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Inner passage
waterway near Cape Fox. |
July 23, 2001 - Cape Fox, Metlakatla
Village/Ketchikan
The expedition travels though Alaska's Inside Passage,
visiting Old Cape Fox Village and Metlakatla Village on
Annette Island. With permission of Saanya Kwaan tribe
elders and leaders, the expedition lands at Old Cape Fox
Village to honor Saanya Kwaan tribe history. Tribe
members will join the expedition and travel with the ship to
Metlakatla and Ketchikan. Old Cape Fox Village artifacts
originally gathered by the 1899 expedition, and subsequently
housed in U.S. museums, will be repatriated. In Ketchikan,
the Saanya Kwaan will host a "welcome home"
celebration whose theme is "100 Years of Healing," honoring
the spirits of the objects and commemorating the
repatriation.
July 24, 2001 - Wrangell and
Farragut Bay
The ship will cruise through the Wrangell Narrows,
making a port call in the town of Wrangell. Russian fur
traders, looking to block the Hudson Bay Company's advances
via British Columbia, established Wrangell in 1834. The
Clipper Odyssey anchors for the evening at Farragut
Bay, where in 1899, scientists conducted collecting
trips.
July 25, 2001 - Taku Harbor
and Juneau
After a brief stop in Taku Harbor, where C. Hart Merriam
surveyed small mammals, the ship will dock in Juneau for the
night.
July 26, 2001 - Skagway and
the Railway to White Pass, Yukon Territory
The expedition will navigate through Lynn Canal to
Skagway, then ride the White Pass Railroad to the summit of
White Pass, gateway to the Klondike. In 1899, Skagway was a
two-year-old boomtown, with a population of 3,117. E.H.
Harriman wanted to see the narrow gauge railroad and the
engineering feat required for its construction. The day's
theme is ecotourism and its role in Alaska's continually
evolving coastal the economy.
July 27, 2001 - Peril Strait
and Sitka
As in 1899, the expedition will spend a day at Sitka,
once the territorial capital of Alaska. Continuing the theme
of economic development and the environment, the ship's
visit will be hosted by Sitka community representatives.
Together we will explore Sitka's history, from Russian fur
trading to contemporary issues involving the changing role
of logging and forest products in Sitka's future.
July 28, 2001 - Point
Adolphus and Glacier Bay
The Clipper Odyssey passes Point Adolphus in Icy
Strait, a rich feeding ground for whales, before entering
Glacier Bay. The granite peaked entrance to Glacier Bay and
crystalline icebergs were, even in Harriman's day, a favored
touring spot. Today, this glacial ecosystem is a National
Park, a Biosphere Reserve and an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Members of the Glacier Bay community will join the ship as
it cruises the bay, to discuss the opportunities and
challenges they face in preserving and managing this
magnificent resource.
July 29, 2001 - Yakutat Bay,
the Hubbard Glacier and Yakutat Village
The ship enters Disenchantment Bay, named in 1791 by the
Italian navigator Alejandro Malaspina, who sadly discovered
that the bay was not the elusive Northwest Passage to Asia.
The expedition will see the Hubbard and Malaspina Glaciers,
and visit the Tlingit village of Yakutat. At Yakutat,
members of the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe will host our visit,
focusing on their history and culture.
July 30, 2001 - Kayak
Island
The expedition passes Mt. St. Elias and cruises to Kayak
Island, site of one of the earliest European
explorations.
July 31, 2001 - Prince
William Sound: Cordova and Valdez
Passing Orca, where the G.W. Elder stopped in
1899 for repairs, the Clipper Odyssey anchors off
Cordova, near the Chugach National Forest. The Cordova
community hosts our visit with an introduction to Prince
William Sound. A panel of scientists and industry leaders
will join the ship to discuss Alaska's oil economy, the
political and environmental effects of the Exxon
Valdez oil spill, and the future of Prince William
Sound. The ship proceeds through the Valdez Narrows to
Valdez, terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
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College
Fiord, Prince William Sound, 1999. |
August 1, 2001 - Prince William Sound: Columbia Glacier,
College Fjord and Harriman Fjord
Sailing through Prince William Sound, the expedition
will pass glacier after glacier named by the Harriman
Expedition in 1899, including the College Fiord glaciers
named for Yale, Harvard and Smith College. The ship sails
through Doran Strait, named in 1899 to honor Capt. Peter
Doran, the G.W. Elder's captain. At this point the
Clipper Odyssey enters the long, narrow fiord first
explored by the original 1899 expedition, and from that day
forward, called the Harriman Fiord.
August 2, 2001 - Prince
William Sound: Knight Island and LaTouche Island
As with the original expedition, the ship will explore
Prince William Sound for a second day, surveying LaTouche
and Knight Islands. E. H. Harriman and W.B Devereux were
particularly interested in LaTouche Island's copper mining
operation.
August 3, 2001 - Chiswell
Islands, Nuka Bay, Seldovia Bay
The Clipper Odyssey will sail through the
Chiswells, an archipelago of small, rocky islands off the
Kenai Peninsula that are home to thousands of birds and sea
mammals.
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Walkway built
near Halibut Cove in south-central Alaska. |
August 4, 2001 - Homer
Our ship will dock at Homer for the day to take on
provisions and water. Just after midnight, we set sail on
the second leg of the journey, making our way toward the
open waters of the North Pacific and Bering Sea.
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Biologists
examine a Tufted Puffin in breeding plumage found
in the wildlife-rich waters near the Chiswells,
1999. |
August 5, 2001 - Kenai Fjords and Barren Islands
The ship sails the coast of the Kenai Fiords National
Park, known for its high diversity of wildlife and
ecosystems, including one of the largest icefields in North
America (50 by 30 miles). Our exploration extends to the
Barren Islands where we survey seabirds and sea lions.
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Kodiak bears
in water, Kodiak Island. |
August 6, 2001 - Kodiak
Island and Kupreanof Strait
We dock at Kodiak, Alaska's largest island, and site of
the 1899 Fourth of July celebration, parade, and kayak
races. In the midst of the patriotic celebration, Charles
Keeler read a lengthy diatribe against U.S. intervention in
the Philippines, which was duly noted, but did not dampen
the festivities. It was also on Kodiak that E.H. Harriman
eventually shot his bear. The Kodiak community will host a
series of site visits exploring the Native and Russian
history of the island, as well as the marine science
research that supports Kodiak's extensive fishing
industry.
August 7, 2001 - Kukak Bay
and Geographic Harbor, Katmai National Park and Preserve
The expedition begins its survey of the Alaskan
Peninsula, with landings in the Katmai National Park and
Preserve, including Geographic Harbor and Kukak Bay. In
1899, a scientific party of 6 spent a week in Kukak Bay
collecting and botanizing. The collecting party could not
have imagined the cataclysmic event that would occur in the
region, 13 years later. Within what is now Katmai's
boundaries, the Novarupta Volcano exploded in 1912,
displacing seven cubic miles of the earth's crust. A
landscape resulted that contained thousands of geysers
reaching 500-1000 feet into the air. Our surveys of the
Park's 10-mile wide Shelikof Strait coastal zone will touch
a minute portion of Katmai's four million acres.
August 8, 2001 - Chirikof and
Semidi Islands
As the ship makes its way to the Aleutian Chain, we
enter waters considered to be among the richest fishing
grounds on earth. Species at the center of this North
Pacific fishery are halibut, pollack, salmon, and king crab.
We will see the ecological and social influence of this vast
resource as we explore the Chirikof and Semidi Islands, the
former named for the second-in-command on the Bering
Expedition of 1741.
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Sea lions
resting near Popof Island, 1999. |
August 9, 2001 - Popof and
Unga, Shumagin Islands
The ship will anchor off Popof Island, within the
Shumagin Islands group. In 1899, several of the scientists
left the Elder for a ten-day camping and survey trip
to examine the intertidal zone and the islands volcanic
formations. With a naturalist's curiosity, these scientists
began to gather geological observations in one of the most
tectonically active areas on earth. Though no unified theory
existed in 1899, the early stirrings of geologists such as
those on the Harriman Expedition led to the eventual
development of the Theory of Plate Tectonics.
August 10, 2001 - High
Island, Unimak Island and Unimak Pass
The Clipper Odyssey enters the Aleutian Chain
with a landing on Unimak Island. From this point, the
Aleutians extend for another 1000 miles into the North
Pacific, establishing the most western point in the United
States. The near perfect cone of Shishaldin Volcano
dominates Unimak's landscape. Being the largest volcano in
Aleutians, it rises 9,373 ft. above sea level. Shishaldin is
also one of the more volcanically active in the Chain,
erupting at least 27 times since 1775.
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Murres on
rock, Dutch Harbor. |
August 11, 2001 - Dutch
Harbor, Unalaska and Bogoslof Island
The first activity of the day is a port call at Dutch
Harbor, where John Burroughs, wracked by constant
seasickness, tried to jump ship in 1899. In Dutch Harbor, a
gateway to the Bering Sea ecosystem, a panel of fisherman,
scientists and policymakers will join our discussion
concerning the role of the international fishing industry in
the region. In the afternoon the expedition will approach
the volcanic Bogoslof Island, which is actually two
volcanoes joined. In 1796, Old Bogoslof emerged out of the
Bering Sea. Then, 87 years later, in 1883, just 16 years
prior to the Harriman Expedition, new Bogoslof rose from the
ocean floor. From our vantage point on the Rim of
Fire, we will explore plate tectonics and the recovery
efforts for the Stellar sea lion.
August 12, 2001 - St. George,
Pribilof Islands
The Clipper Odyssey visits St. George, Pribilof
Islands, in the Bering Sea. This is our first landing in the
tiny archipelago known as the "seal islands." The open
tundra habitat is wetted constantly with rain and fog,
making the summer wildflower bloom second to none. We begin
a series of island landings where seabirds dominate the
cliffscapes.
August 13, 2001 - St. Paul,
Pribilof Islands
The ship visits St. Paul Island, site of a
government-regulated seal rookery in 1899. In fact, because
the fur seal remained an important and internationally
contested resource, the Harriman party had to obtain a
landing permit from the Secretary of Treasury in preparation
for the expedition. The fur seals, which spend the majority
of the year at sea in the North Pacific, haul out by the
thousands to breed in the Pribilofs. The seal colony that C.
Hart Merriam was so anxious to see in 1899, is today the
largest northern seal rookery in the world.
August 14, 2001 - St.
Matthews Island and Hall Island
From the Pribilofs, we sail almost due north to St.
Matthews Island where, in 1899, E.H. Harriman tried once
again to bag a bear. With Edward Curtis' assistance. U.S.
Biological Survey ornithologist Albert Fisher set out to
identify and collect birds. Records indicate that Fisher and
Curtis had a more productive outing than Mr. Harriman. In
the afternoon, the Clipper Odyssey weighs anchor and
sails to Hall Island, which, in 1899, Fuertes found to be an
ornithologist's dream. Like Fuertes, we will survey
thousands of seabirds including auklets, murres, puffins,
kittiwakes, fulmars cormorants, and guillemots.
August 15, 2001 - Boxer Bay
and Gambell, St. Lawrence Island
We continue our voyage toward the Arctic Circle and one
of the largest of the Bering Sea islands, St. Lawrence. With
a morning landing, we will explore the rocky beach and
adjacent tundra that contains marshlands and ponds. In the
afternoon we sail to the northwestern end of St. Lawrence
Island, to the Yup'ik Eskimo village, Gambell. The landform
on the northeastern horizon is Siberia's Chukotsk Peninsula,
just 38 miles away as the Thick-billed Murre flies. We visit
the village whose 300 residents remain dependent on
subsistence hunting and its traditions. One of these
traditions, ivory and bone carving, is expressed in both
practical forms as well as fine art.
August 16, 2001 - Teller,
Little Diomede Island, Arctic Circle
The ship passes Port Clarence, perched on the tip of a
long crescent-shaped sandspit that forms the bay separating
Teller and Port Clarence. In 1899, the population of Port
Clarence was 485, split about evenly between Yup'ik Eskimo
and foreign visitors. Today, Port Clarence is an U.S. Coast
Guard base with 24 personnel operating LORAN long-range
navigational equipment. Continuing across the bay, we anchor
and visit the small town of Teller, population 281, located
on the Seward Peninsula. Teller is a traditional,
subsistence hunting Kawerak Eskimo village whose livelihood
heavily depends upon the use of seals, fish, beluga whales,
and reindeer that are harvested from a herd that ranges in
the area.
Upon leaving the bay and passing the station at Port Clarence, the Clipper Odyssey sails into true oceanic wilderness as we make our way toward the Arctic Circle. In late afternoon we approach Little Diomede Island and its only village, Diomede, population 133. It is a traditional Ingalikmiut Eskimo village with a subsistence lifestyle where polar bears are a fact of life, and seal and walrus hides are routinely used to make clothing, parkas, hats, and mukluks. Skins and furs are used for barter and trade currency. At Diomede, named after Saint Diomede by Vitus Bering in 1728, we are at 65d 47m N, 169d 00m W. Just 2.5 miles to the west is Russia's Big Diomede Island, with the International dateline passing between us.
We clear out of the United States, steering north through the Bering Strait and into the Chukchi Sea. That night, as the ship crosses 66d 33m North, we will be able to tell our grandchildren we saw the midnight sun on the Arctic Circle. The Arctic Circle is the boundary between the North Temperate and North Frigid Zones, and marks the southern limit where the sun does not rise on the winter solstice, nor set on the summer solstice.
August 17, 2001 - Cross
International Date Line
In close order, another, "did I ever tell you..." for
the grandkids: steering west, the expedition "loses a day"
as the ship crosses the International Date Line. The "IDL"
is an imaginary, irregular line in the Pacific Ocean that
roughly corresponds to the 180th meridian. East of the IDL
is one day earlier than on the west (Monday in Nome, Alaska;
Tuesday on Cape Dezhnev, Siberia). If we were sailing around
the globe, and making adjustments for the time zones
crossed, the cumulative result is we arrive back at our
starting point one day ahead or behind our colleagues who
did not sail with us, and remained at the starting point. To
correct for this gain or loss of a day, we have to add or
loose a day when we cross the International Date Line. From
the Bering Strait, to the North Pacific Ocean, the line is
deflected eastward through the Bering Sea and westward of
the Aleutian Islands, so the American Aleutians and Little
Diomede, and Russia's Big Diomede are all in the same (but
different) day.
August 18, 2001 - Cape
Dezhnev, Lorino, Mechigmensky Bay
The expedition will sail by Cape Dezhnev, Asia's
easternmost point of land. The cape was named for explorer
Semyon Dezhnev, who on behalf of the Czar explored the
Chukotka Peninsula in 1643. Chukotka is 3,700 miles from
Moscow, but only 55 miles from Cape Prince of Wales on the
Seward Peninsula in Alaska. If the weather is clear, this is
the only place in the world where one can see two
continents, Asia and North America; two oceans, the Pacific
and the Arctic; and two time zones, today and tomorrow. The
expedition will stop at Lorino, population 1,500, which is a
re-settlement village inhabited by the traditionally
interior people, Chukchi ("people rich with reindeer") and
coastal Yup'ik Eskimos with their distinctive maritime
culture.
August 19, 2001 - Ittygran
and Old Chaplino
Continuing southeast, we make our way to Ittygran Island
and Old Chaplino. The "old" is indicative of the Yup'ik
Eskimo practice common along the coast of abandoning
villages and re-establishing them in "new" locations (Novoe
Chaplino, established in 1958). We will visit Whalebone
Alley on Ittygran Island, the location of a Yup'ik religious
and cultural site that was once the largest Native community
on the Chukotka Peninsula. In the afternoon we clear out of
Russia and deadhead to Nome.
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Tundra hills
in background, Seward Penninsula. |
August 19, 2001 - Nome
No, it's not a mistake. Crossing the International Date
Line heading west across the Bering Sea, the expedition
gains a day as it continues on its way for Nome, the final
port call of the Harriman Expedition Retraced. Members of
the National Park Services' Shared Beringian Heritage
Program and members of the Nome community meet us at the
dock. After our morning event, we fly to Anchorage. In the
evening we celebrate and recount the accomplishments of the
expedition with a banquet hosted by our friends at the
Anchorage Museum of History and Art.
....So blue, so beautiful, to gently glide
'Mid islets forested, past shores that stand,
Dark portals opening to enchantment's land,
Where all is but a dream, soon to be
Lost in the purple mist of memory.
"Alaska" Charles A. Keeler, Harriman Series, Vol. I
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"The edge of this part
of the continent for a thousand miles has been
broken into fragments, small and great, as by the
stroke of some earth-cracking hammer…" |
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"I was now... to make their
acquaintance at the brief period when all the best
and sweetest scenes of their lives are enacted.
Many of them are silent for the most part during
their winter visits, and only on the Alaska shores
are their songs to be heard." |
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"They were from the East and
the West, lumberman from Maine and Pennsylvania and
old miners from California and Colorado. They were
a sturdy sober looking set of men, no nonsense
about them... homely, slow, deliberate men, but
evidently made of real stuff." |
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"If one inquires of an
individual connected with the salmon industry in
Alaska something about their numbers, he is at once
told of the millions found there, and informed that
the supply is inexhaustible. The same language will
be used that was heard in past years with regard to
the abundance of wild pigeons, or of the buffalo,
or of the fur-seals of the Bering Sea…" |
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"As we progressed the mountains fell apart... The Captain naturally hesitated; it was unmapped and unsounded water. We went on under a good head of steam down this new inlet where no ship had ever passed before. It was one of the most exciting moments of our voyage." John Burroughs on the
discovery of Harriman Fiord, Harriman Alaska
Series, Vol. I |
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"We dropped anchor behind a
low sandspit in Kachemak Bay, on the end of which
is a group of four or five buildings making up the
hamlet of Homer. There was nothing Homeric in the
look of the place…" |
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"How beautiful and interesting the shores we passed that day; smooth and rounded hills as green and tender to the eye as well kept lawns... Never had I seen such beauty of greenness, because never before had I seen it from such a vantage ground of blue sea ... To eyes sated with the wild austere grandeur of Prince William Sound, the change was most delightful." John Burroughs, observing the
influence of the Japanese Current on Kodiak Island.
Harriman Alaska Series, Vol. I, "Arrival at
Kadiak" (original spelling). |
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"When we put our heads out of our windows in the morning... we were at anchor off Popof Island... we saw a low green treeless slope... from which came many musical bird voices-- the lesser hermit thrush, golden-crowned sparrow, fox sparrow, yellow warbler, rosy finch... It is a novel experience to wake up in the morning on an ocean steamer and hear bird song through your open window." John Burroughs, Harriman
Alaska Series, Vol. I. |
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"The whole of the Alaskan Peninsula, and all the islands in the Bering Sea and Aleutian group, are of volcanic origin, and some of thew embers of the old fires are still alive in our day, as we had proof. Since our visit there has been other proof in the shape of severe earthquake shock felt all along the Alaskan coast, in some places disastrously." John Burroughs, "The
Shumagin Group," Harriman Alaska Series, Vol.
I. |
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"According to our original
program our outward journey should have ended at
the Seal Islands, but Mrs. Harriman expressed a
wish to see Siberia, and if all went well, the
midnight sun. "Very well", replied Mr. Harriman.
"We will go to Siberia." And toward that barren
shore our prow was turned." |
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"It is much easier in Alaska
to bag a glacier than a bear…" |
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"Upon approaching the edge of the cliffs a wonderful scene lay before us. Some great black splinters of rock two hundred feet high stood out in the water close to the shore, the waves dashing about their bases, while all over their sides, and upon every ledge, crowded the seabirds.... opposite on the precipitous volcanic face of the island was an almost solid front of birds." Charles Keeler, "An
Evening on Hall Island," Harriman Alaska Series,
Vol. II |
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"We stood off across Bering Strait for Port Clarence in Alaska, where we hoped to take water... and about noon dropped anchor behind a long sickle-shaped sandspit, which curves out from the southern headland, ten or twelve miles away. In the great basin behind this sand bar a dozen vessels of the whaling fleet were anchored and making ready to enter the Arctic Ocean, where some expect to spend the winter." John Burroughs, "Port
Clarence," Harriman Alaska Series, Vol. I. |
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"All through the village, on poles, and frames hung the property of the [Siberian Eskimos]-- deer skins, some of them of the domesticated Siberian reindeer obtained by trade from the Chukchis of the adjacent interior.... on drying frames were spread the skins of seals and walruses, while scattered about were seal nest, inflated seal bladders, the inflated complete skins of seals turned inside out and drying-- to be used as walrus floats, or perhaps oil cans. George Bird
Grinnell,"Siberian Eskimo," Harriman Alaska
Series, Vol. II |
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"Standing or hanging against the sides of the houses were harpoons, spears, and paddles.... all about the village were stretched great lengths of seal and walrus hide, cut into slender lines to be used for dog harnesses, lines to be attached to harpoons, and in making seal nets." George Bird
Grinnell,"Siberian Eskimo," Harriman Alaska
Series, Vol. II. |
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"We had three tons of coal left in our bunkers, but of our little stock farm down below only the milch cow remained. She had been to Siberia and back and had given milk all the way. No voyagers were ever more fortunate than we… We had gone far and fared well." John Burroughs, Harriman
Alaska Series, Vol I. |
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"There is one word of advice and caution to be given those intending to visit Alaska for pleasure, for sight-seeing. If you are old, go by all means; but if you are young, wait. The scenery of Alaska is much grander than anything else of the kind in the world, and it is not well to dull one's capacity for enjoyment by seeing the finest first." Henry Gannett, "General
Geography," Harriman Alaska Series, Vol. II |
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For information on the Harriman Retraced Expedition e-mail: harriman2001@science.smith.edu |
