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Gertrude Perrin

A Summer Cruise to the Arctic

In 1933, the Hudson's Bay Company opened one of its vessels to tourists for the first time. While there had been a growing interest among the general public to visit the isolated North, it was not until the early 1930s that a combination of circumstances made this feasible to a company concerned primarily with transporting cargo for profit.

The completion of port infrastructure and a rail line at Churchill, the refit of the ship allowing for passenger, as well as cargo accommodation, and the shift of the Nascopie's berth from Britain to Montreal made tourism economically viable for the HBC. These summer cruises ended in 1941, but in less than a decade of operating as a cruise ship, the Nascopie brought over a hundred sightseeing tourists to an area that few have seen in person, even today.

Learn more about what lay in store for tourists travelling aboard the R.M.S. Nascopie.


Cruise advertisement.
HBCA, The Beaver, March 1933


"A Summer Cruise to the Arctic" brochure.
HBCA, Fur Trade Department bay voyage records of the "Nascopie," RG3/60/1

Find out more... search Gertrude Perrin in the Keystone Archives Descriptive Database