Most recently, the Canadian Navy and its British, Danish, French and American allies have made their presence felt in the Arctic. Operation Nanook was intended to strengthen cooperation between NATO allies and, by the same token, to let Russia know that it is not welcome in this region of the globe.
It is in this context that a forgotten character came to mind. Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic owes much to William Wakeham for his action on behalf of the Dominion and Great Britain. It was August 17, 1897, just 125 years ago.
Originally from Quebec, William Wakeham (1844-1915) moved to Gaspé in 1866 to practice his profession as a doctor. His sumptuous residence, classified by the Quebec government and converted into an inn, is worth a detour.
Previously, Wakeham had attended the military school of Quebec, a passage which offered him unsuspected possibilities. Indeed, in 1879, his career experienced a significant turning point when the government of the highly controversial John A. Macdonald offered him the position of inspector of Canadian fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Labrador.
From then on, Wakeham’s qualities as a diplomat and mediator were noticed by the highest federal authorities. In January 1893, the doctor accepted the presidency for Canada of an international commission intended to study the fishing territories and the border waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific between Canada and the United States. The work will lead to an international fisheries agreement.
At the end of the XIXe century, Canada is barely entering its teenage years. In 1885, the Canadian government, unable to unite the country through a national identity, completed the Canadian Pacific, the railway thus becoming the symbol of Canadian union, to the great pleasure of the merchants of this counter country.
A little over a decade later, the government is toying with the idea of linking Winnipeg, capital of Manitoba, to the post of Churchill, on the southwest shore of Hudson Bay, in addition to developing a maritime link Hudson Strait to the Atlantic. Wakeham was appointed to accomplish this mission in the spring of 1897.
In a letter dated April 23, 1897, the Minister of Marine and Fisheries under Wilfrid Laurier’s government, Louis Henry Davies, commissioned William Wakeham to command an expedition to the Arctic. The mission is, on the one hand, to assess the period of navigation in the Hudson Strait due to the voluminous presence of ice and, on the other hand, to assert Canadian sovereignty over Baffin Island and the arctic archipelago.
Who owns the Arctic?
In July 1880, the British government ceded its possessions in the Arctic to the Dominion of Canada, but an imbroglio seemed to persist at the end of the century. The 1880 surrender states that “all islands adjacent to any of these Territories” are henceforth part of Canada, whether they have been reached or not.
Doubt and confusion arise as Canada attempts to claim sovereignty over these territories. Indeed, how can the British, despite their history in this field, cede islands that have not yet been discovered by foreigners? Especially since Canada had made no attempt during all these years to formalize the control of this territory.
Faced with this nebulous situation, Wakeham received the mandate to officially appropriate the Arctic islands, like a Jacques Cartier taking possession of Canada in the name of François Ier in 1534.
By the time Wakeham inherited this mission, the presence in Arctic waters of Scottish, German, Danish and American whalers continued. The interest of these respective countries with regard to this strategic territory filled with wealth is a wake-up call for Canada to acquire it as it should. We are talking here about a territory of 500,000 square miles, or half of the current country.
On June 3, 1897, William Wakeham left Halifax with 43 men, including scientists, aboard the SS Diana. His expedition is chronicled on a daily basis in his report entitled Hudson Bay and Cumberland Sound Expedition. On June 22, the crew arrived in Hudson Strait.
During the following weeks, the SS Diana sails through the islands of the Arctic, encountering “Eskimos”. We have to use dynamite to get rid of the ice. The scientist that is Wakeham reminds us that there is nothing left of the world of ice in which he sailed…
Then, on August 17, 1897, Commander Wakeham hoisted the Union Jack to a small island in Cumberland Sound, just opposite the Scottish whaling post of Kekerten. A certain Milne takes care of this post which employs 150 Inuit. Milne is convinced that the territory belongs to the United States. Like Wakeham, the ceremony is very modest. A short speech is delivered. A single photograph bears witness to this historic event.
One hundred and twenty-five years later, William Wakeham’s gesture is of capital importance when Russia’s appetite for war, despite its failures, seems insatiable.
Operation Nanook, which began in 2007, has a different scope this year in the context of the war in Ukraine. In the future, it is to be expected that Russia will make efforts to claim the region and settle there, which will inevitably influence the policies of Canada and NATO. We now know that the country’s sovereignty in the Arctic is named after William Wakeham.