Taissumani, June 24

The ill-fated Baffin Island trekker, Bernhard Hantzsch.

KENN HARPER

The wreckage of the schooner, Jantina Agatha, near Blacklead Island in late September 1909, almost spelled the end of a long-held dream for Bernhard Hantzsch.

The German ornithologist was travelling to Cumberland Sound to begin a journey he had carefully planned — or planned as carefully as one could into the unknown — to the distant shores of Foxe Basin.

After spending a tension-filled winter at the Blacklead mission station, where he had to jealously guard his supplies from the ship-wrecked Dutch sailors, he was finally ready to embark on his westward journey on April 23, 1910.

Hantzsch was 35 years old. Born in Dresden, Germany, he was the youngest son of a school-teacher. Following in his father’s footsteps, he also became a teacher, but from childhood his true interest was in bird life and he knew his calling was ornithology.

As a young man, he travelled whenever he was able, always in pursuit of his ornithological studies, and published his first scientific paper in 1897. A trip to Iceland in 1903 resulted in Hantzsch identifying two subspecies of Icelandic birds. In 1906 he studied bird life in Killinek (Port Burwell) and northern Labrador.

He had other talents too. At Blacklead he had played the organ for services in Greenshield’s little church and taught some of the Inuit girls to play. He acted as medical dispenser on the island during Greenshield’s absences. Hr attended services regularly and took communion with his Inuit guides on the last Sunday before leaving for his expedition.

Hantzsch’s goals were not modest. He intended to travel across Baffin Island from east to west via Nettilling Lake (then still known as Kennedy Lake) to the shores of Foxe Basin, and then follow that coastline north and eventually cross Baffin Island again in a north-easterly direction to Pond Inlet, where he hoped to meet a whaling vessel or a Canadian government vessel.

He left Blacklead Island with three families of Inuit, totalling thirteen people. Aggaarjuk, a man described as friendly, a great talker and story-teller, and his wife, Arnaq, were accompanied by their four children (including their four-month-old daughter Naqi, the late mother of Mary Wilman of Iqaluit) and an adopted son Akulukjuk, aged about 18 or 19.

Ittuksaarjuaq, a man of about 35, was accompanied by his wife, Siqiniq, who was about 10 years older. As they had no children, Hantzsch would live with them in their tents or snowhouses.

Itiq, a man of about 50, was accompanied by his wife, Pitukta, and two sons. This latter family would help with the hauling of Hantzsch’s heavy launch, a gift from the German navy, to Nettilling Lake, and then return to Blacklead Island. The others would be with Hantzsch for his entire trip.

The party travelled by sled up Cumberland Sound, hauling the launch along with all of Hantzsch’s other supplies. At the Inuit camp of Nuvujen, they encountered three families who used their dogs to assist them in hauling supplies through Nettilling Fiord and through a series of lakes and rivers to the height of land, at about 50 metres elevation. From there, rivers flowed westward to the large lake which dominated the interior of southern Baffin Island.

Hantzsch and the three Inuit families camped on the lake for about two months before Itiq and his family finally returned to Blacklead. Before he left, a dispute arose over what payment the Inuk should receive in trade goods and Hantzsch had to concede to many of the man’s demands. “They fleeced me unmercifully,” he wrote in his journal.

On September 20, they saw Foxe Basin in the distance for the first time. They cached the boat and a portion of their supplies and then set out on foot and by dogsled, following on land the northward trend of the coast.

In two months they travelled 140 miles north. By mid-November, the weather having turned decidedly cold, they decided to winter on the banks of a large river.

Modestly, Hantzsch did not name it after himself, but others later did. It is today the Hantzsch River.

Next Week – Privation and Death on the Shores of Foxe Basin

Taissumani recounts a specific event of historic interest. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.