In 1984 I was given a copy of Newbold Smith’s “Down Denmark Strait,” recounting his 1976 voyage to Spitzbergen and Greenland. Shortly after completing my sail from New Zealand to Cape Horn I wrote to Newbold, describing my voyage and offering myself should he need crew on another high latitude trip. Newbold wrote right back and said ‘let’s plan a trip north.’
I had never met or communicated with him before, but Newbold had been a classmate of my uncle John at the USNA where they were wrestling teammates. They were a powerhouse team – national champions – and John had been team captain, national champion, and gone to the Olympics. After John’s tragic death in a Navy jet, Newbold helped set up a memorial trophy which is presented every year at the ECAC wrestling championships.
The plan that took shape was to attempt the Northwest Passage in Newbold’s Farr 44 Reindeer. A backup plan would be to sail into Hudson Bay and then James Bay and have Reindeer trucked home from Chisasibi. Most of the crew hailed from Orr’s Island: my father Abbot, my father-in-law Bud Edwards (who had also known Newbold at the USNA), Henry McAvoy, and Nelson Blackburn. John Biddle of R.I. would do the first leg, and I would fly to Pond Inlet at the northern tip of Baffin Island to do the Northwest Passage if conditions allowed (I was unable to negotiate more than 3 weeks’ absence from my job. In a remarkable twist of outlook my father, who earlier in my life had fretted about my sailing trips and their negative influence on my career, actually encouraged me to quit my job: “You don’t get many chances in life to sail to the Arctic with Newbold Smith.”)
1991 proved to be a terrible year for ice, and Reindeer had a tough time getting through the Strait of Belle Isle and the pack ice that stretched more than 130 miles east from Labrador. Once in Greenland stops included Godthaab, Holsteinborg, Egedesminde, the Jakobshavn fjord which produces a tenth of Greenland’s icebergs, Godhavn and Upernavik. The so-called ‘middle pack’ of ice caused a great deal of difficulty crossing Melville Bay, but they were able to thread through with the help at times of a lookout up the mast. They managed to finagle a warm welcome at the secretive Thule Naval Base by pretending one of the crew was a descendant of Admiral Robert Peary, discoverer of the North Pole. Reindeer proceeded north to Cape Alexander – located at 78N, about 720 miles from the North Pole – where they were stopped by solid ice that stretched all the way to Ellesmere Island shore. They did a 180 and stopped at the remote village of Qeqertarssuag on Herbert Island, where the population of 20 subsists on seal meat, narwhals and bears, before proceeding to Dundas Harbor on Devon Island, and then Pond Inlet at the northern tip of Baffin Island.
Satellite charts indicated that Bellot Strait was blocked by ice and hence the Northwest Passage was not navigable, so we turned and sailed south along the 1,000 mile coast of Baffin Island, enormous icebergs a constant sight. It was getting late in the season and the September winds were howling out Hudson Strait, right on our nose, so we opted to continue on to Labrador and Nova Scotia instead. Reindeer eventually ended up at her home in Chesapeake Bay having traveled 8,200 miles in just over 3 months.
Sailing Stories - Max Fletcher 