north shore news UNDAY FOCU Sunday. June 20, 19S9 —- North Shore News - 3 Photos courtesy Vancouver Maritime Muscum BURRARD Dry Dock workers on the North Vancouver watertront were busy in 1928 constructing the RCMP patrol ship, The St. Rach. Photographs depict the schooner's 150 horsepower diesel engine being installed (left), hull construction at “berth 1 pier 2 east gantry” (centre) and what the vessel looked like on the day it was launched (right). Anna Marie D'Angelo News Reporter dangelo@usner's.com THE St. Roch was the first ship to make it across the Northwest Passage from west to east. No small feat in the 1940s for 4 12-year-old wooden schooner built on the North Vancouver waterfront, The 32-metre (104 toot) product of the Burrard Dry Dock was made a navonsi Historic Site in 1962. The famous RCMP patrol boat is currently a major tourist attraction housed indoors at the = Vancouver Marine Museum. As with most national usa- sures in Canada at the Sp. Ra's level, the schooner’s presersa- tion is in constant jeopardy. But the Se. Roely’s luck hay vet to run out, Fortunately tor the schooner, the RCMIP"s 125th anniversary almost coincides with the start of the new mil- lennium. Those nwo occasions have inspired, nostalgic, large- scale projects. About five years ago, RCMP officers in the rank and file carne up with the idca to recreate the St. Roch’s (pro- nounced “rock”) history: mak- ing, voyage. “As glamorous as some areas of this trip sounds, it’s still 22,000 nautical miles of ocean. Ir is not a cakewalk by any stretch of the imagination,” said Vancouver RCMP Cpl. Ken Burton. Burton works in the Mounties Marine Operations and is assigned to the Sr. Rocds Millennium = Project. | He worked at the North Vancouver detachment for eight years in the 1980s. ; Burton plans to be one of the four Mounties on board a modern police patrol vessel that will recreate the Sz. Roch’sjour- nev. The trip starts in Vancouver on July 1, 2000. The crew is slated to be chosen this summer. “t hope to be selected. | have been working on this for four vears. They will have to untrie me from the boat,” quipped the five-year veteran skipper of a Vancouver RCMP patrol boat. An RCMP | aluminum hulied patrol vessel called Nadon will be outfitted for the Northwest Passage journey. The 2] -metre (66 toor) Nadon is a catamaran that has been used on the West Coast. It is VANCOUVER Maritime Museum executive director James Delgado (left) and RCMP Cp! Ken Burton aboard the aciual St. Roch currently preserved as a tourist attraction in Vancouver. currently “surplus” to the Nadion will leave Canada Place Burrard Dry Dock which is a NEWS photo Pau! McGrath Museum near Kits Point and ake of the St. Mounties’ Arctic voyage will recreate Canadian history Roch lett Vancouver under the control of its veteran Mountic skipper, Capt. Henry Larsen. The half dozen men on board spent 27 months on the ardu- ous journey that involved ave winters frozen in ice. The most dangerous times for the Sv. Roch was when it was threat: ened by ice. Burton explained thar when the the ice moved in, Larsen looked tor a sheltered area close to fresh water, The ship was moored into ice as it formed around the ship. The crew took the sails down and built a wooden structure off the vessel. The crew, dressed in [nuit-style clothing, conducted dog - sled patrols. Burton said that at any one time, 42 dogs would be on board. The dog team patrols did census counts, medical and dental services, delivered mail as well as police duti “Thev were the federal gov- ernment — representative up north,” said Burton. “The crew knew that fife in the Arctic was tough but they had faith in Henry Larsen,” said Burton. “I's amazing when you consider a compass wouldn't work up there, they were so AG close to magnetic North Pole,” ay ~ said Burton. Burton said that the Sv. Roch, which had a small auxil- iary engine, was aways cold. The galley rarely got above freezing. A loaf of bread would take two days to rise so the RCMP. The Nadon has been out of the water for about a year and stored in Victoria. On Canada Day next vear, harbour and cross the inlet to where Burrard Dry Dock used to be near Lonsdale Quay. Nadon will “dip the flag” to marine ceremony indicating deep respect. Nadow will then go under the Lions Gate Bridge to the Maritime dip the flag once more in front of the actual St Roch before setting out retrace history. On June. 23, 1940, the Se. police officers ended up cook- ing doughnuts, according to See Trip page 16 Real reason behind St. Roch voyage revealed THE reason why the St. Roch was ordered to traverse the Northwest Passage in 1940 remained a secret for 50 years. It was the second ship to traverse Canada’s are- tic region. The first ship was a 30-year-old Norwegian fishing sloop, the Gjea, which made the journey from east (Atlantic) to west in 1903. The Gyjoa took three years to complete the trip. The Se. Rech’s Mountie Captain Henry Larsen took the real reason behind the ship's Northwest Passage journey to his grave, said RCMP Cpl. Ken Barton, of the Sc. Roch Millennium Project. In 1990, 26 vears afier Larsen’s death, the mili- tary seeret was our, In 1995, academics released a paper abeur the reason for the journey, said Burton, The Sz. Rueb’y mission through the Northwest Passage was to form part of a military group to invade Greenland, said Burton. “That's serious. Canada was going to be an occupying nation,” he said. Vancouver Maritime Museum director Jim Delgado confirms the Greenland wartime initiative. Burton said that at the time, the Second World War was under way and Nazi submarines had made it through the north Atlantic, encroaching on the Labrador coast. The military believed Nazis had a base somewhere in) eastern) Canada er in Greenland. Areas of Greenland have rich deposits of bausite and cryolite, the raw materials needed for manufac- turing aluminum, which was a strategic metal dur- ing the war, At the time of the St. Roch mission, there were no ships or other means to secure the Muminum resources in Greenland, which were used at an aluminium smelter in Quebee, said Burton. “The only vessel that they thought could do it was the Se. Roch,” said Burton. “Henry Larsen was the only one on board thar knew about it.” The crew didwt knew where they were going when they left Vancouver on June 23, 1940. They were told about traversing the Northwest Passaye after the ship got to Dutch Harbour in Alaska. Larsen gave the crew the oppertunity to leave, but all stayed for the arduous journey. “As it turns out they got frozen in the ice and couldn't get through in time,” said Burton. The Sr. Roe’s mission was previously publicized as a way to reinforce Canada’s sovereignty in the north. Americans entered the war after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour on Dec. 7, 1941, American military forces secured Greenland while the Se. Rech was stuck in ice during its voyage through the Northwest Passage, said Burton. The St. Rech finished its journey on 1942 in Halitax. The trip was originally supposed to take 90 days. “There are fascinating memorandums on file abour outfitting the St. Roch with one gun to take over Greenland,” said Burton laughing. The St. Roch was built as an RCMP patrol boat in 1928 at North Vancouver’s Burrard Dry Dock. After the Northwest Passage journey, the Se. Roel was a supply and service vessel for the western Arctic. In the early 1950s it was sent to Halifax to patrol in the eastern Aretic. It was decomissioned in the 1950s. —Aunna Marte D'Angelo