Author Description

Stuck in the ice-pack during the winter of 1924-25, the Jean Revillon needed repair and a crew to make it back to its hauling location at Shelburne, Nova Scotia. And so, in 1925, Lionel Angotegoar, Athanasie Angutitaq, Louis Tapatai, and Savikataaq from the central Canadian Arctic manned the ship from Qamani'tuaq (Baker Lake), in contemporary Nunavut, to southern Canada. Having brought the ship to safe harbour, they spent the winter in the South and returned home the next spring. In relating their experience on their return they provided first-hand accounts of life in the South. Various points-of-view contribute to the broadest possible understanding of the journey, since the Inuit sailors, the Revillon family and the people associated with the shipbuilding industry or the fur trade were involved in the trip per se to various degrees.