11 

 Labrador 



ON Tuesday, ^th July, 1932, C/ia//en^er arrived at St. John's, 

 Newfoundland, and the Captain made the usual calls on 

 the Governor and the Prime Minister. Arrangements were 

 made for Captain Clarke, Master of one of the Newfoundland 

 Government steamers, and well acquainted with the northern 

 Labrador coast, to be embarked to act as pilot on the voyage 

 'down north', as they say in these parts. The coast of Labrador 

 is fringed with countless islands and islets and the sea-bed is ex- 

 tremely rugged with pinnacle rocks rising to within a few feet 

 of the surface. 



No better captain could have been chosen for this survey work 

 in Labrador than Commander Wyatt. He was a real seaman in 

 the very finest sense, navigation being second nature to him. In 

 his leisure moments he might be found sitting on the deck outside 

 his cabin sewing canvas or splicing wire rope. Officers and men 

 who sailed with Wyatt always had supreme confidence in his 

 ability as a seaman and, although a strict disciplinarian, he was well 

 loved by his ship's companies in Challenger. His speech was that 

 of a good old-fashioned seaman; one day the Boatswain was 

 baffled by the Captain ordering him to remove a mouse from the 

 forestay, a 'mouse' being a piece of spun-yarn wound round a 

 wire or rope to form a thickening. 



The Labrador coast is frozen in from December until the 

 spring, when the ice begins to break up. The ice disappears first 

 from the inshore areas, leaving icebergs here and there along the 

 coast, many of them grounded in the shallower water. The 

 melting bergs also 'calve' small pieces known as growlers, which 

 are very low in the water and are a real danger to a ship navi- 

 gating at night. For another six weeks or so the pack ice prevents 

 navigation in the waters offshore. 



For a ship to pass up the Labrador coast in late summer there 

 are two alternative routes, the open sea route or the inshore 



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