[QUOTE=ombugge;190030]I have been told that my Great Grandmother, who came from there was somehow connected with the builder of the Gjoa.
She grounded and sunk in the Lofoten Islands in 1882, but was salvage and restored.[/QUOTE]
Now THAT’S an amazing story. Those Norwegian grandmothers are tough, aren’t they?*
The group that did the salvage was sponsored by a corporation, but organized as a non-profit society. Likewise, the construction of the museum at Vollan is by a private organization, not by the Norwegian Government.
Yes they brought a tug and barge, plus much of their equipment and manpower from Norway. No Canadian grant or expenses were spent on this project.
Yes. Well. Obviously I was not consulted. Oslo is chock full of attractions. It will take a hundred years to do the archeology for the ancient ships sunk right there in its own harbour. I saw some of that treasure while I was at Bygdoy. I’d be surprised if the Maud attracted any more new visitors who weren’t coming already to see the mountains of nautical history already on display. The Maud has more meaning where she is and has been. And there’s more money to be made attracting people to the Arctic than spoon feeding them in Oslo. How many people cruise up to Svalbard every year to look at the radio masts?
I don’t know if they paid Pilotage thought. (Are there any Pilots in that area?)
I was trying to make a joke about the Maud getting impounded and that Viking raider ship’s trouble trying to get to Lake Wobegone, or where-ever they were going. Often I’m not as funny as I think I am.
The Maud had no other connection to that area than that she was used as a floating warehouse for a few years and sunk there.
I disagree. She’s been part of the landscape since the 1930s. Landscape is important in the north. The way they tell their stories has everything to do with what-is-where. On the little islands near Baffin, Martin Frobisher is remembered because he left some bricks behind and cut a little scar into a cliff-face. What was that? 450 year ago? Amundsen and crew may have left some genetic legacy, but they didn’t leave much on the landscape, except Maud.
http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674Ottawa_nixes_export_permit_for_maud/
This article makes it sound like an administrative dispute, but can you imagine how far away from Ottawa Cambridge Bay is? There’s very little motivation to place local culture in the hands of the “south.”
She did become the inspiration and template for the first true Arctic ship built in and for Canada. That would have been a better ship to display up there. What happened to the RCMP vessel St. Roch anyhow?
Lee Shore is correct. She’s the gem of the museum. Worth a visit if you happen to arrive on Vancouver by, say, cruise ship. Not as easy to get to as Gas Town, but how many sets of sexy mountie pajamas, clever puns about beaver, and stunned tourists blocking the walkway do you really need? Go to the museum.
