Vancouver Maritime Museum

Henry Larsen’s Ugly Duckling with Doreen Larsen Riedel

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When

Event is over.

Price

Free with museum admission.

Categories

Museums, Forums & Talks

Join arctic historian Doreen Larsen Riedel as she presents some of the lesser known facts about the St. Roch and it's unique design. The St Roch you can see today in the Vancouver Maritime Museum is not like she looked when she first went into the Arctic in 1928, nor during the 12 years she carried supplies and people, and represented every department of the Canadian Government , from Herschel Island and along Coronation Gulf to King William Island or in 1940-42 when she struggled on through the Northwest Passage to Halifax. Henry Larsen loved this little ship although he described her as the most uncomfortable vessel he had ever been on. As a youngster, Larsen had dreamed of going to the Arctic like the Norwegian hero, Amundsen, whose family lived on an island adjacent to his own.
When I asked him why he had taken the St Roch into the Arctic if she had so many faults, he replied, “Well you see, that was the only ship I had."

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Places to go nearby approx. 15 minutes away