Four Degrees Celsius (14 page)

Brown and crew decided to try and walk to Muskox Lake to let Spence know the situation. They soon lost their bearings, and by nightfall had retraced their steps and headed back to 'SO. Upon reaching the plane they set about cooking their evening meal and tried to settle in for the night. The plane, being only fabric-covered, was freezing inside, and the small stove they had did little to warm the cargo-hold area. Sleeping arrangements were also a challenge because of the tilted floor — the men kept sliding about. Concerned about knocking over the stove while they slept, they determined that two would sleep while the third stood watch for two hours at a spell.
[18]
Whether they needed it or not, literary inspiration was at hand. Blanchet recalled that he “had a copy of Omar Khayyam and we rationed reading it aloud while the light lasted. Its philosophy is enlivening, but such passages as ‘a jug of wine and thou' only impressed on us the lack of both. Then would come the time for sleeping (and sliding) and for the night watchman with his cares and his thoughts.”
[19]

The three men at Muskox Lake couldn't understand why no one had come back to assist them. They were running low on food, and the waiting overshadowed all concerns. Since the repairs to the plane had been completed, they decided to warm the engine. But fuel was extremely low. Their only option was to wait for more to be brought to Muskox Lake before they could attempt the flight to Reliance. With the freezing temperatures, the men warmed their tent with the camp stove. This, however, produced gas fumes, and like Blanchet and Brown, their vision slowly began a painful deterioration. Once the throbbing in their eyes got bad enough, they would open the tent flap and let in the fresh, but frigid air.

Spence was assigned to cook what little food they had remaining, and Siers and Longley attempted to shoot anything on four legs. They were becoming desperate for aid. With the fluctuations in temperature inside the tent, their eiderdowns and clothing had become wet and therefore useless. Wet clothing and bedding are a very dangerous combination in the Arctic, as it is the loft in the feathers that traps pockets of warm air and provides insulation against the cold. Knowing this, and with their mood already dampened, the men were well aware that they faced an unequal struggle against nature. With minimal food or heat, they were on the brink of death.

Meanwhile, as they flew from Reliance to Resolution, Cruickshank and Walker were having trouble of their own.

Two More Planes Down

November 20, 1929

Andy's Diary, airborne to Resolution

Flew up over clouds. Couldn't get down thru to Resolution so flew north across Great Slave to Yellowknife [River] and managed to get down. Distance from Resolution to Yellow knife over open water [for] 90 miles. Stayed the night and made very comfortable camp. [I] found it impossible to fly in fog with no instruments and shall never try that again.

Mists covering the shoreline had driven Cruickshank off the hills and over the stormy Great Slave Lake. Skimming over the waves, his plane entered a fog bank so whitely opaque that it was almost as if he was flying in a bowl of milk. Cruickshank later wrote in his diary that flying in fog was something that no pilot liked to do since there is no sense of orientation. The pilot can think he is heading left when in fact he is heading right, and he can be gaining or losing altitude without knowing. As a seasoned pilot, Cruickshank remained vigilant in this very dangerous situation.

He was flying blind. Not only was there not enough information for his eyes to process what he was looking at, but he also had no instruments to guide him. With Cruickshank not having any altimeter or turn and bank gauges, Alf Walker was understandably anxious during the flight. As casually as was possible under the circumstances, he remarked, “I don't like this Lindbergh stuff!”
[1]
Finally, Cruickshank was able to break through the dense whiteness and find a safe place to land 'SQ. After the oil was drained from the engine, they promptly set up camp and put together a warm meal.

Next morning, November 21, they broke camp and got away, landing on a sand bar at Fort Resolution at 2:10 p.m., after another harrowing flight through more thick fog.
[2]
The sand bar was a piece of luck, since they had no other option when ski-equipped, and this far south of the Arctic Circle there were no frozen lakes for landing. Walker and Cruickshank stayed with Sergeant Clifford of the RCMP and his wife while in Resolution, their stay being extended by bad weather but made pleasant by Mrs. Clifford, who was “wonderfully kind to us and really made us feel at home.” However, Cruickshank's thoughts did not rest for long on the comforts of home, as his diary continues, “Must change prop if I go to look for Brown and Spence. Machine has no performance with this cut-off prop. [It] doesn't climb.”
[3]

Wires were sent to Stony Rapids, but the news that came back was not encouraging. Two planes, one owned by Dominion Explorers and the other by Consolidated Mining and Smelting, had been standing at Stony Rapids during the search and both had sustained damage upon arrival. In a particularly rough landing, pilot Ken Dewar of Consolidated Mining's plane CF-AAM had suffered a structural undercarriage failure, caused by the collapse of the framework supporting the skis and resulting in an aeronautical belly flop. His 'AAM would require some work before it could be declared airworthy again. Meanwhile, pilot Charles Sutton, flying Fairchild CF-AAN had gone through the rubbery ice while landing at Stony Rapids. Once both planes were repaired the pilots would head towards Reliance to assist in the flights to Winnipeg, if needed.

The media in Edmonton and Winnipeg were notified of the situation, and informed readers that Cruickshank was in Resolution requesting replacement planes. He and Walker then waited for the weather to lift so they could return to the Domex base at Fort Reliance.

On November 22,1929,
The Manitoba Free Press
reported that all members of the Dominion Explorers were safe at Fort Reliance: “Andy Cruickshank, senior Western Canada Airways pilot who has the responsibility for decisions … [believes] that flight on the homeward bound journey may be confidently essayed …” This came as welcome news to friends and family of the prospecting group. Several days had elapsed without any communication, and fears were mounting once again that the group was in trouble. In an interview and in the presence of an RCMP officer, Cruickshank reiterated that the MacAlpine party was safe at Reliance after being stranded on the Canadian Barrens by heavy storms and fogs for the past ten days. He continued to describe a very hard trip and adverse flying conditions.

On November 23, Andy Cruickshank and Alf Walker attempted to leave for Fort Reliance where the Domex men were waiting, but they had difficulty taking off due to the deep snow that had fallen during the last few days. Both men had worked into a sweat while clearing the snow, but the heat that warmed their bodies was quickly sucked away by the cold air. Their clothing crackling with frozen sweat, they continued shovelling to get down to the glare ice for the plane to reach maximum takeoff speed. It was a very difficult job. Once the skis were able to slide along the slick, icy runway they had created, 'SQ gathered speed and was soon airborne.

Within minutes, the weather turned into winter. Snowstorms made visibility a nightmare for Cruickshank. For most of the flight he had to fly lower than the height of the hills, along the shore of the vast Great Slave Lake, and over open water again. The forces of nature, nothing if not consistent, conspired against them yet another time: they couldn't make it back to the men at Reliance because of the formidable weather and nor could they carry on with the flight. They decided to make camp about halfway through their journey. It snowed as they slept, and the following morning they had a terrible time getting 'SQ out of the newly formed drifts that had gathered around its base. When they finally reached Fort Reliance on November 24, they discovered that Brown and Spence had still not returned.

A concerned Cruickshank immediately got the black gang overhauling 'SQ for the planned flight back into the Barrens to look for 'SO and 'CZ, but once more he would have to wait on the weather.

Since the snow showed no signs of letting up, dog teams were dispatched with food and messages to Spence, Siers, and Longley. Ten days had elapsed since the crash of 'CZ, and Spence and crew had not made their way to Reliance as planned. This could only mean they were unable to get the plane airworthy, or some other mishap had occurred. The four dog teams were comprised of a trader, who knew the area well, RCMP Corporal Williams, and two teams from the Dominion Explorers. Harnessing the dogs to their sleds was an art and a science. Like humans, sled dogs engage in feuds and so one could not be positioned near an “enemy,” or a massive tangle of harnesses and bared teeth would result, requiring time and patience to unravel the lines and pull the fighting canines apart. Despite the risk of chaos, these descendants of wolves were hard-working and intelligent. With final instructions and shouts from their masters, they became a united team, immediately falling silent, leaping at their harnesses as if their lives depended on it, and headed off into the bleak chalky white.

Nearly a week had passed since Roy Brown, Paul Davis, and Guy Blanchet had taken off with spare parts for Spence. Cruickshank had no idea where they were.

At Aylmer Lake, Roy Brown and the other two men were struggling to stay alive. They took turns standing “sentry duty” with a flare ready to shoot if they heard the flat drone of a plane, and keeping a vigilant eye on their small gas stove. Daily they waited and hoped that Cruickshank would come to their aid, and daily they were disappointed. Sometimes they thought they heard something, but it just turned out to be the wind or their imagination.

Days passed from brightness and gleaming white into shades of twilight, deepening into night. There was disappointment but we did not speak of the — tomorrow — perhaps Andy's crock — something might have happened at the base…. The North teaches patience, not perhaps in little things, but the patience of the Spirit that must meet the moods of nature through the long seasons and in the surrounding vast wilderness.”
[4]

In the face of freezing temperatures and high winds, it was essential to stay indoors as much as possible, but without their gas stove they would have frozen to death. Unfortunately, serious problems developed as a result. As Spence and his crew had also experienced, the fumes from the stove almost caused Blanchet, Davis, and Brown to go blind. Pain in their eyes signalled the need to clear the air, and they had to keep opening the door of 'SO, which resulted in heat loss. It became a vicious cycle. They could not stay warm without risking vision loss, but to save their eyesight they had to risk freezing to death.

At one point Blanchet nearly set the plane — a flimsy construction of fabric and gasoline tanks — into a raging inferno when some coals fell out of his pipe and landed on the upholstery of the seat. Once the smoke came to Blanchet's attention, he grabbed the seat and threw it out of the door. The wind then whipped up the flames into a fireball, fortunately away from the plane.
[5]

The three discussed the possible reasons why no plane had come looking for them. They were a mere three hours' flying time away from Fort Reliance, and although weather had been bad, they still felt a flight could have made it through. No matter what the topic of discussion, food was never far from their thoughts. They were always hungry. Their food supplies were dismal, their emergency ration box had been pillaged from previous flights, and they were reduced to boiling caribou bones several times for its meagre nourishment.

Paul Davis, Brown's mechanic, tried to make light of their situation. He chose the small cup and spoon from their kit, saying eating with the small utensils made his rations seem larger, and that made him think of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They discussed anything and everything — wine and women, as often as not — trying to avoid silence, which led to thinking and worry. Enlarging on the theme of women, one night Roy Brown commented, “When I get home, I expect that I'll meet my daughter [aged six weeks when he left] coming home from school.”
[6]
Davis did not respond to this story — “girls of six weeks did not interest him.”
[7]
He seemed to be a man of some experience, complaining to Brown one night that “he had never slept with anyone who had so many elbows and knees.”
[8]

On the 23rd, they decided to make a move and try to walk out. Paul Davis took a ski off 'SO and used their tarp to make a kind of toboggan. Towing the awkward contraption was arduous work for these hunger-weakened men as they trudged into the face of the raw, fierce Arctic snowstorm. Keeping their faces parallel to the ground to avoid the sting of the airborne ice crystals strained their backs even more. After only twelve miles they settled in for the night, on the ski, under the tarp. They cooked a meal, and the steam from the stove rose to the roof of the tarp and formed condensation, which froze. When the temperature rose inside their makeshift tent because of body heat, the frost melted, showering the men, who then, like Spence, Siers, and Longley at Muskox Lake, now had wet eiderdowns and clothing. Wisely, they made the decision to return to their plane the following morning to wait for either Cruickshank or Hollick-Kenyon to come to their aid. They did not speak of waiting for death.

During this time 'SQ was being readied for its return to the Barrens. The black gang had given the plane a ten-hour overhaul, but still it failed to achieve airworthy inspection. Cruickshank decided that the only way he could fly would be to temporarily borrow the spare parts of Hollick-Kenyon's grounded plane. He asked Walker to take the propeller from 'SL so 'SQ could reach maximum power when it flew back to the Barrens, and he also had the engineers install the tachometer and the altimeter from 'SL. On November 26, eleven days after leaving 'CZ at Muskox Lake, 'SQ headed back into the Barrens to bring fuel and food to Spence, and to look for Brown and crew of 'SO. That day, Andy Cruickshank recorded the events in his diary: “Took off for Muskox with two drums of gas and 400 lbs of rations at 8:15. Landed [at] Aylmer Lake. Found Brown's machine apparently crashed and at first sight saw no signs of occupation and got really nervous. After one circle party ran out of machine and [I] was greatly relieved.”

It had started as just another day of waiting for Brown and his crew but during breakfast they heard a faint hum. None of the men said a word, each just thinking it was his imagination, but the hum became progressively louder. Scrambling out of 'SO, Guy Blanchet lit the flare. Paul Davis hollered above the noise, “Good old Andy's crock!” Cruickshank wig-wagged 'SQ's wings and made a search for a safe place to land. Blanchet, Brown, and Davis were never so glad to see anyone in their lives. Cruickshank said he had sighted the wreck miles away and did not expect to find anyone alive. When he saw the men running about, his “Poor devils!” changed to “I'll be damned!” — expressing sincere sympathy and real pleasure.
[9]

Cruickshank filled them in on the news from Fort Reliance and said that since Spence had not returned, and Hollick-Kenyon's 'SL had developed a cracked cylinder, he and Walker had flown to Resolution and arranged for two relief planes to fly up from Stony Rapids to assist in the evacuation. He told them there was a genuine worry from the Domex men about ever reaching home, as it seemed each time a plane took off it did not return. Walker chimed in, explaining how their one-day flight to Resolution had turned into three, and then told of missing 'CZ and 'SO, adding to the anxiety that was felt. It appeared that the bad luck that had started with the sinking of the Fokker Super Universal in Churchill Harbour in late August was continuing to plague the group.

The men agreed that Cruickshank should head to Bill Spence and the men at Muskox Lake, where, he hoped, Siers and Longley had been able to repair 'CZ. He would then return for Blanchet, Brown, and Davis. Since days had passed, Cruickshank was concerned they must be out of food, unless one of the men had been successful with a gun. He and Walker readied 'SQ for the flight but unfortunately 'SQ developed a sticky valve, and then burst an oil line.
[10]
As daylight ebbed, there was no choice but to stay. The five men spent a very cramped night together in Cruickshank's tent. At least on this night they had food and new topics of conversation.