Taissumani: August 11, 1896 — Tragedy at Blacklead Island

KENN HARPER

In 1892 Reverend Edmund James Peck returned to England from his pioneering mission in northern Quebec. But almost immediately he raised with the Church Missionary Society the prospect of opening a new mission — this time in the more isolated Baffin Island. The region was virtually inaccessible, the only means of transport being on Scottish whaling ships. Peck met Crawford Noble, owner of the whaling station at Blacklead Island, and Noble generously offered passage on one of his ships. The mission would be established at Noble’s whaling station.

CMS approved the plan, but with one condition. Peck could not go out alone — he must find a partner to share the work with him. Joseph Caldecott Parker, a 22-year-old layman, volunteered for the task.

Parker had enrolled at CMS’s Preparatory Institute in February of 1891, but had withdrawn a year later because his father was seriously ill. In 1893 he expressed his interest in accompanying Peck to Cumberland Sound, and spent a few months preparing for the task at Church Missionary College. There he received some medical training, a distinct advantage in the isolated region for which he was bound.

In 1894 Peck and Parker signed on as members of the eight-man crew of the Alert, a vessel of 129 tons, 90 feet in length. Peck joined as chaplain, Parker as doctor. Defying the superstitions of whaling tradition, the vessel left Peterhead on Friday, the thirteenth of July.

The two missionaries shared a building promised to them by Crawford Noble. This, their mission station, was in reality a two-room shack, each room only 10 feet square. In these cramped quarters they not only had to live but store their two-year supply of food and other necessities.

Joseph Parker made rapid progress in learning the Inuktitut language. He attended to the sick and the Inuit rewarded him with the name Luuktakuluk — the little doctor. In 1896 he began work, as so many missionaries do, on an Inuktitut language dictionary. Unfortunately, a tragic accident prevented him from ever finishing it.

In August, shortly before the expected arrival of the annual supply vessel from England, Joseph Parker joined a small group of men leaving Blacklead in a small boat to go fishing at a river about twenty miles away. The other men were a whaler known as Captain Clisby; Noble’s agent, Alexander Hall; and four Inuit. That evening Peck sat alone in his mission house and read a section from Chapter 20 of the Acts of the Apostles, a passage telling of St. Paul’s farewell address to the elders of the Ephesian church. Suddenly he felt “almost overcome with most solemn feelings accompanied with a tender constraining sense of love to the Lord Jesus, and affection to Mr. Parker.” Perhaps this was a harbinger of an unfolding tragedy — the passage ends with Paul’s final words as the faithful saw him off on a ship, “You will never see me again.”

Three days later, on August 14, Peck was digging for clams on a tidal flat off Naujartalik Island, three miles from the station, when an Inuk arrived by kayak. He claimed to have found a boat adrift, with the body of Captain Clisby inside. Peck and his Inuit companions rowed northward and found the boat. Clisby indeed lay dead inside. The boat was towed to Blacklead Island and a search party left to look for any trace of the other members of the fishing party. Nothing was found and everyone, including Parker, was assumed to have drowned.

Peck had planned to return to England on furlough in 1896. Parker’s death almost caused him to change his mind. But when the Alert arrived only a week after the tragedy, it brought another missionary, Charles Sampson. Peck learned that the new man also had some medical experience and quickly showed an ability to learn Inuktitut. In mid-September a small steamer, the Hope, unexpectedly arrived at Blacklead. She had been chartered by the American explorer, Robert Peary, for a summer voyage to Greenland and was on her return leg. Peck took passage on her to Sydney, Nova Scotia, where he caught another ship to England.

While in Sydney, Peck wrote a letter to CMS, informing them of the tragedy:

“And now with feelings of deep sorrow I must tell you the sad news of our dear brother Parker’s death. He was drowned near Blacklead Island on the 11th of August. Mr. Hall (Mr. Noble’s agent) had arranged to go to a river some twenty miles from the station to catch salmon, and as our brother had been working most assiduously at the study of language, etc., and as he needed a change and rest he thought it well… to join the party.

“I cannot say exactly how the sad accident happened, but we suppose that a squall struck the boat after she passed out of sight on the northern side of the island. We think the boat must have then heeled over, and the boom of sail was thus caught in the sea to leeward, and while the boat was thus held down a sea rushed in and swamped her.

“I feel that I have lost a real friend and brother in Mr. Parker. He was, in every sense of the word, a true helper, and one who, I may truly say, poured out his whole energies on the work which God had given him to do.”

Taissumani: A Day in Arctic History recounts a specific event of historic interest, whose anniversary is in the coming week. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.