Joseph elzear bernier biography examples

She had a wooden hull, three masts and a relatively low-powered steam engine that drove her at no more than seven knots. Inside, however, she was well-nigh state of the art, with a steam-driven generator, radio, and comfortable crew quarters. Bernier did not look particularly like an Arctic explorer.

Joseph elzear bernier biography examples: Born at L'Islet-sur-Mer on Jan. 1,

He was 53 years old, five feet four inches tall and weighed pounds. In future years he became even more rotund. Nevertheless, he was a born leader, bilingual, charismatic, and men volunteered repeatedly to serve under him. Ultimately, he would undertake 10 voyages to the Arctic, the last at the age of The Canadian polar expedition was to sail inbut the government diverted the CGS Arctic to another assignment.

It was not a happy experience for him. Not only had his polar dream been postponed, but while he commanded the ship, Inspector J. Moodie of the North West Mounted Police was in charge of the expedition. The two men did not blend well; Bernier considered Moodie to be a martinet. When opinions were divided over what action to take on a particular issue, the issue would be decided by a committee of personnel—not a good way to operate in the Far North.

Moodie brought back alarming reports of foreign whalers operating unregulated in the area. The Canadian government was probably unconcerned about the whales, but the whalers themselves represented an unauthorized intrusion into Canadian waters, the tip of a potential sovereignty challenge. The polar expedition was again put off; Bernier and the CGS Arctic had a new task, that of establishing and exerting a Canadian presence in the Arctic Archipelago.

It was a terrible blow, yet Bernier recognized the significance of the new assignment. His first sovereignty cruise in set a pattern for years to come. He sailed from Quebec with some tons of coal and returned a year later with less than 40 tons.

Joseph elzear bernier biography examples: Joseph-Elzear Bernier was a

In between he had cruised as far west to what is called Melville Island, wintered in Pond Inlet, then explored Jones Sound. To demonstrate Canadian sovereignty, he issued licences and collected permit fees from foreign whalers. Bernier also sent men ashore to build cairns, deposit documents and erect flagpoles. In some places they discovered cairns and caches that had been created decades earlier by British explorers.

At other points the crew of the CGS Arctic found evidence that a more recent traveller had preceded them—Otto Sverdrup, a former colleague of Nansen, who was now staking out territorial claims on behalf of Norway. Most of the major Arctic features had been named earlier by British explorers, honouring monarchs King William Islandscientific figures Banks Islandeven a gin distiller who had financed an expedition Boothia Peninsula.

Bernier sprinkled the North with Canadian names, such as the Brodeur Peninsula, located on the west side of Baffin Island and named after the minister of marine and fisheries. In the summer ofQuebec City was celebrating its th anniversary. On hand for the celebrations was a Royal Navy squadron. Bernier was invited aboard the flagship to show his charts to interested officers, including the future King George V.

A few days later, as the CGS Arctic departed on her next cruise, she was herself saluted by the warships. That summer Bernier got as far west as Melville Island, and on July 1,he erected a tablet which officially claimed the Arctic Archipelago for Canada. It was during the expedition that Bernier committed a singular act of selfless devotion to duty.

On Aug. This feat had been accomplished only once before—by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in and never in a single season. Bernier, bent on his mission to confirm Canadian sovereignty in the region, declined to deviate from his instructions. He refused even to radio for permission to force the passage. He confided his disappointment to his journal, and later to his memoirs.

When he sailed again to the Arctic in his orders included a paragraph that he could, at his discretion, sail through the Northwest Passage, but the opportunity never again presented itself. His crews did not hibernate each winter. Whenever possible, his men set out—sometimes with dog teams, sometimes dragging sledges—to explore whatever land they were laid up against, collecting rock samples, checking for coal deposits, taking inventory of the flora and fauna.

References [ edit ]. The Tyee. Retrieved The most famous articulation of this "sector theory" was made by Senator Pascal Poirier inand, two years later, Captain J. Bernier of the C. However, apart from the Soviet Union, which attempted a similar claim, other countries did not accept the sector theory. Archived from the original on Retrieved January 21, External links [ edit ].

Authority control databases. In he gave a lecture before the Quebec Geographical Society expounding on both how he might reach the North Pole by ship and dog-team and how he might sail through the Northwest Passage. This created a stir.

Joseph elzear bernier biography examples: Joseph-Elzéar Bernier, who became

He resigned from the jail and started campaigning. What appeared to be a key to the realization of his dreams in was the availability of a stoutly built ton sailing ship with an auxiliary steam engine. This was the Gauss, named for a German astronomer and magnetician, built in Kiel in for a two-year Antarctic expedition that had been successfully completed.

But, alas, the government had surprising and disappointing plans for Bernier. Instead of heading his own expedition to the North Pole, he was to serve only as master of the Arctic for a year-long patrol of the Northwest Mounted Police into Hudson Bay to control foreign traders and whalers. InInuit descendents of Caron and Panikpak came to Islet to meet with other members of the Caron family in Quebec.

The family reunion was warm and moving. They had just participated in the inauguration of the exhibition devoted to their ancestor, Captain Bernier and their Inuit and Quebecois friends. Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn. More than a destination! Routes What to do? Ajouter aux favoris Enlever aux favoris. Arts and culture Blue — Service in French at all times.