10 The Great White North 1876

All explorers must be brave. They go to places where there are no maps to guide them. They do not know what they might find there. Maybe dangerous animals. Maybe it will be so difficult to travel there that no one will stay alive. The explorers on the HMS Alert were certainly brave. They went in their ship to the Arctic, a place in Canada where there is nothing but ice.

Already one British ship and all the men on it had been lost in the Arctic. Captain Franklin and 129 men went to Northern Canada to ty to find the Northwest Passage. They were looking for a sea route in the north from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Britain thought this would be a faster way to get to the other side of the world, so they could trade with other countries. They never returned. No one in Britain ever heard from Captain Franklin or his men again.

In 1875, the HMS Alert was sent to the Arctic to explore the most northerly parts of Canada. The ship was to try to reach the North Pole. Captain Nares and his men were told to spend the winter in the Arctic and explore as much of the north as possible. They stayed that winter near the Arctic Circle, but were almost killed by ice on the way.

At that time, the British did not know much about how ice moved in the water. Ice can move very fast and it is hard, so it is dangerous. The ice on all sides of the HMS Alert began to move close. When a big wind came it pushed the ice into the ship. Captain Nares sailed as fast as he could before the ice could break the ship apart. The ship got to a gap in the ice just in time to be pushed into the open sea where there was no ice. The ship was safe.

In that Northern part of Canada, the sun does not rise for four months during the winter. It is dark and cold all winter long. Many days it is -40°C. Some animals live there like rabbits, foxes, wolves, and caribou. A few plants grow in July and stay alive in winter. There are no fruits or vegetables. People who do not eat fruit and vegetables usually cannot get enough Vitamin C in their body. They get sick with an illness called scurvy.

Captain Nares' sailors had been chosen very carefully. To be a sailor on the HMS Alert they had to be in excellent health. A doctor and dentist checked them and anyone with a problem could not be a sailor on the ship. Sailors also needed to be happy because in the winter the dark can make people very sad. The sailors were asked if they could sing or dance. The sailors were asked how they could keep others entertained and make them laugh.

When the HMS Alert stopped at Ellesmere Island for the winter, a group was sent by dog sled to explore farther north. They did not have any shelter from the wind and the temperature was -47°C. Their food, water, and sleeping bags froze. They were like ice. Some of the explorers got frostbite. They had to cut off their fingers, toes, or even legs that had frozen.

During the dark winter, the sailors played games, sang, read, and even studied. When spring came, and the sun came back, they set out on dog sleds to try to get to the North Pole. It was very slow going. The ice had moved, lifted up out of the sea, and had then frozen. The ice made hills and walls that the men had to cut to make a road for the dog sleds.

Even though the healthiest sailors were chosen, Captain Nares' men started to get sick from scurvy. Sometimes there were big holes in the ice and a man would fall in. Some got snow blindness. This happens when the sun shines on the snow and makes the light too bright for the eyes. The sailors who were sick from scurvy and the ones who could not see from snow blindness had to be put on the dog sleds and pulled. The snow was as high as the stomach of the men. Soon, half the men were sick. The ones who were still strong could not pull all the sick ones easily. They lost their energy. There was a danger that everyone would die. The group could not go on.

Captain Nares' men made it to 83°N before they turned around and went home. This was the farthest north anyone from Britain had ever travelled. They were 817 km from the North Pole when they turned back. Captain Nares and his men were the first to sail in the waters between Canada and Greenland. They were the first to photograph and write about the Inuit people living in that area.

Today,Alert in Nunavut (see 1999) is the most northerly place in Canada where people live. It was named for the HMS Alert because it was the first ship to get there. For many years, the Inuit lived in Alert, but one year they moved about 700 km south where it was easier to find food and stay warm.

Alert is now a Canadian military station. It has a weather station, a laboratory, and an airport. Five people live there permanently. The people who work there for the military are all chosen because they are healthy and happy, just like the sailors on the HMS Alert. The settlement of Alert is so close to the North Pole that it cannot get phone or television. That is because the satellites that send the phone and television signals go around the Earth much lower than Alert. Alert is the highest place in Canada.

Alert's motto is “Beyond the Inuit Land.”