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Show "Northwest Passage"Awaits Trade L . ' "": ' - ' - By WILLIAM C. UTLEY r"" --S FOR centuries men have Strug- j;: ;:; .... s '':::'; : gled, frozen, drowned and lost a ft themselves in attempts to find mm Lijs 'aWiMMMmWMIi&l &MWiMM a Northwest Passage an all $:iMMiiM:& yMM$S;ii-:ii& IsEs',?'?!:! fPgllpiSiSliS I jySyIP:f:'!: water route through the American Wi?&Mt: dirSMw-iM 'Kr.-TI'f'ifiiiA continent that would permit Eu- I fttel ropean ships to reach the Orient I .JX! " sT? . ' "T-l ll without sailing around Cape Horn. Much of the exploration and set- ySJfJ tlement of North America has been tfff'$3fly;; directly attributable to the long-en- Ks Cr,i'"'mv-imm-v'.,, -!TnW5lTnii if i. during search. L WFTTTsl, fT ff J! 1 What is probably the nearest -" , VJ ? VPl II t'l" U 111 t-J thing to a practical Northwest Pass- FT ' , i I ? f If iff M'J ': 1 ''I f $ If I '-SJ age that will ever exist is the Hud- "jf flPlTiHlfc '' 1 Jfrja ? If j I 1 son Bay route, now undergoing de- ' - l!f I I l 'fg 1 & f J velopment by the Canadian govern- , fS'Fi" I v ment. By this route, ships from Eu- j W WLf vW'"Y - "1 ropean ports would sail through 1 ! f fl't - f Hudson Straits, coming far inland '"' - - ! Xi, fcl " across Hudson Bay to the old, but . newly improved port of Churchill, w-ISS :':!:s far up the bay on the west side. f CtO S A Hudson Bay railway, which J w......i.w...v..:.... ... JC-,. By WILLIAM C. UTLEY FOR centuries men have struggled, strug-gled, frozen, drowned and lost themselves in attempts to find a Northwest Passage an all water route through the American continent that would permit European Eu-ropean ships to reach the Orient without sailing around Cape Horn. Much of the exploration and settlement set-tlement of North America has been directly attributable to the long-enduring search. What is probably the nearest thing to a practical Northwest Passage Pass-age that will ever exist is the Hudson Hud-son Bay route, now undergoing development de-velopment by the Canadian government. govern-ment. By this route, ships from European Eu-ropean ports would sail through Hudson Straits, coming far Inland across Hudson Bay to the old, but newly improved port of Churchill, far up the bay on the west side. A Hudson Bay railway, which joins the Canadian National at Le Pas in Manitoba, has been built with its northern terminus in - Churchill. This will now allow ships unloading at Churchill to transfer their cargoes to railway rajs there, which will carry them across western Canada In Vancouver, Vancou-ver, where they may be placed aboard ship again and sent to sea on the final lap of Its journey to Japan, China, India or other Oriental Ori-ental markets. Such a route has several distinct advantages over the recognized routes of today, it Is claimed. The distance of travel from Churchill to Liverpool is about the same as that from Montreal, Quebec, St. John and Portland, and less than from New York, yet Churchill Is much farther Into the heart of Canada Can-ada and North America. To wheat farmers of Manitoba and western -- Canada it could be made vastly ' Important, for its supporters claim that it could lower the price of Canadian wheat four cents a bushel. bush-el. This, of course, would be of vital importance to wheat farmers In Minnesota and the Dakotas, for it would make Canadian wheat a much more serious competitor. Needs Oriental Trade. But to make It profitable for shipping companies to pick up cargoes car-goes of wheat at Churchill, bound for Liverpool and European ports, their ships must be able to bring pay loads into Churchill as well as take them out. The answer seems to be for the - shipping companies to develop the Oriental trade, so that ships can bring European manufactured goods to be transferred to rail for Vancouver Van-couver and the Orient, and pick up wheat at Churchill for the return trip. That this development will eventually come about is not at all improbable, for the Canadian government gov-ernment has spent more than $"7,-XX),000 $"7,-XX),000 in developing the Hudson Bay route In the past few years, and it is doubtful that such an outlay of capital will be satisfied with the handful of ships which have cleared Churchill harbor since the completion of the Hudson Bay railway five years ago. The history of this development Is fascinating because it Is heroic. Although he was not really the first adventurer to poke the nose of his ship Into Hudson Straits, It Is Ilendrik Hudson to whom goes the. honor of actually discovering the hay which now hears his name. lie found It In 1010 and wintered In the part of It known ns James hay. With a few sick sailors he was cast adrift In an open boat and that was the last ever heard of him. The first real occupation of the site of the present Churchill occurred oc-curred nine years later and was incidental to the search of Jens Munck, a Danish nobleman, for the Northwest Passage. There were j two ships In his company, but dur-y dur-y lug th winter he was forced to spend nt Churchill, all but Mnnck and fwn sailors perished. When the lee cleared In KTJO the same year the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Ply-mouth Uock the three of them sailed hack to Europe, leaving at Churchill as evidence of their visit a brass cannon, stamped with the Paiiish royal marl;. Two Frenchmen, Radisson and Crosiollers. spent the years from llViS to KV2 In the country about Churchill and returned home with tales of the wealth In furs that existed ex-isted ttiere. Puilins to Interest their countrymen, they told their stories to Prince Kttpert of Gre::t F.ritain. and under his direction, the Hudson I'.-iy company was formed. Most of the suhsenuent exploration Shown here is a graphic cross-section of life at the new port of Churchill. 1. A ship at one of the wharves in winter. 2. Native Eskimos fishing along the flat, barren coast. 3. The new 2,500,000-bushel grain elevator. 4. An Eskimo dog-team, principal mode of travel, with the exception ex-ception of the new Hudson Bay railway. was the result of this company's successful efforts to build up the fur trade. History of Exploration. Capt. James Young, under the auspices of the Hudson Bay company, com-pany, established a post at Churchill Church-ill in 1GS9, but It burned down shortly afterward. In the following two decades, Hudson Bay developments develop-ments suffered from the wars be: tween England and France, but in 1717 another post wa9 built at Churchill. Over a period of years following, the stronghold, Fort Prince of Wales was constructed, and the ruins of the fort are still a Churchill landmark. An Irishman, Sir Arthur Dobbs. sailed from Churchill in 1735 in another of the many efforts to find the Northwest Passage which are linked with the poet's history, but after several attempts he, too, was disappointed. On the rock near the port may still be seen the names of his two ships, Furnace and Discovery, Discov-ery, carved there by the sailors. Another An-other name hewn from Churchill rock Is that of Samuel Hearne, who, operating from Churchill as a base in the years from 1709 to 1772, uncovered much of the vast mineral min-eral wealth of the Hudson Bay country. The next really Important historical his-torical character In Churchill annals an-nals was another seeker for the elusive Northwest Passage. He-was Sir John Franklin, who spent the better part of three decades exploring ex-ploring the Arctic and Hudson Bay. On his third expedition, which left Churchill In the ships Erebus and Terror In lS-lfi, he found It to his sorrow. The log of the Terror revealed re-vealed that a Northwest Passage had been found to exist at last, but Franklin and all of his crew perished per-ished In the Arctic cold. With the growth of population In western Canada and the increasing Importance of the territory's agriculture, agri-culture, need began to he felt for larger markets. The best market, of course, was Europe, hut It was hard of access because of the lack of railroads connecting the western farm lands with a port. In l'.lOS the department of railways rail-ways and canals legan surveying the right of way for the railway, deciding to extend It from I Pas to Port Nelson, rather than to Churchill, because the cost of a line to Port Nelson was estimated at ?4.00O,(V less than one to Churchill. During the World war the project was abandoned. Port Nelson Is Abandoned. It was not taken up again until P.l'JO. During the eight years of Inactivity In-activity the line had deteriorated beyond use. It was decided that before beginning again, another survey should be made of the relative rela-tive merits of the Churchill and Port Nelson terminals, this time hy an Impartial engineer. The Churchill terminus won out. It had boon thought earlier, on incomplete data available, that the line to Churchill was virtually impossible im-possible of construction. It would have to he longer than the line to Port Nelson, and 7o mi'es of it would be through the frozen muskegs, mus-kegs, which It was believed would thaw out during the summer, thus damaging the roa!!.od liovonrl repair. re-pair. Put In lt'JT It was discovered that a gravel tii! over the nisp would act as a heat insulator and prevent it from thawing. Ilarhor possiMiltirs were much better at Churchill. Port Nelson could be entered only at high tide, and then would not admit ships of more than 20 feet draft, while at Churchill provision for 30-foot could be made at any tide. The cost of completing the work at Churchill was estimated to be less than at Port Nelson, and the engineers estimated esti-mated that it could be accomplished In three years less time. A permanent wharf was built, mooring buoys Installed, the channel chan-nel deepened and the harbor otherwise other-wise Improved. With the completion comple-tion of the railway, great freight sheds were constructed and cattle pens set up. Today the one outstanding landmark land-mark of Churchill from any approach ap-proach is the giant grain elevator. It is a towering white skyscraper that seems oddly out of place along the flat and barren shore, which is frozen the year round. It holds 2,-500,000 2,-500,000 bushels, and provisions have been made for enlarging this capacity ca-pacity to 10,000,000 bushels. Wheat stored there wdll "keep" almost indefinitely in-definitely because of the year-round low temperatures that produce natural nat-ural refrigeration. Patrol Ice Areas. Another imposing building is the power house, with its three generators gener-ators capable of carrying a load of 3,000 kilowatts. It takes power to operate the four grain car unloaders at the elevator, each capable of emptying eight cars, a total of 10,-000 10,-000 bushels, every hour. After the grain has been elevated It can be delivered to the deep-water wharf by a four-belt conveyor system which runs In a gallery. The shipping ship-ping gallery In Its 1,402 feet of length, provides berths at the wharf for three ships at one time under the gallery spouts. Twenty-three boat spouts make It possible to deliver de-liver four streams into ships at the rate of 20.000 bushels an hour for each stream. All of the port facilities are complete com-plete for present use. The next step in the development of the Hudson Kay route Is the Improvement of navigation In the bay itself and In Hudson strait. The waters are pa-trolled pa-trolled by a sen-going, ice-breaking tug. the Ocean Eagle, which makes scouting trips each year at the time the ice breaks up. It must he remembered re-membered that it Is very cold in this part of the bay territory; the mean yearly temperature Is about 17 degrees, and the strait and hay are navigable about six weeks of the year. The Canadian government operates oper-ates an Ice-breaker, the Stanley, tn keep the strait and bay open as long as possible and maintains an aerial patrol to kecj) navigators posted. About the only thing this new Northwest Passage route needs to become an Important factor in world commerce is shipping. In in.ll two ships cleared Churchill harbor; in lt'.'VJ, 10 ships; in ir'''..1. 10 ships; in ltr.-l. 15 ships. At the time of this writing only two ships had cleared Churchill harbor in the entire summer of IP."..". Should European Interests see fit to build up Churchill as a shipping point for manufactured gor-ls bound for the Orient, the shipping shnub multiply ninny times. Tl.e facilities rail. harVir and return pny-bci.; are there. The Cannilnns wbn hui'.t the Hudson p.ay route are Confident Con-fident tlu'it eventually ne-v Northwest P:.sage wid be a bj-. j .l:e. |