The M.V. <i>Calanus</i>

Abstract

One night in Hudson Strait the Calanus lay in the midst of an ice field. It was dark, the ice floes swirled and ground together, and open water was nowhere to be seen. Some hours after the vessel was caught and rendered largely powerless by the ice, an immense floe with a high overhang struck; it pressed against the port quarter, hooked itself over the gunwale, and forced the boat downward. At the same time, another floe moved against the starboard bow near the water line and lifted that side of the vessel. As the starboard bow rose and the Calanus heeled farther and farther to port, there appeared to be no way to prevent her loss. But just at that moment a patch of open water appeared directly astern. Reverse power slipped the vessel back off the starboard ice and out from under the port ice to the open water, where she again floated and regained her stability. She traversed the rest of the ice field by daylight the next morning. Most vessels would not have survived that 1953 night in Hudson Strait. The Calanus, however, is no ordinary vessel; had it been, the story above might have had a different ending. ... [This history of the Calanus describes her design and construction and service in the eastern Canadian arctic waters and makes a plea for her reconstruction and preservation.]