[Blue Dolphin Labrador Expedition Reel 1--Bill and Tad Stahl Films] Reel 26

Date1949

Can Descriptions1

Donor-supplied NotesReel I Woods Hole, Massachusetts Oceanographic Institute Making ready to sail, vessel stocked with supplies and gear for prolonged voyage. Personnel 3 Canadian Geographers to make survey of the topography of the coast Student assistants to aid in taking, recording data and serve as deck hands. Confusion on the dockside, last farewells, casting off. Weather at sea – steady fog until Sydny, Nova Scotia daily tasks of keeping the ship fit, navigating, preparation of gear. Up aloft – the ice barrel, an invention of Commander MacMillin, at the foremast top. Sunset in Sydney Harbor Northward along the Newfoundland coast – high rocky bluffs topped with snow fields. Testing our two way radios, which had been taken aboard at Syndey. Proceeding under sail when possible, engineer gets a chance to rest Feeling of a vessel under sail entirely different from that of power. Dr. Susen, radio operator and ship’s physician and Otto Halvorsen, Bosun, mend a bumper. Student assistant sights a whale, Northward along the Newfoundland Coast, Paul Cabot makes a dipnet. Arctic birds with us constantly Plenty of time to relax and enjoy good weather. Elmer Harp, anthropologist, sharpens up his gun for possible game ahead. Proceeding into Bay of Islands, Newfoundland, the beautiful mouth of the Humber River – pulled in to jig for cod and had excellent luck. Here we were passed by a tiny Newfoundland Cod fisherman just at sunset. First landfall on the Labrador coast – Forteau Bay, Still jammed with pan ice. Within a few days a favorable breeze cleared most of it away. Beautiful colors in the ice, unable to get them all with kodachrome – some cakes quite large, bulk beneath the water. The town itself – a tiny, self sufficient community of fishermen and hunters – vessel anchored – party put ashore. Under the direction of Elmer Harp we dig for remainsof an ancient indian civilization known to have existed in this area and later replaced by the eskimos Grenfell Mission hospital, nurses and crew of the Blue Dolfin Ice still in the bay, but less every day. Local boys find our digging interesting, examine some of the stone axe and arrow heads that we turned up. We uncover a camp site and photograph the hearth of an indian home long buried under sand and silt. On location for oceanographic work off Forteau Bay – Nansen bottles put over the side for temperatur[e] and water samples. Dick Backus adjusts the bottles, fastens the weights which trip the mechanism which permits the bottles to capsize in succession, filling them with water. They are pulled up for analysis of the contents. The dredge is put over as a whale sounds nearby – bottom sample brought up for examination. The dredge is a very simple and useful way to obtain specimens which are cleaned and stored for use later. Water must be boated in wooden casks and swung aboard on the davits – Red Bay, labrador, spring water is carried in buckets and run through a hose to fill the tanks. Black flies make the job doubly annoying. A glance toward the interior shows the low scrub grow of the Southern Labrador Coast as we return to the vessel with a load of water. We encounter icebergs continually, at any time of day or night, and they are usually big. This one may extend as much as 900’ under the water. The small ones are perhaps more dangerous, as they are less easily seen, especially at night or with a sea running. Washing of clothes undertaken by Neil MacArthur, Canadian Geographer.