by Kathy Nanowin

This pocket chronometer provides a direct link to the heroic age of Arctic exploration and its tragic protagonist, Sir John Franklin. Bought by the British Admiralty, it was issued to Franklin for his second Arctic Expedition of 1825 to 1827. Two decades later, following Franklin's disappearance, the Admiralty issued the chronometer to the 1848 search expedition by Sir John Richardson and John Rae. In 1855, it was used by chief factor James Anderson's expedition to the mouth of the Great Fish River to confirm Rae's report of evidence of Franklin's lost expedition. Admiralty records note that the chronometer disappeared on this expedition. However, it later turned up in the possession of A.G. Dallas, who succeeded Sir George Simpson as governor of the Hudson's Bay Company in Rupert's Land. Dallas reportedly kept the chronometer on his bedside table until his death. It was later donated to the HBC Museum Collection.

90 Years Ago

The long journey by mail

The August 1923 issue describes the dangerous task of delivering mail between the Hudson's Bay Company's far-flung posts in the North. The seven-hundred-kilometre winter journey by dogseld between Chesterfield Inlet and Fort Churchill was "the most arduous and hazardous voyage of any of the Company's packets." Herbert Hall, manager of the western Arctic district, wrote of a trek during which stormy weather caused delays that led to dogs and men running out of food. However, once at Churchill, he said, "our hardships were forgotten."

60 Years Ago

Calling the Columbia

A ship that plied British Columbia's rugged coast did triple duty as a hospital, a chapel, and a theatre, according to a September 1953 article by freelance writer Gilean Douglas. The Columbia was operated by the Anglican Church Columbia Coast Mission for the benefit of coastal dwellers living in 225 communities. The ship was the site of weddings, christenings, confirmations, and funeral services, as well as minor surgery and dentistry. First launched in 1905, hospital ships like the Columbia were in service in B.C. until the late 1960s.

30 Years Ago

Grassland splendour

Tim Fitzharris described the western grasslands in a summer 1983 article illustrated with beautiful photgraphs of prairie wildlife. The article stated that, historically, the grasslands supported an abundance of wildlife in numbers impossible to imagine today. Fitzharris warned that agricultural chemicals were poisoning the animals and that if the trend didn't reverse "the land will simply grow more and more quiet." Yet, despite the changes made by man, "the region retains, in places, a special aura of spaciousness, wildness, and freedom."