Capital journal., November 21, 1936, Page 15, Image 15

chooner Plays San ta Glaus To A
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t iMii- w it-- e t& t
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By Raymond J. Krantz
Q ACKLAND'S BACK!"
0 That's the excited cry that rings out on
many bleak shores of the far north when the
trim trading schooner C. S. Holmes is sighted
oft in the distance, her white sails bearing her
slowly but surely on her precarious way through
the ice-floe studded waters of the Arctic Ocean.
It happens just once each year, when the wind
jammer makes her annual voyage from Seattle.
Washington, to the frozen reaches of Alaska
with much needed supplies for the Eskimos and
white folk.
The shout of "Backland's back!" is the signal
for a celebration, a holiday spirit for Captain
John Backland, master of the C. S. Holmes, has
brought with him all of those things for which
the people of the far north have been waiting.
Often enough, they have waited nearly a full
year for those desired articles.
Radio sets, outboard motors, groceries of all
kinds, pilot biscuits the Fskimos are very
fond of this marine "delicacy" coal, guns, am
munition, clothes, candy, chewing gum, tobacco
these are a few in the varied list of trading
and cargo goods transported to the far north
each summer by the trading schooner. It would
be impossible in short space to completely list
the craft's cargo.
When the vessel departed from Seattle on
May 26, 1936, bound for the Arctic, she had in
her capacious holds a complete knock-down
church, capable of seating 400 to 500 people
when it is finally set up at Wainwright, an im
portant settlement about 150 miles south of
Point Barrow, the northernmost settlement on
the North American continent. In addition to
having as a part of her cargo a new Presby
terian church, the C. S. Holmes also carried a
shipment of shelter cabins for delivery to the
Alaska Road Commission, at Point Lay, in the
Arctic region.
THE C S. Holmes Is In some respects, a rather
unique vessel. Her master is a University
of Washington gradvate, with a degree of
batchelor of arts, in of all things for an able
master mariner! philosophy! And while Cap
tain Backland is a real sea-going man, univer
sity degree or no degree, he also is something
of a social light at Seattle, and the departure of
his black-hulled trading craft is something of a
social event as well as an occurrence at which
the local waterfront literally wrka up Its ears.
The schooner's officers Ed Anderson, first
officer; and Andy Dahl, second mate are real
wind-ship men and know what running sailing
ahips is all about. And they have to know their
"stuff," for the Arctic Ocean, with its perilous
floes of ice is no place for a hesitant or uncer
tain sailor.
Each year, the C. S. Holmes Is towed from
Seattle to Cape Flattery, the northwestemmost
point of the United States, and there she spreads
her canvas, and is off to the Arctic, by way of
Unlmak Pass, Alaska. At Unimsk Pass, the
vessel tacka her way through to Bearing Sea,
while the symmetrical outlines of that beaut
eous cone-volcano, Shishaldin, loom white and
maiestie among the clouds. And occasionally a
trailing of volcanic smoke may be seen pouring
forth from the mountain's apex.
Onca through the pass, the C. 8. Holmes
courses her way to St Lawrence Island, In Ber
Ing Sea. This lonely Isle was discovered on
Saint Lawrence's Day, 1728, by Vitus Ivanovich
Bering, the Danish navigator who explored in
the North Pacific for the Russians, and so he
gave the island the name of the day of 1U dis
covery. , ,
At Gamben, the trading vessel unloads cargo,
and Captain Backland trades with the natives
for their furs. The manner of trading is simple,
with the natives eoming aboard the schooner
with their stacks of pelts. Thev present the
fort to Captain Backland, who appraises them
Seattle Ship Faces Many Perils On Annual Trip
With Supplies to Settlements on Arctic Ocean
1 1 0
Reflections of the trading
schooner, the C. S.
Holmes, shimmer over the
rippled water. A large
amount of drift ice can
be seen beyond the ves
sel. There also is a sizable
piece near the bow.
The C S. Holmes riding at anchor in the ice at Point Barrow, northernmost settle
ment on the North American continent, which is the goal of the trading vessel on
its annual trip to the Arctic. It was near here that Will Rogers and Wiley Post
crashed to their death.
after looking them over carefully, and then a
trade of so much cash and so much in goods is
arranged. Let us say that the furs are worth
$50. The arrangement then might be $20 in
cash, and $30 in trade. This being agreed upon,
Captain Backland makes out a list of the articles
desired by the native, finally completing what
ever odd cents are left with chewing gum and
candy, and then the order is filled by the
schooner's boy or supercargo.
AT Gambell, according to a former member
of the windjammer's crew, the Eskimos are
the most honest of any in the north. "They
have," he said, "none of the white man's ways.
n
.
Gambell is situated near the northwest cape,
Cape Chibukak, and features a government
school, and a Presbyterian mission, the latter
established in 18!)2. The school was first opened
in 1891. The picturesque little village takes its
name from Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Gambell, mis
sionaries and teachers, on St. Lawrence Island
from 1894 to 1898, and who lost their lives on
the schooner Jane Grey. The Eskimo name of
the village is Chibukak.
The trading ship then voyagea around the Is
land to the village of Savoonga, where more
bartering in furs is carried on. and cargo de
stined for delivery Is unloaded. The schooner
often replenishes her fresh water supply at
Savoonga, the crafts two Norwegian-type motor
towboats being used in this work.
The towboats, originally built by George
Kneass, San Francisco boat builder, are 24 feet
long, and are powered with sturdy gasoline en
gines. They are exceedingly busy craft in the
north, for they are used to haul the schooner
through leads in the ire when the winds fail, and
they take cargo ashore at all porta, shuttling
back and forth between shore and ship. It waa
in 1929 that the boats towed the C. 8. Holmea
from Point Barrow to Wainwright, a distance
approximating 150 miles. This was msde neces
sary due to the need of leaving Point Barrow be
fore the ice closed in on the trading vessel.
Time being all Important in the far north, the
windjammer-trader waatea none of It, and her
work at Savoonga being finished, she then drives
4 .rrsW" r. f rk. r :
!S'"!r the schooner throush clear lead in a vast floe of Arctic
Ed Anderson, first officer; and Andy Dahl, second mate, "Shoot the Sun", for
position, on the way north to the Arctic Ocean. Both officers are real
wind-ship men.
Mmmtmm
on to Cape Prince of Wales, on the eastern shore
of the bottleneck which is Bering Strait. The
post office or village proper is called Wales, and
the former was established in 1902. Here the
sailors of the C. S. Holmes unload coal for the
mission, as well as other cargo. And the trad
ing for furs goes on as at all points where the '
ship calls.
"Eskimos have a notoriously short-sighted
view on life," declared a crew member of the
trading schooner. "They buy supplies for at the'
most, one or two days. They. do not seem to
think much of the future. They figure that if
they have enough for today, well, tomorrow will
take care of itself."
AT Wales there Is a reindeer station and a
government school. Most of the natives
have been educated in government institutions
of learning in the north, and so the days of
traders giving valueless articles In exchange-for
furs are very much a thing of the past, accord
ing to Captain Backland. The Eskimo villsge
at Cape Prince of Wales has been known as
Kingegan, and in 1890 it boasted a population
of 488 souls.
And now the clipper bow of the C S. Holmea
points into the ice expanses of the fro sen Arctic
Ocean for the first time during the voyage, and
the wind ship forges on until she arrives off
Shishmaref, a native village located about half
way to Kottebue Sound from the cape. The set
tlement takes Its name from Shishmaref Inlet,
which indents the shore of Seward Peninsula to
the north. Lieut. Otto von Kotzebue, In August,
1816, exploring these waters In the Russian brig
Rurik, named the inlet In honor of Captain- '
Lieutenant Glieb Semeonovlch Shishmaref, who
accompanied Kotzebue.
Shishmaref village is a favorite hunting and
fishing spot for the Eskimos, especially in the
summer time. They hunt walrus and polar bear,
and fish for salmon, whltefish and other deni
zens of the sea and streams. As a rule, there la
considerable ice in the vicinity of the village.
- Kotsehue, C. S. Holmea' next port of call. Is
situated on a long peninsula, and la fronted by a
wide expanse of shallow water, to vessels having
cargo for the village must anchor sfx to seven
Unl...' run ?4.fnnt mntnr tnwhnatl mills
it I iimm
miles away. The vessels, usually are so distant
that only their masts are visible from shore. The
Ferguson brothers, Archie and Warren, operate
a Diesel powered scow which lighters cargo and
trading goods ashore from such vessels as the
C. 8. Holmes and freight steamers.
Since Kotzebue village Is an important post,
with many tra 'ers located at the settlement, the
windjammer usually remains at the Kotzebue
anchorage longer than at most of her stops.
In addition to trading activity, Kotzebue has a
government hospital, a post office, and schools.
It is here in particular that the Eskimos are
"wild" to see the C. S. Holmea, and they do
plenty of yelling and shouting among them
selves. The main reason for the excitement, as
members of the fur trsder's crew explain it, is
that the schooner usually is the first vessel t"
arrive at Kotzebue with fresh foods from "the
outside."
CAPTAIN Backland each year Is honored
with a dance at the school house, after all
cargo and trade goods have been unloaded. It is
a bizarre sort of dance, with whjte folk dancing
In company with dark complexioned Eskimos.
Captain Backland also givea a little celebration
of his own, for a select group of his own per
sonal friends of long standing. The captain is a
man of considerable personality, with a ready
smile and an infectious laugh which causes other
folks to laugh and enjoy themselves, also, and so
these affairs are of the happiest sort and tend
to brighten the monotonous days of the people
of the Icy north country.
"Kotzebue has a poker game going about all
the time," said a crew member of the C. 8.
Holmea. "The games continue all night. The
Eskimos, oddly enough, are 'crazy' about the
game, too."
The village, of course, honors the name of
Lieut. Otto von Kotzebue, son of the dis
tinguished author.
But with the days a-rolling by, one after the
other in quick auccesslon, it is necessary for the
trading ship to get on her way again if she la
to win her yearly battle with the Arctic Ice bar
rier, which la liable to close In at any time and
lock a vessel In its unyielding grip, and destruc
tion of the ship is the usual prize for such ill
luck or poor judgment. .And so the trader sails
on, northwestward along the Alaskan coast, to
Point Hope, which was named after Sir William
Johnstone Hop by Beechey, in 1826. The place
Eskimos
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Captain John Backland, master of the
trading schooner, is a graduate of the
University of Washington.
Is a picturesque settlement, with the Eskimos
living in huts made of tundra turf placed over
rude frameworking of lumber. These huts In
certain parts of Alaska are called barabaras
. pronounced "buh-rah-buh-rees." The accent Is
on the second syllable.
At Point Hope, the whaling vessels formerly
wintered, there being a long sandsplt with
sheltered bays on either side. And while the
village is a small one, there Is a large reindeer
herd In the vicinity. Coal, gasoline, groceries
and other supplies are left at Point Hope by the
schooner, and then the course is beyond Cape
Lisburne to Point Lay, a small settlement on a
sandsplt and lagoon. A former member of the
crew of the trading ship now is a trader at Point
Lay. This place waa also given its name by
Beechey in 1826, and the name compliments
George Tradescant Lay, naturalist of Beechey'a
expedition.
When the vessel arrives at Wainwright,- about
150 miles southeast of Point Barrow, the end
of her voyage Insofar as the northbound half Is
concerned, Is near.
OINT BARROW! The farthest north settle
r ment on the North American continent!
This unnrenossessing village is the ultimate goal
of the C. 8. Holmes' annual voyages. It seems,
does this settlement, hardly worthy of any great
effort to reach It
"It looks like any old sandsplt with some
clam dippers' shacks on It." was the way a sailor
aboard the vessel described the place. Point
Barrow Is a summer time village, but Charles
Brower- 'fee noted trader, and his large family,
make their headquarters there the year around.
And there's a hospital and a mission, and the
Eskimos are Interesting In their fur parkas and
mukluks. the former a kind of coat with nnd
piece, end the latter, fur boots. But Just the
ssme, Point Barrow Isn't much. And It's a lone
ly nlace, also.
It was near Point Barrow, on August IB. 1985,
that Will Rogers and Wiley Post lost their lives .
in a plane crash on the bleak tundra when their
craft nosed down into a lagoon after attempting
a take-off. When the trading schooner returns
south this fall, she Is scheduled to have In her
holds the wrecked plane, consigned to Holly
wood and Hartford, Connecticut, interests.
There will he a resnectful silence as the mangled
plane is hoisted aboard the schooner.
And srf. with her load of trade goods and
cargo delivered, and polar bear, fox, wolverine,
wolf and other furs carefully stowed away, the
schooner squares around from Point Barrow and
starts her homeward-bound voyage, and before
the vessel doks at Seattle again, at least five
months will have elapsed. And that's a long
voyage, but the crewmen don't mind, for long
voyages mean large paychecks to them!
Captain Auckland has commanded the C. 8.
Holmes since 1928, when Ms father. Captain
John Backland, Sr., passed away. The present
master of the vessel made his first trip to the
north In 1923, and he was 19 years old at th
time, so as a sailing ship master, he Is a fairly
young man. He Is, however, able as a seaman,
and his uniform way of getting hie work dona
in the Arctic shows that he knows what It's all
about
The vessel Is Interesting in Its own way, for
It was built in 1898 at the famous Hall Broth
ers Shipyard, at Port Blakely, Washington, this
giving the ship an age of 43 years. Forty-three
' years old! And yet the schooner seems ready
for many more years of arduous service In the
north. The schooner's dimensions are: regis
tered length, 162.8 feet; breadth, registered, 87
feet; and depth, 11.6. Her gross and net ton
nage figures are 623 and 556, respectively.
C. 8. Holmes Is a four-topmast sailing schoon
er, flying three jibs, a fore staysail, foresail,
mainsail, mlzzen and spanker. She also carries
fore, main and mizzen topsails, so when she la
under full sail, ths vessel presents a beautiful
sight of a literal "cloud of canvas." Running
light returning from th north, th schooner has
logged better than 12 knota, and ah Is excep
tionally handy, as her sailors proudly declara,
"never missed a stay yetl"
PAM THRU