Arctic Passages: A Unique Small-Boat Journey Through the Great Northern Waterway

by John R. Bockstoce

In the summer of 1969 the only way John Bockstoce was able to reach Little Diomede, an island in the Bering Strait, was by umiak, a 35-foot, wood-framed Eskimo boat covered in walrus hide. This marked the beginning of his fascination with these vessels and his 20-year effort to traverse the Northwest Passage of the Bering Sea. Each summer from 1972 to 1989, Bockstoce and his crew (which ranged from Eskimo families to Oxford dons) returned to the Arctic to extend the voyage during the short traveling season using a umiak, and later a steel-hulled yacht. His passionate interest in Arctic geography and people illuminates the often hair-raising adventures through pack ice and gales, the delights of caribou stew and dried salmon, and the lore and comments of Eskimo friends who helped make the umiak and taught him whale-hunting.

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

John R. Bockstoce is an independent scholar and author of award-winning books, monographs, and articles on the Arctic. He has worked at the Smithsonian, the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was about one journey in an umiak through the Northwest Passage. Instead, it was about a number of journeys over 20 years in a variety of small boats from the west coast of the US to the east coast (NY). This left me wondering about the author's apparent wish to complete a route that he really didn't care about, judging by the amount of time he spent describing different parts of his journey. The journey from Greenland to New York, for example, is hardly discussed at all, which was fine with me but--well--why did he do it? He doesn't really say why and perhaps towards the end, completing the journey and describing the areas outside the arctic did not really interest him in the least.

Fortunately the book does concentrate heavily on the areas that I was most interested in--the northwest coast of Alaska and Canada between Barrow and Baffin Island. I particularly loved the detail east the McKenzie River, and the question of where Sir Franklin's men ended up is finally clear to me. His descriptions of the coast are amazingly readable, flow well despite what must have been heavy editing, and the author's style is engaging and at times dryly humorous. Unlike the books I've read on other NW passage voyages, there is no personal drama whatsoever. This is a bit unbelievable with people in close quarters in uncomfortable circumstances over long time periods. While this lack of anything but positive interpersonal relationships is understandable (since most of the travelers are probably still living), if you're looking for a book on how people might negatively interact under stressful circumstances, this is not the book for you.

However, if you are, as I am, interested in the geography, geology, natural history, and current condition of some of the northernmost habitable land in the world, this is the book for you. The author had numerous detailed, well-drawn maps interspersed throughout the text and one can accurately keep up with the narrative on the maps without having to go all the way to the front or back of the book. I appreciated this very much. I also appreciated the numerous photographs. They were all black and white, but that genre has its appeal as a descriptor of the arctic. As an arctic dweller myself, I appreciated their starkness. They were well chosen. I did find it a little surprising that National Geographic did not have any color photos in the later part of the book, as I believe one of their photographers was present on the journey at some point.

All in all a very worthwhile read and a great education on the NW passage and small boat travel in the far north.

[Jules]

917.98 boc