Journal Entry 10.29.01

From: Roberto Bessin

10-29-01 1154 hrs
Aboard the CCG Louis St Laurent
74 deg 15.8 min N Lat, 79 deg 59.3 min W Long
Steaming West in Lancaster Sounding, Escorting MV Arctic
Clear skies w/ few clouds, Wind 7.3 kt 239 deg, -17 deg C (1.2 deg F)

Yesterday, at 1600 hrs, we completed our rendezvous with the bulk cargo ship, MV Arctic, out of Antwerp, Belgium, meeting her at about 73 deg 59 min N Lat, 73 deg 54 min W Long. This point was the eastern most extent of our trip to this point; though next week, as we head back to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, we will go east of 60 degrees W Longitude. Up here in the High Arctic, where the longitudinal meridians converge on the planet, relatively short movements eastward bring noticeably earlier sunrise and brighter mornings. I find it a bit depressing to have to wait until lunch for the sun to come over the horizon.

Before our ship and the MV Arctic met at their rendezvous point, Gabriel and I had the chance to accompany the Ice Observer, Graham, and Paul Mosher, the pilot, in an ice reconnaissance flight. The view from several thousand feet up in the helicopter is the best way to begin to appreciate structure, age, and dynamics of the frozen ocean. The great variety of the ice mosaic is staggeringly beautiful and captivating. Our first waypoint gave us the chance to preview the MV Arctic at 1318 hrs, and we had the chance to study the ice conditions in a small part of Baffin Bay. What we saw, for the most part, was very young, gray, ice with a low density of of white pans and cakes of multi-year. Punctuating the white and gray were a few craggy icebergs, some towering to eighty or a hundred feet. From the air, the image was that of tile work of the most unimaginable complexity and beauty. If only I could lay such floors or counters in my home....

The relatively light ice conditions we spotted on our reconnaissance flight were far from the conditions we soon encountered after joining up with the MV Arctic. Ice reports had warned the Ice Observer that great masses of hard, multi-year ice were descending along Western Baffin Bay into Lancaster Sound. Within hours of beginning our escort of the MV Arctic, we ran head into great rafts of the multi-year ice, choked together under great pressure. Last night, the MV Arctic was stopped dead in her track a number of times, necessitating our backtracking to rescue her from icebound imprisonment. From 0000 hrs until 0400hrs we made only 14 nautical miles, despite our orders to proceed as quickly as possible within the limits of prudent seamanship. Former crews of the MV Arctic have taken aggressive tactics in prior seasons using speed and momentum to bash through, resulting in considerable hull damage. She is now under strict orders to hold the speed to seven knots in heavy ice

At 0845 hrs I had the chance to observe one of the techniques used by the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent to extract a ship that is stuck in ice floes under pressure. The ice surrounding the MV Arctic was under such tremendous force that mounting ridges, built of chunks of ice, transected the surface of the floes. With the squeezing forces surrounding the hull on all sides, the cargo carrier couldn't budge, despite her engines running full ahead.

When I came on deck to witness the spectacle, I learned a great deal about the tactics involved in escorting ships through heavy ice. Our ship was aft of the cargo vessel, and we first tried to punch through the ice abeam of her on the starboard side. Our hull bounced off the hard chunks of blue ice, locked together under pressure, and we abruptly came to a halt. So, altering course, we cut across the stern and made for a course along her port side. As our bow moved ahead of hers, like magic, the pressure abated for a moment and she began to slip forward. By cutting a track through the ice parallel and to the side of her, she was set free.This we repeated throughout the morning, at one point working for over an hour to advance the MV Arctic less than a hundred yards. With currents tugging and jamming the ice floes together, navigating these waters is extremely tricky. One moment, as you cut through young gray ice, it is as easy as gliding across a pond, and then you hit the multi-year, smashing into a wall of concrete.

From inside the hull, especially down near the waterline, the banging and bashing of ice against hull produces bone jarring sounds. Its a bit like being inside a tin can rolling down a cliff, if such a thing were humanly possible. The hull is designed so that the bow rides up on the hard chunks before cracking them. What you feel aboard is a lively pitching motion, as though you're on horseback when the beast rears up on its hind legs then crashes back down to the ground. If you hit hard chunks off center (with the starboard or port flanks of the bow) the hull yaws, turning wildly. I hardly slept last night, and look forward to a nap later this afternoon. It might be easier to sleep in the front row at a Rolling Stones concert! People pay good money at amusement parks for this sort of action.

Our task is to escort the MV Arctic west to "LCI" (Little Cornwallis Island) where she will pick up over 20,000 tons of lead/zinc ore concentrate at the Polaris mine. Depending on the spot market prices for these metals which swing widely, the value a single load of concentrate aboard her can be as high as $20 million Canadian (about $13 Million U.S.). Mining companies tend to be secretive about their business (considering information proprietary), so it is difficult to know exactly how profitable the Polaris Mine is, but the general feeling is that she will be closing soon. After reaching LCI with the MV Arctic, the plan is to wait with her as she is loaded, a process that takes several days , then escort her back out of the ice west into open water.

This plan may change, though, because of all the multi-year ice that is increasingly choking the mouth of Lancaster Sound. We can only expect it to get more challenging for our return trip. As the gray ice thickens, at a rate of some 3 to 5 inches per day, the multi-year pans get locked into place. The icebreaker can no longer nudge them aside under these conditions and is forced to bash through the hard blue ice. There is talk aboard of possibly making history with this escort, using a route that has never been taken by a cargo vessel; this possibility entails basically escaping the High Arctic by going out the back door. Instead of retracing our route back out through Barrow Strait and Lancaster Sound into Baffin Bay, the plan under consideration would be to utilize Fury and Hecla Strait.

If we were to take that route for our exit, we will turn south as we enter Lancaster Sound, steaming the length of Prince Regent Inlet into the Gulf of Boothia. Working our way south through the Gulf, we will steer left into Fury and Hecla Strait. That will lead us into Foxe Basin, and Foxe Channel will take us to Hudson Strait and out into the Labrador Sea. This route would bypass Baffin Bay and Davis Strait entirely, bringing us into open ocean south of Baffin Island. Parry in 1821 made the discovery of Fury and Hecla Strait, but this shortcut is seldom traversed. Fury and Hecla Strait stays frozen solid through the summer, and begins to break up only in the fall. Some years it never clears. Cargo vessels usually service the Arctic during the summer, at which time the Strait is completely out of the question.

The CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent has been through Fury and Hecla Strait before, two years ago encountering no small dose of fury that severe conditions ice can dole out sometimes. During Tundra Northwest 1999, the extensive international scientific project, she came through the Strait in the opposite direction during August. In the worst sections, she struggled at full power scarcely making one cable (one tenth of a nautical mile- 608 feet) per hour. At one point, the packing gave way on two of the propeller shafts necessitating a six hour shutdown to make repairs. Paul Kruse, a friendly crew mate in the Engineering Department aboard this voyage, recounted that uncomfortable repair. Engineers struggled as ice-cold seawater poured through the leaking seals deep under the waterline in confined quarters. Immersed in the brutally cold waters, the engineers took a beating putting things back in order. Paul confided that certain parts of his anatomy thawed from that ordeal only earlier this year.

Satellites provide excellent data about ice conditions, and the Captain and his fellow officers aboard are considering that and all other available information. The prospect of going back out through Lancaster Sound into Baffin Bay is daunting, to say the least. Fury and Hecla Strait and Foxe Basin will no doubt have ice on the surface, given the onset of winter. However, it will only be thinner surface ice that is easily cut through. The Strait into Foxe Basin, never considered during other seasons, may well be the shortest and easiest route for the MV Arctic and her escort this trip. We just might make a bit of history on this voyage.

RB