 1931 expedition to survey the northern third of the Labrador coast. The expedition included the Ramah, and two airplanes, a Fairchild cabin monoplane and a smaller Waco biplane. A new approach to aerial photography to map the area was created, resulting in a survey of more than 500 photos, which produced new maps and opened the area to air navigation. A report was published in the Geographical Review 22 (Jan. 1932): 30-60. Intertitle: "The Cruise of the Ramah, 1931" Intertitle: "The start from Lawley's, June 16. The sail to Halifax" POV views of the dock at George Lawley & Son Shipyard in Dorchester, MA, on a rainy day as the Ramah leaves the dock which is full of family and spectators in rain gear with umbrellas. Shots of the stern of the ship full of crewmen in rain gear and one playing a squeezebox accordion. Views on board on a sunny day with the crew setting a sails, one climbing the rigging, and all hands helping on deck to haul the halyards. Views of crewman at wheel with Ramah's life ring nearby. Several crew members work on small pieces of line (splicing or tying knots?) In another view, several crew members pick up what look like potatoes on the deck and put them in buckets. The female cook (?) watches. Intertitle: " A Northwester off Cape Canso" Canso, Nova Scotia, is located on the southern shore of Chedabucto Bay. The southern limit of the bay is at Cape Canso, a headland approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) southeast of the town. View from stern of Ramah toward the bow as it heels over in rough seas. Barrels of water and fuel are seen lashed to the deck. Intertitle: "Through St. Peter's Canal, and across the Bras d'Or Lake, June 22" View of the ship moving through the canal as people walk along the edge of the canal. View of two men manually opening the lock in the canal, and HAS of the ship moving through the lock. (See also Holbrook collection Reel 4 for the ship Bowdoin going through the same canal). POV shots from the stern of the ship underway in a good wind. Shots of the female crewmember giving a male crew member a haircut. Other crewmembers are at ease, watching. More views underway in open ocean. Intertitle: "Baddeck and Sydney" Views of the ship at anchor in a harbor, with crew on stern. View of a small motorboat approaching the schooner with a man ready to board the schooner. Baddeck is situated on the northern shore of Bras d'Or Lake on Cape Breton Island, and was the summer home of Alexander Graham Bell. Alexander Forbes' father, William Hathaway Forbes, was president of the Bell Telephone Company. Sydney is on the northeastern shore of Cape Breton Island. Intertitle: "Target practice off Newfoundland." One crewmember throws a wooden box over the side, and three crewmembers with various rifles and guns use it for target practice as it bobs away. More members of the crew on the stern with rifles as one crewmember is at the wheel. Two female crewmembers work with a long pole, pumping it (maybe a bilge pump?) Intertitle: "A Class in Botany." Two young women and a young man sit on the deck of the Ramah looking through a container of plant samples. Intertitle: "At St. Anthony. A Boxing Match, Madden and Hurlbut, seconds." St. Anthony is a town on the northern reaches of the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador. A staged "boxing match" on the dock at St. Anthony between two young boys and their "handlers". The handlers fan each of them with towels, then coach them while they box. A young man in a kayak with a shirt that is embroidered "1934" paddles toward the camera on the ship. Intertitle: "St. Anthony to Indian Harbor" POV from stern of a crew member standing on the bowsprit, holding onto jib shroud as the ship moves through heavy seas. Intertitle: "Indian Harbor. The Waco and Moth Seaplanes arrive, July 8." Views of several schooners at anchor in Indian Harbor. Camera follows a biplane from the sky to landing on the water and taxiing in the harbor. Two airplanes were used for photographic aerial mapping on this expedition. Intertitle: "Off Cape Mokkovik [sic], July 10." View of biplane (float plane) taxiing in the harbor, and views of it circling. Intertitle: "Hopedale to Davis Inlet, July 14." Hopedale is located on the northern Labrador coast, amongst the large bays that open up to the Labrador Sea. POV from the ship looking out as the ship moves through an inlet surrounded by high mountainous cliffs on either side. Views from the stern toward the bow of Ramah as she moves through the inlet. Intertitle: "Nascaupie Indians at Davis Inlet." Four Inuits in a canoe silhouetted against a mountainous background. Intertitle: "Approaching Cape Mugford, July 16." Views of Cape Mugford, with the summits of Bishop's Mitre, Brave Mountain and other peaks of the Kaumajet range on the shore. Intertitle: "At Seaplane Cove- Towing the Waco in for fuel." A crew member rows a large dory towing the floatplane across the harbor. This was one of the planes used for photographic aerial mapping on this expedition. Intertitle: " RYAN'S BAY - The Fairchild plane on the final photographic flight, swooping past the Ramah as a farewell salute." Very brief shot of a plane flying by.