View source for SS Nascopie

{{Short description|Steamship}}
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|Ship image= Ship. Nascopie BAnQ P48S1P12476.jpg
|Ship caption= ''Nascopie'' in the [[Port of Montreal]], 1945
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|Ship name=RMS ''Nascopie''
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|Ship owner= [[Hudson's Bay Company]]
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|Ship ordered= 6 March 1928
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|Ship builder= [[Swan Hunter]] and [[Wigham Richardson]], [[Newcastle upon Tyne]]
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|Ship launched= December 7, 1911
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|Ship in service= 1912
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* [[Official Number]] 129922
* Code Letters GPLS
* {{ICS|Golf}}{{ICS|Papa}}{{ICS|Lima}}{{ICS|Sierra}}
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|Ship nickname= Eastern Arctic Patrol
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|Ship fate=Wrecked July 21, 1947
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|Ship tonnage= {{GRT|2521}}
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|Ship length= {{Convert|285.5|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam= {{Convert|43.5|ft|m|abbr=on}}
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*{{Convert|17.5|ft|m|abbr=on}}forward
*{{Convert|22|ft|m|abbr=on}}aft
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|Ship power= 1x 3-cyl. triple expansion steam engine, single shaft. Output: 342 [[Nominal horsepower|nhp]]
|Ship propulsion= 1 screw
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|Ship speed= 14.1 knots
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'''[[Ship prefix|RMS]] ''Nascopie''''' was a [[steamship]] built by [[Swan Hunter]] and [[Wigham Richardson]] of [[Newcastle upon Tyne]], [[England]].<ref name=HbcHeritageNascopie/> She was launched on December 7, 1911, and achieved speeds of 14.1 knots (26&nbsp;km/h) during her [[sea trial]]s. She was powered by triple expansion steam engines with cylinders 21.5, 35.5 and 58&nbsp;inches (546, 902, and 1,473&nbsp;mm) in diameter and a stroke of 42&nbsp;inches (1067&nbsp;mm). Her boiler pressure was 180 [[pounds-force per square inch]] (1.24 [[megapascal|MPa]]) and the two main boilers were 15 feet in diameter and 11.5 feet long, fired by six furnaces.
[[File:S. S. "Nascopie" at sealing grounds, 1927.jpg|left|thumb|''Nascopie'' in 1927.]]
[[File:News. On Board the Nascopie BAnQ P48S1P12266.jpg|left|thumb|A passenger on board ''Nascopie'' in 1945]]
''Nascopie'' was fitted with an ice breaker bow and her plates were of five-eighths-inch steel. She carried [[Marconi Company|Marconi]] apparatus located beside the wheelhouse on the upper deck. Her maiden crew was from the [[Dominion of Newfoundland]] under [[Sea captain|Captain]] Smith and they sailed for [[Penarth]], [[South Wales]], in late January 1912 to take on a load of [[coal]] bound for [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's]], Newfoundland. That winter she was employed in the annual [[Pinniped|seal]] hunt of the coast of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] under Captain Barbour for the [[Job Brothers & Co., Limited|Job Brothers]] mercantile business at St. John's.

Soon after [[World War I]] broke out the Russian government was in dire need of ships with ice breaking capacity, It placed orders with British shipyards and at the same time began a campaign of purchasing [[icebreaker]]s on the open market. Russian representatives first went to [[Ottawa]] and purchased the icebreakers ''[[Icebreaker Fyodor Litke|Earl Grey]]'' and ''[[SS Minto|Minto]]''. They then purchased from the [[Reid Newfoundland Company]] the icebreaking mail steamers ''[[SS Bruce|Bruce]]'' and ''[[SS Lintrose|Lintrose]]''. They then began negotiations with [[A. J. Harvey and Co.]] for the purchase of ''[[SS Bellaventure|Bellaventure]]'', ''[[SS Bonaventure|Bonaventure]]'', and ''[[SS Adventure|Adventure]]'' and with Job Brothers for ''[[SS Beothic|Beothic]]'' and ''Nascopie''. They purchased all except for ''Nascopie'' which continued her supply route to service the [[Hudson Bay]] operations.

In 1916, when chartered by the government of France, and carrying cargo from [[Russia]] to [[Newfoundland]], she encountered a German U-boat, and exchanged gunfire.<ref name="HbcHeritageNascopie" />  She drove off the U-boat, but was credited with sinking it, at the time.<ref name="HbcHeritageNascopie" /> 
[[File:Icepack, view from deck of ship, 1910-27 (5352062048).jpg|thumb|Icepack, view from the deck, photo taken by George E. Mack]]
George E. Mack (1887–1941) a keen amateur photographer, joined the HBC in 1910, he served on the ''Nascopie'' twice, firstly as Second Officer in 1912, then again as Captain from 1915 to 1920; first as Master and then as Ice Master/Pilot, when he became a Superintendent of the Hudson's Bay Company from 1920 to 1928.<ref name="HBCA" /> He took many photographs of the local communities the ship visited.

In 1934 Nascopie took for the first time a Governor of the company to ever visit Hudson Bay. HBC Governor Patrick Ashley Cooper and his wife joined her in Montreal and sailed as far as Churchill. In 1937, the ship enabled the Hudson's Bay Company in establishing [[Fort Ross, Nunavut|Fort Ross]]. Sailing from the east, she met the schooner [[Aklavik (HBC vessel)|Aklavik]], which had sailed from the west into Bellot Strait. This meeting of the two ships at Fort Ross, brought into reality for the first time the Northwest Passage.<ref name="HBC Heritage" />

During the second World War, she was fitted with anti-aircraft gun, and a 3.7 inch Naval gun, she was used to ship carry [[cryolite]] for making [[Aluminum]] for the war effort.<ref name="HBC Heritage" />

''Nascopie'' was wrecked near [[Cape Dorset]] near the southern tip of [[Baffin Island]] on an uncharted reef,<ref name="HBCA" /> July 21, 1947.<ref name="HbcHeritageNascopie" />

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em|refs=
<ref name="HbcHeritageNascopie">
{{cite news 
| url         = http://www.hbcheritage.ca/hbcheritage/history/transportation/nascopie/home
| title       = Our History: Transportation & Technology: R.M.S. Nascopie 
| publisher   = [[HBC Heritage]]
| author      = 
| date        = 
| page        = 
| location    = 
| archive-url  = 
| archive-date = 
| access-date  = 2017-04-29
| quote       = Named after First Nations people of Quebec and Labrador, Nascopie was designed and built in England at Wallsend on Tyne in 1911.}}</ref>
<ref name="HBC Heritage">{{cite web |title=History of the R.M.S. Nascopie |url=http://www.hbcheritage.ca/things/technology/rms-nascopie |website=HBC Heritage |accessdate=26 March 2019}}</ref>
<ref name="HBCA">{{cite web |title=George Edmund Mack |url=https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/_docs/hbca/biographical/m/mack_george-edmund.pdf |website=Hudsons Bay Company, Winnipeg Archives |accessdate=26 March 2019}}</ref>
}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Nascopie (ship, 1911)}}
{{Commons category|Captain George E. Mack}}https://wantedonthevoyage.blogspot.com/2023/07/arctic-lifeline-hbss-nascopie.html comprehensive design and operation history of the Nascopie with many photographs{{1947 shipwrecks}}

{{Hudson's Bay Company}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nascopie}}
[[Category:Icebreakers of Canada]]
[[Category:Steamships]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1947]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the Canadian Arctic coast]]
[[Category:1911 ships]]
[[Category:Hudson's Bay Company ships]]