Day 7, Part 2 - l'Islet - June 16, 2017

Reviewing my notes from the C3 Expedition, here's what I wrote about the afternoon of June 16: "l'Islet was the most magical place I've ever been. Quite possibly the best day of my life." Needless to say, it left an impression. Sandra had so much joy and pride in her voice when she spoke of her hometown, I really shouldn't have been surprised. I totally get it.

Photo by Martin Lipman

l'Islet is a small town of about 4,000 people on the southeast shore of the St. Lawrence River. It didn't have a dock to accommodate Polar Prince, so Capt. Guy anchored us offshore and we Zodiac'd in. The tide affects the river here, and we arrived at low tide. The Zodiacs deposited us at the edge of a mudflat, which meant a walk of a few hundred meters to reach land.

Expedition leader, Geoff Green, shlepping a guitar across the mudflats. Photo by Martin Lipman.

Beyond the mudflats we had to crawl up a rock embankment about 30' high, to what is essentially the backyard of the town's museum, the Capitaine J.E. Bernier Musee Maritime du Quebec. (As a quick side note, one of our journey participants was 1976 Olympic rower, Guylaine Bernier, who also happened to be a relative of Capt. Bernier. Say wha?!? More on Guylaine later...)

Hundreds of people were waiting for us at the museum wharf, and they also got to witness us comically walking/falling/struggling through the mudflats too - quite the show! I was met partway across the flats by the advanced welcoming party, a couple of women who introduced themselves as staff of the Musee Maritime. One of them, Sophie, was the Director of the museum, so it was cool that she had taken the time to come and personally meet us. I worked at The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax for a few years, and I have a real passion for maritime museums. Of course I told Sophie how much I was looking forward to visiting her museum, that I used to work at the MMA, and that I am a big fat museum nerd!

We finally all made it ashore, and who was waiting there? Sandra's family! I got to meet her dad, her sister, and her two adorable little nephews. I also got to meet what felt like the entire population of l'Islet, as I'm sure most of them were there on the wharf. The language barrier was tough for me in this town, because I would have enjoyed talking to everyone unfettered, instead of in my broken French or with the help of a translator. ("Pourquoi, oh porquoi," I lamented to myself throughout the trip, "don't I parle francais?!?")

The back yard of the museum is quite an impressive public space. They have two museum ships, an historic sailboat, and an anchor yard.

Hydrofoil  HMCS Bras d'Or is parked here! Who knew?

This sailboat is called J.E. Bernier II.

The anchor yard is off the starboard side of  Ernest Lapointe, and that's the museum building behind it.

When I worked at the Maritime Museum in Halifax, I spent most of my time aboard museum ship CSS Acadia. She was built in 1913 for the Canadian Hydrographic Service, and served around the Maritimes, Hudsons Bay, and Newfoundland. She had a thick iron hull, so designed for light icebreaking duties frequently required of her up around Baffin Island. Our C3 vessel, Polar Prince, was launched some 46 years after CSS Acadia. She was built in 1959 for the Dept. of Transport Marine Service as the light icebreaker Sir Humphrey Gilbert, eventually being transferred to the newly created Canadian Coast Guard in 1962.  CCGS Ernest Lapointe, now docked at the Musee Maritime du Quebec in l'Islet, was launched in 1941, chronologically in the middle of Acadia and Polar Prince.

For me, Ernest Lapointe was sort of like "the missing link" between the elegant Edwardian sensibility of CSS Acadia and the practical Cold War aesthetic of Polar Prince. The three ships have a lot in common. They're all of similar size and hull shape. They have similar service records and carried out similar duties in overlapping regions. Ernest Lapointe and Polar Prince were built in the same yard, at Davie Shipbuilding in Quebec. Acadia was powered by triple-expansion steam engines; Ernest Lapointe was initially designed to be powered by triple-expansion steam engines, but the ship carrying the engines to Canada was sunk during World War II, and other engines had to be used instead. All three vessels have similar top speeds. I could go on and on (and in much greater detail) but I'll spare you.

Foredeck of Ernest Lapointe

This metal skylight, above Ernest Lapointe's engine room, is reminiscent of the teak skylight similarly positioned aboard CSS Acadia.  

Ernest Lapointe's navigation bridge is reminiscent of both Polar Prince's bridge and CSS Acadia's chart room.

We didn't get a chance to go below decks of Ernest Lapointe, but what I did see of her was really well maintained, and I was fascinated with the details.

The other museum ship maintained by the Musee Maritime is HMCS Bras d'Or (FHE 400).  When I finally realized what I was looking at, I was surprised and delighted.

This ship served out of Halifax from 1968 to 1971. It took me a while to clue in to what I was looking at, because that structure below the ship? It's not some crazy cradle. Bras d'Or is a hydrofoil! Believe it or not, it's part ship, part airplane. Seriously. When she was in service, the helmsman had to be qualified as a sea pilot and an aircraft pilot. 

From her wikipedia page: 

"Bras d'Or first flew on 9 April 1969 near Chebucto Head off the entrance to Halifax Harbour. The vessel exhibited extraordinary stability in rough weather, frequently more stable at 40 knots (70 km/h; 50 mph) than a conventional ship at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Bras d'Or exceeded 63 knots (117 km/h; 72 mph) on trials, quite possibly making her the fastest warship ever built. It was however, never fitted with equipment for warfare (no weapons or weapon systems) and the title now lies with the Norwegian Skjold-class corvettes that do 60 knots (110 km/h; 70 mph), fully equipped."

There are a few videos online of HMCS Bras d'Or underway, but I chose this one because the uploader has set it to the "Top Gun" theme - hahaha.

The Canadian Navy's experimental hydrofoil program ended abruptly in 1971 after a change in policy, and she was donated to the Musee Maritime du Quebec a few years later. 

So now that we've covered what is outside the museum, let's move inside...

We were pretty mucky from our walk across the mudflats, but someone had the foresight to hook up a garden hose and give us all a good rinse we before we headed to the official reception in the museum's boat shed. The boat shed was packed, and it was great reception. There were the usual speeches one would expect, plus they had a small choir sing for us.

The choir was wonderful, and they looked super sharp in their white and navy stripes.

Our very own musicians Andrea Menard, Heather Rankin, and Alex Cuba contributed to the festivities by each singing a song as well. There was a Grade Two class in attendance, who brought with them a very special gift. Each student wrote a letter to another student who lives way up north. They packaged their letters and a few other small gifts in a treasure box they had made, and the C3 ship is carrying the package to be delivered to the students upon arrival in Pond Inlet. 

Student, teacher, and expedition leader! Photo by Martin Lipman.

After the reception, the incredible hospitality team somehow arranged a barbecue for us at the museum, and while we waited for Matt, Jason, and Shazad to grill the kabobs, we milled around and took in the beautiful scene. Sophie, the director of the museum, tracked me down after our initial meeting on the mudflats and offered me a private tour of the museum's storage area. The invitation was extended to Geoff, and off we went for a behind the scenes peak at some really cool artifacts recovered from the wreck of the Empress of Ireland.  The Empress sank in the St. Lawrence River after a collision in 1913. Of the 1,477 people on board, 1,012 died, and it is the largest loss of life of any Canadian maritime accident in peacetime. 

Some of the items in storage include these wine bottles, recovered from the wreck of Empress of Ireland.

Sophie chose one to give us a close-up look. They somehow survived with wine still in them!

This is the leg from a piano in one of the salons of Empress of Ireland.

There were also racks and racks of ships portraits that we had a peak at while we were back there, and some of Capt. Bernier's (the museum's namesake) personal belongings that aren't on display, including this unique piece of furniture:

It's a stool made out of whale vertebrae!

After our private tour of the storage area, we ate our delightful picnic/barbecue, and then Sophie gave us a tour of the rest of the museum, focusing on the expeditions and personal belongings of Capt. J. E. Bernier.  Bernier is known for making many northern expeditions, and for claiming for Canada in 1909 the entire arctic, from the west border to the eastern borders of Canada extending all the way to the North Pole. And he was born right there in l'Islet! I'm surprised at myself for this, but I had never heard of J. E. Bernier. When I think of northern explorers, I think first of the Franklin Expedition. The big difference between Bernier and Franklin, was that Bernier was really good at his job, and Franklin was absolute shite. History seems to have painted Franklin as this heroic and tragic figure who had the fates against him, but in my opinion this is not true; Franklin was an arrogant idiot.

When Bernier headed north, unlike Franklin, he developed personal relationships with the Inuit, learned the language, asked for help and guidance when he needed it, and listened to their counsel. Like any smart traveler, he made nice with the locals. The museum has many of his personal articles on display, like these office supplies:

Bernier's typewriter and business card engraving. 

Space is always at a premium aboard ship. Bernier's typewriter is foldable!

After our tour, Sophie had an extra special item to show us. Bernier's custom, hand-made snow suit is part of the museum's collection, but is not on display. (I suspect it is kept in cold storage so it doesn't deteriorate.)

Captain Bernier's parka.

The suit is absolutely beautiful, and is made of several different pelts. It was most likely made by an Inuit woman named Qulittalik. Qulittalik and the other women in her community were instrumental to the success of Bernier's expedition, dressing the entire crew in appropriate attire. Legend has it that Bernier never once suffered from the Arctic cold, thanks to the traditional knowledge and fine craftsmanship of Qulittalik. 

After our tour of the museum, l'Islet had another surprise for us. We were invited to the quarter deck of Ernest Lapointe for a sunset ceremony presented to us by the local Sea Cadet troupe.

These kids were young, like maybe 10-13 years old, and could not have been playing for very long. What confidence and gusto! I'm not just a maritime museum nerd. I'm also a band geek.  THIS DAY HAD IT ALL!!!! Not only did they do a classic sunset flag-lowering ceremony for us, they offered to parade us to our next stop which was a ten-minute walk down the main drag of l'Islet. Hello, New Orleans style parade! Off we went with the band leading the way. They didn't just know O Canada and the usual catalogue of marches. They also played Bruno Mars, The White Stripes, and other songs too hip for me to know. We picked up a few pedestrians along the way, and cars and even a tractor slowed down and honked for us. It was pretty great.

Our next destination in l'Islet was the Chappelle Saint-Joseph-Secours-des-Marins. Built in 1834, this elegant little chapel is a tribute to the hundreds of sailors who were born in l'Islet who lost their lives at sea.

We were invited by the minister to have a blessing bestowed upon us and the entire C3 expedition, which started with Carole ringing the chapel bell.

After the welcome and blessing, l'Islet surprised us again with another musical performance. These two sang us three songs, acapella.

One would expect the mood to be fairly serious and sombre, but that is not the l'Islet way. Their opening number was a drinking song that was hilarious (yes, even in French I got the humour.)

The gist of the song is that they keep drinking, verse after verse, and by verse three they were stumbling all over the place. I wish I had video of the whole thing, but I wanted to see it in real life and not through an electronic screen! I also wish I caught their names, but like so many of our days on C3, there was so much to take in it was hard to document everything. (Please comment if you know who they are!)

The duo performed three songs for us, and then Geoff got up to thank them for the delightful concert. He was so moved by the enthusiasm and charm of these performers, he was inspired to start his singing career, right then and there. Using his cell phone to read all the words, he sang Stan Rogers' "Northwest Passage", and lucky for his unsuspecting audience, the man can sing! I was sitting between two francophones, Guylaine and Dardia, and they weren't familiar with the song at all. Inspired by Geoff and his phone, I quickly googled the words on my phone, and we gathered in and sang along, like we were gathered around a hymnal. Other people in other pews quickly did the same thing and it turned into a rousing sing-along by the lot of us. 

That's sort of when it hit me, and Dardia agreed, that during our time in l'Islet it felt like we were watching a movie, except that we were also in the movie. Like "Amelie" or "The Truman Show" or some other whimsical comedy. It was a perfect day.

Next up, it was time to head back to the ship. When we arrived in l'Islet the tide was low, but by the time we left it was high and we were able to avoid the muddy walk back to the Zodiacs and instead board them at a nearby boat launch. This was another short walk from the chapel, and the cadet band once again lead the way. The boat launch is next to a campground, and when the campers heard the ruckus headed down the street toward them they all came out to see what was going on.  The crowd as we left l'Islet was as big as when we arrived. The mayor came out for our departure too, and handed out souvenir gifts to each of us from the town. They had already given us so much, but each of us got a gift bag containing a l'Islet branded screwdriver keychain, a set of Bernier postcards, a homemade book about the legends of l'Islet, and a few other small tokens.

The day was tremendous, never to be matched again. A day I will never forget.