RCMP Schooner St. Roch; Workhorse of the North

WHEN: Wednesday March 10TH 2010, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

WHERE: Lynn Valley Main Library Community Meeting Room,1277 Lynn Valley Road, North Vancouver
For more information or to register call 604-984-0286 Ext:8144

Retired RCMP Staff Sergeant Dan Lemieux will tell the story of the RCMP Schooner St. Roch built at Burrard Shipyards at the foot of Lonsdale Avenue in 1928. The schooner supplied RCMP Detachments in the Arctic during the summer months until 1954. When frozen in the ice during nine months of winter, it became a working detachment.

You will learn about survival in the North and how helpful the Inuit were as guides. They assisted police officers enabling them to make month long patrols to enforce laws, take census, settle disputes, render first aid, search for missing hunters, and carry out general duties. The St. Roch was especially built for Northern Service. Learn how it survived the winters when other ships were crushed. This presentation will also discuss global warming, the plight of the polar bear and the sovereignty issue of who owns the Arctic.

In 1939, Sergeant Henry Larson was instructed to take the St. Roch through the North West Passage from Vancouver to Halifax. The trip took two years and it was the first vessel to travel from west to east. It subsequently returned by the same route to Vancouver. It later went back to Halifax by the Panama Canal and was the first ship to circumnavigate North America. It continued to supply Arctic detachments until 1954. In 1958, this historic vessel became the main attraction at Vancouver Maritime Museum at Kitsilano Point in Vancouver.

This will be a power point presentation with many interesting photographs of life in the north. Learn about Inuit popcorn, frozen bum, the dangers of blizzards, the ice palace, the ice bucket, the problems of wearing Inuit winter clothing, how to make an igloo and many other stories of the north. A question and answer session will follow the presentation.

Dan Lemieux has been lecturing since 1952. He personally knew a number of RCMP members that served on the St. Roch. He is a Life Member of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, Past President, and Life Member of both the International Association of Arson Investigators and the Canadian Association of Fire Investigators. He is a Serving Brother and Life Member of St. John Ambulance and a Life Member and Guard Coordinator of the RCMP Veteran’s Association. Dan wrote the Hot Pursuit Column in the North Shore News for two years, and has lived in Lynn Valley for 41 years.