We spent the time building the house and sheds, putting up the store tents, etc. Winter quarters are shaped in the form of:
A B A
C
A=store tents, B=shed, and C=living room. The latter is a double tent inside a canvas shed, the spaces inside being 11 x 11, 6’6” high at ridge, and 4 ft at sides. For a raised platform to serve as a bed we used the cases of canned goods and floored the remaining portion with batten from the hold of the schooner. It makes a cosy place. The least fire heats to a desirable warmth, and when cooking is being done it is almost too hot. But of course, like all canvas structures, it gets cold as soon as the fire is out.
When all had been satisfactorily arrange Billy and I prepared to go out caribou hunting, for we were getting short of dog feed, and I wished to get in a supply of meat before the colder weather set in, also to have things all ready for winter before going to Cape Kellett.
George Hubert Wilkins
Photographer of the expedition
Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College
The winter quarters that George Wilkins is describing were set up at a small un-named harbour on northwestern Banks Island. They reached this wintering site on the CAE schooner North Star. Under the command of Wilkins, she was one of the few ships to get this far north on the west coast of Banks Island. The only other ships to have reached this point were a few early whalers, the Franklin Search expedition ship HMS Investigator (in 1851), and one other small schooner which passed this harbour in 1931. Like all of the other CAE camps, this camp has never been visited by historians.
In setting up this camp, Wiklins was assisted by Natkusiak, also known as Billy Banksland. Near the end of the CAE, Stefansson gave the North Star to Natkusiak in lieu of wages. Due to ice conditions, Natkusiak was not able to bring the schooner south from this camp until 1921. The North Star was wrecked in a storm at Baillie Island in 1928.
During the time we were preparing the exhibition at CMC, a large number of of missing Wilkins photographs were discovered for sale online. Among them was the only known photo of the North Star at this northern camp.
David
