C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

266 Notes to Pages 73-77.210Aklavik. He was in charge of the schooner StRoch 1928-33. andresigned from the force in 1935 to assist in the organization ofthe Newfoundland Rangers. He retired in 1937, eventuallysettling in British Columbia ("Obituaries").how Archdeacon Whittaker had exposed Stefansson and his"old hag of an EskiIno" wifeAB in her field note for 27 June, Vyvyan proceeds in this paragraphto ask a somewhat elliptical question, which seemsdirected at the motives behind Whittaker's decision to exposeStefansson. It has been conjectured by Stefansson's biographersthat Whittaker, who had befriended Stefansson atHerschel Island many years earlier, considered retaliationappropriate after Stefansson had" decried the unwholesomeinfluence of missionary activity on the Eskimo in his book, MyLife With the Eskimo" (Diubaldo 90), which had appeared in 1913(see My Life 370-422,428 for the relevant remarks).Anticipating that the marriage which appeared likely to issuefrom Stefansson's engagement to his American nancee wouldmake the explorer a bigamist, Whittaker claimed in publiclecture and print in Toronto and Ottawa that "Stefansson hadno use for religion and the Ten Commandments and chargedthat Stefansson had left a wife and child behind in the Arctic"(Diubaldo 90). In the 12June 1913 issue of the Toronto Globe, hewrote, 'We know the lives that abandoned men live away fromthe law and public opinion ... We should care as much aboutthe Salvation of souls as Stefansson cares about the bodies" (qtdin Diubaldo 90; see also Hunt 120).apparently occurred after the publication of the map to whichVyvyan had access. If it was in the same atlas that showed her LaPierre House and misled her into thinking it a settlement,both errors suggest that her atlas was published in the nineteenthcentury.Field Note for Monday 28 JuneEchoing the beginning ofVyvyan' s, Dorrien Smith's note forthis day ends with an apprehensive expression, "Snow on theMts. up the Rat!"Mr Karel just caIne in w. the 2 schooners after a rough tripDorrien Smith's neld note clarines that the women had firstseen these two schooners at Fort Smith on IlJune.CHAPTER 13, THE UNRELENTING NORTH(25,26 JUNE, 1 JULY)In 1935, an earlier version of this chapter appeared as anarticle, "The Unrelenting North." In both it and the book,Capt Cameron metamorphosed from the field notes' CaptMcintyre; he is one of the two people in the book whose nameVyvyan changed ("Murphy of Simpson" is the other). None ofthis description or the personal history related in the articleand the chapter appear in the field notes. Mr Bloom themissionary is "Mr Gunn" in the article (179), and the articlelacks any reference to Dorrien Smith's ailment.King WilliaIn LandIf this error is Vyvyan' s and not her publisher's, it is interestingto consider its signincance, "King William Land" should beKing William Island (as, indeed, Dorrien Smith's neld notefor 28June puts it). Sir John Franklin, on his fourth andfateful voyage to the Canadian Arctic in 1845. understood thatthe island formed part of Boothia Peninsula, a northernextension of the continental mainland; his maps showed "KingWilliam Land" because British naval officer James Clark Ross,exploring in the early spring of 1830, did not discern thefrozen strait (now known asJames Ross Strait) between KingWilliam Island, Matty Islands, and Boothia Peninsula (Cookeand Holland 155). Although Roald Amundsen had sailedthrough the strait in 1903 and 1904 on his way to the nrstsuccessful voyage through the Northwest Passage. his discoveryHerschel IslandAfter 1860, whaling ships from the United States beganarriving in the Beaufort Sea through Bering Strait; beginningin 1890, they adopted the practice of wintering over atHerschel Island (Qikiqtaqruk) , which lies off the Yukon coast,280 km or 175 mi north and west of Aklavik (Kitto. North West57;Jenness 8-14; Philip Godsell, Arctic 259). This practicebegan to be curtailed after 1906 when the market for whalebonecrashed; during the nearly two decades of vigorouscommercial activity, as many as twenty ships wintered at theisland.Irving B. Howatt, K.C., counsel for the Crown, prosecutedthe case in 1923 against Aligoomiak and Tetamagana, whichresulted in their execution. Evidently, Capt McIntyre was amember of the jury panel (see photo above, 78).