# HMCS Labrador - Secret Arctic Mission



## MARS (3 Nov 2008)

Reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from today's Ottawa Citizen

Link is here:
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=4861c252-8c3e-47b5-a2ce-a28c1046685e
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Sailor helped risky Arctic mission pay off for Canada
The 1954 voyage through the Northwest Passage by HMCS Labrador was charted by the intrepid Irvine, writes Andrew Duffy
Ottawa Citizen

Published: Sunday, November 02, 2008

OTTAWA - In 1954, a secretive Royal Canadian Navy mission through the Northwest Passage depended on a tall, Scottish sailor to see it safely through uncharted waters. 

Lieut. Thomas Irvine, then 30, had come to Canada four years earlier after serving in the Royal Naval Reserve and British Merchant Navy. 

He had joined HMCS Labrador in the summer of 1954 as the Canadian icebreaker embarked on its audacious maiden voyage: to become the first naval ship to circumnavigate North America using the fabled Arctic passage. 

Lieut. Irvine was Labrador's hydrographer. It was his job to map uncharted waters and provide a safe route for the ship  through Arctic channels made dangerous by underwater rock pinnacles and heavy polar ice.

"I think the Arctic appealed to him because it was one of the few frontiers left," Geoffrey Irvine said in an interview Sunday, one day after his father's funeral service.

Thomas Arthur Irvine died late last month at the age of 84 due to complications from a stroke.

Geoffrey Irvine, 55, said his father's life had been marked by adventure and quiet leadership. "These are men who lived in times of action that required little discussion and a lot of 'do'," he said. "That's the way he lived his life."

In 1954, there was much riding on the success of Labrador and its crew.

Naval commanders had authorized the mission because of fears that the U.S. was poised to send one of its Beaufort Sea icebreakers through the Northwest Passage from the west. Such a feat, military officials believed, would deal a serious blow to Canadian prestige and to the country's sovereignty claims over the Arctic.

But Canadian officials were so worried about the impact of a failed attempt by Labrador  that they kept its mission top secret. 

Not even the Royal Canadian Air Force was informed of the ship's route, according to Michael Whitby, head of the Naval History Team at the Department of National Defence.

"It was obviously risky to send a new, untried ship into such a hazardous environment - and the consequences of failure, like the fruits of success, could be immense," Mr. Whitby wrote in his account of the mission, published in the Spring, 2006 edition of Canadian Naval Review.  

The worst-case scenario, Mr. Whitby said, would have seen the Canadian ship towed to safety by a U.S. icebreaker.

The intrepid Lieut. Irvine, however, applied all of his skill to make sure the Labrador made history for all the right reasons. 

He would board a 36-foot survey boat, the Pogo - it was named for a popular cartoon character of the time - to take depth soundings at critical points in Labrador's journey. The work was dangerous, especially since the Pogo was a light, aluminum-hulled launch that pitched badly in high seas. (Engineers had concluded a steel hull was too heavy since the Pogo had to be raised and lowered from its berth aboard Labrador.)

Historian Eric Fernberg described the Pogo as a "tough little boat" in a 1996 volume of Canadian Military History. The boat is now the property of the Canadian War Museum.

"When one considers that the aluminum hull was only an eighth of an inch thick, any type of contact put the five-man crew at risk," Mr. Fernberg wrote. 

"Faced with the dangers of unexpected rocks, ice floes and occasional gales, the crew of the Pogo took depth soundings, reconnoitered shorelines, investigated possible harbour sites and gathered other vital information for Arctic navigation."

When the ice became heavy, the Labrador had to batter its way through. 

"At times, progress was measured by yards as we rammed and backed and rammed again," Lieut. Irvine would later write in his book about the mission, The Ice Was All Between. 

The Labrador completed the Northwest Passage in September 1954 and news of its accomplishment was then made known to the world. Seventeen reporters met the ship when it docked in Esquimalt, B.C. 

For Lieut. Irvine, the voyage launched what would prove a lifetime fascination with the Arctic.

After his retirement from the navy in 1970, Lieut. Irvine operated a consulting practice as an Arctic specialist, then served for 10 years in the Canadian Coast Guard, managing Arctic affairs. 

Even into his 70s, he made regular voyages to the Arctic as an ice master aboard cruise ships navigating the Northwest Passage. 

"He loved the wildness of the place," said his longtime friend, Len Forrest, 78, of Ottawa.

Lieut. Irvine spent much of his life at sea. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1924, the son of a Lloyd's of London marine insurance adjuster, he decided as a young boy that he wanted to be a sailor.

"The sea leads you places - and it always gave him a chance to do new things and explore new things," said his son, Geoffrey.

Thomas Irvine won a scholarship to the Thames Nautical Training College at the age of 15, and graduated two years later into the middle of the Second World War. He served as a midshipman in the Royal Naval Reserve on the cruisers HMS Newcastle and HMS Mauritius; the latter took part in the naval bombardment of Sicily. 

He was appointed sub-lieutenant and  served on HMS Lancaster Castle, which accompanied supply convoys to Russia. He completed his war service as a lieutenant on HMS Zest, a destroyer that patrolled the waters of northwest Europe. 

After the war, Lieut. Irvine qualified as a navy hydrographic surveyor and later joined the British Merchant Navy before moving to Canada. He married a Canadian, Rosemary Grier, and together they raised two children, Geoffrey and Victoria. 

Geoffrey said his father always stressed three things: "He said, 'Guide all your affairs with integrity; fear no man; and always give to those less fortunate than yourself'."

His father, he said, was a man of enormous character: honest, kind, humorous, but like many Scots, not particularly emotive.

Mr. Forrest said his friend loved to read, discuss books and tell stories. He would regularly meet on Fridays with a group of old sailors at the Mayflower Pub.  

"He was a Scot, a sailor and a most admirable friend," said Mr. Forrest. "He was a laughing fellow rover." 
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_Pogo_ was the tender at my first NRD and she was a lot of fun to train on.


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