The Captain's Table - VMM Members Mag - Vol 2

The
Captain’s
Table
VOLUME 2
FALL 2018
MEMBERS MAGAZINE
Joe Panipakuttuk
And the St. Roch
Thomas Beckman -
The St. Roch Suite
History of the
GREENPEACE
BUTTON

Did you know VMM
menu
offers great rental
4
5
Greetings from Dr. Joost
Schokkenbroek - Executive Director
Joe Panipakuttuk & The St. Roch
facilities?
5
7
10
12
History Of The Greenpeace Button
The St. Roch Suite - an interview with
composer Thomas Beckman
A Raffle With A Cause
7
10
VMM MembersMagazine
1905 Ogden Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6J 1A3
604.257.8300
Publisher
Andrew Hildred
Editor
Kurt von Hahn
vanmaritime.com
The Vancouver Maritime Museum has become one of Vancouver’s leading event
venues. Our uniquely located facility features a national historic setting which
can easily accomodate up to 150 guests in a flexible event space.
Contact us to book your event today!
operations@vanmaritime.com
604.257.8300
vanmaritime.com
MEMBERS MAGAZINE 2 MEMBERS MAGAZINE 3

EDITORIAL
An exciting fall
lineup....
Dr. Joost Schokkenbroek
Executive Director
Dear Members of the Vancouver
Maritime Museum,
It is a great pleasure and honour to
present the second issue of your quarterly,
The Captain’s Table. After the first
issue had been send out, we received
a number of responses. Without exception
these were positive and with a
few very useful suggestions. Thanks so
much for sharing your comments with
us: we hope to improve as we go forward.
Before I let you explore the contents of
the current issue I want to share with
you a series of wonderful developments.
The number of members is still
increasing. Of course it would be fantastic
if each of you could try to bring
in at least ONE new member before the
end of this year. This may grow from
460 to 920!
Furthermore, we are doing very well
with respect to number of visitors and
revenues via admission fees and giftshop
sales. Last year, 65,000 people
came through the museum doors (as
opposed to 60,000 in 2016). For this
year we hope for more. Please help us
achieving that goal – this would mean
a record in VMM’s 59 year-young existence.
We have been very fortunate to receive
a number of major grants as well – from
the RBC Foundation for educational
programs, from the Washington Foundation
for a series of new programs,
from the British Columbia Arts Council
for two years of operational assistance
(2018-2019).
Finally, I am delighted to share with
you that the VMM has been awarded
Runner Up in the category Best Local
Museum by the readers of The Georgia
Straight – another milestone in the
museum’s history! (photo below) We
could not have impressed that readership
without the support from the VMM
members, staff, Board and – last but
not least – sponsors. Thank you all so
much.
This new issue of The Captain’s Table is
filled with exciting news about lecture
series, another fundraising event on
18 October (the Arctic Awards Gala –
Northwest Passage Hall of Fame), the
VMM Raffle and much more.
I hope you will have a great time reading
this issue, and I look forward to
meeting you in person.
Dr. Joost C.A. Schokkenbroek
Executive Director
Joe Panipakuttuk and the St. Roch
Joe Panipakuttuk of Pond Inlet (1916-1970) was an Inuit hunter, guide, and special Royal Canadian Mounted
Police constable. He was hired by Henry A. Larsen to join the crew of the 1944 voyage which became
the first time in history that a ship had completed the passage in a single season. Joe Panipakuttuk was
posthumously awarded the Polar Medal in 1975 for his service; it was received on his behalf by his wife Letia.
His wife, his mother (Panipak), his two sons (Aariak and Kalluk), his two daughters (Palluq and Soopi Viguq),
and his young granddaughter (Mary Panigusiq) accompanied him on the journey aboard the St. Roch. They
brought 17 dogs with them. Joe and his family lived in a tent on the main deck of the ship until they reached
Herschel Island, where Larsen put them ashore. The family would return to Pond Inlet until 1946. Below is a
collection of memories from Joe Panipakuttuk about his and his family’s journey.
“I remember I left Pond Inlet on the RCMP boat in the summer of 1944, on the 17th day of August… With the
wind not so strong, we left the following day, but the swells were big and the bow of the boat would disappear
from time to time in the water. I was very frightened. We arrived at the island (Tatlurutit/Devon Island)
where the police used to have a detachment.
Next day we left and followed along the coast close to the high cliffs of the island. Another gale arose and we
were forced to anchor in another cove (Stratton Inlet). Ashore we walked around and found some old, old
Eskimo houses made of whalebone and sod.
Mr. Larsen, whom we called Pallursi, … told me that there were musk oxen on the land. I went to where he
directed me. I searched the land with a telescope and saw no sign of live animals. All I could see were huge
rocks. Mr. Larsen said that these were musk oxen, these very things I thought to be rocks. So I looked again
through the telescope and the rocks began to move… When you see musk oxen for the first time they have
such a huge back on them!
MEMBERS MAGAZINE
4
MEMBERS MAGAZINE 5

We travelled all day and night and
when we woke up Mr. Larsen told me
that we would get to Holman Island
that day and see people. About mid-afternoon
on September 4th we could
see a building on a point. For the first
time since leaving Pond Inlet we would
now get to see a strange people and
we began to feel shy.
The Eskimo people on the boat were
myself and my wife and Aariak, my son;
Pallug, my daughter; Kalluk, my son;
Soopi Viguq, my daughter; Panipak my
mother, and my granddaughter Mary
Paniqusiq.
All the white people and ourselves
waited in the bow of the boat and I felt
nervous to be among strange people.
But at last I went to a group of people
when they asked me to come and I was
told not to fear them. I shook hands.
They wanted us to come to their settlement
which we did and we went to the
house of Kanquag. The settlement had
only two white people, the missionary
and the Hudson’s Bay Company man.
We stayed overnight here and left the
following day for Tuktoyaktuk.
MODEL BOATS
“They only found a yound child on the
shore wrapped in a blanket.”
For the next two days we sailed
through a lot of ice on our way to Tuktoyaktuk.
We anchored near Tuktoyaktuk
when we hit shallow water. A boat
came out to welcome us and I saw that
there were many white people in the
boat and I thought there was only one
Eskimo with them but when they came
up to our boat it was the other way
around. These people were all Eskimos
and there was only one white man with
them. That was the first time I had ever
heard Eskimos talk English. The white
man in the boat was the Hudson’s Bay
Company manager.
The next day it was very stormy and the
wind was coming down hard against
our boat. Another Eskimo came aboard
with us and he and Larsen steered the
boat together as the wind was blowing
that hard.
The people in Tuktoyaktuk were building
houses. There had been a flood
there. There were some dogs on an
island and they had all died, all thirty-five
of them. Across the Bay there
was a house and there were two rooms
in it. When the water started to come
into the house they went outside and
brought in a canoe. … There were
some people out in a boat during the
storm and they never found them.
They only found a young child on the
shore wrapped up in a blanket.
During the summer I caught a lot of seal,
caribou and fish. In a day I would get
sixteen to eighteen seals. There were
also white and brown bear and many
different kinds of birds. The Western
Eskimos have ways very much like the
white people and they would buy meat
from me. I got $200 from the Eskimos
there just by selling meat. When they
wanted seal they would give me $10
for it; caribou meat, $5, or if it was back
meat of the caribou only they would
pay me $10. I told them that we were
all Eskimos and that they should not
pay me for the meat, but they said that
they had to pay for everything they take
from someone. They even tried to buy
dogs and that was the first time I found
out that Eskimos buy things from other
Eskimos for money.
MAKING WAVES-GREENPEACE
HISTORY OF THE
GREENPEACE BUTTON
by Madeline Seed
A special installment to our Making
Waves - The Story & Legacy of
Greenpeace exhibition.
The youngest member
of the committee, a
twenty-three-year-old
Canadian named Bill
Darnell, said: “[Let's m]
ake it a green peace." -
Excerpt from Warriors of the Rainbow: A
Chronicle of the Greenpeace Movement
by Robert Hunter
"[According to Bill,] "Nothing happened.
I didn't think anyone had heard
me … but [Irving Stowe] called me the
next day and said, "I can't stop thinking
about what you said, Bill. Ecology
and peace, this puts it altogether." -
Quote from an interview of Bill Darnell
conducted by Barbara Stowe.
What is Advocacy?
Advocacy is a tool used for generating
public support for particular subjects
that individuals or Non-Governmental
Organizations, commonly referred
to as NGOs, wish to highlight. Such
actions or movements aid in the political
empowerment of and continuation
of such NGOs. Greenpeace’s
advocacy campaigns tend to focus on
the environmental problems caused
by private companies; environmental
policies of local, national, and
international organizations; and government
legislation related to the
environment. Some of Greenpeace’s
advocacy campaigns of the 2000s,
such as "Stop Climate Change", "Stop
Whaling", and "Eliminate Toxic Chemicals"
have been extremely influential
and highlight the strong presence the
organization has in today’s culture,
which reminds one to reflect back on
the first groundbreaking campaign of
1971 to Amchitka.
MEMBERS MAGAZINE
6
MEMBERS
MEMBERS
MAGAZINE
MAGAZINE
7
7

What is Greenpeace?
“At its heart, [the Greenpeace] movement sought to give political form to an awareness that predates Buddhism but is at the
same time as new as the science of interdisciplinary ecology. It grew out of a flickering awareness that all our relationships
are political, and that the crucial political relationships with which we must concern ourselves now have almost nothing to
do with man’s relation to man, but with man’s relation to the earth itself. It is our relationship to our planetary environment
which is the most important issue of all. All human structures inevitably rest upon it.” - Excerpt from the Introduction of
Warriors of the Rainbow: A Chronicle of the Greenpeace Movement by Robert Hunter
Greenpeace today is known to be one of largest international non-governmental environmental organizations but
it started with a small committee in Vancouver. Formerly known as the Don’t Make the Wave Committee, the group
banded together, one February night in 1970, for an emergency meeting and began to plan how they were going to
respond to the upcoming underground nuclear weapons tests that were to occur near the island of Amchitka, Alaska.
The idea for what became the famous sailing expedition northwards, to bear witness to the nuclear test series, came
from Maria Nonnast Bohlen, a Quaker activist and illustrator.
“If the Americans want to go ahead with the test … they’ll have to tow us out,” - Jim Bohlen
The Greenpeace Buttons
Final Design
The final design had green text in the center which read “GREENPEACE”, on a yellow background with a green ecology
symbol above and a green peace sign below. It was created by Paul Nonnast, an art student and Marie’s son. The
ecology symbol included in the design was created by Ron Cobb in 1969 and was created by combining an e for
"environment" and an o for "organism". It has been used as a symbol for Earth Day as well as other environmental
causes. The peace symbol was created by Gerald Holtom in 1958 and the design is meant to represent the letters "N"
and "D" as they appear in the semaphore alphabet, used by sailors to communicate from a distance with flags. These
letters together communicate the need for “nuclear disarmament”. Incorporating these symbols into the design aided in
creating the message the group wished to promote as well as echo the core values of Greenpeace, values which live on
to this day.
“The term “Greenpeace,” as a one-word expression, […] came about quite by accident.” – Jim Bohlen
When designing the buttons, they were having trouble keeping the words “green” and “peace” separate in the design.
With the font they had chosen, the company printing the buttons couldn't fit both of the words on the same line.
According to Barbara, when the printer called to ask what they should do, Jim said to "Put both words together". Thus
the two words were simply merged and what was to be “Green Peace” became known as “Greenpeace.”
A few weeks later, they had a plan. They began raising funds to purchase a vessel by selling lapel buttons. Barbara
Stowe, daughter of co-founders Irving and Dorothy Stowe, recalls that the early founders began selling lapel buttons
at the corner of Georgia and Granville in downtown Vancouver, selling the buttons for 25 cents. The Don't Make a Wave
Committee paid 15 cents to make each button and so they raised 10 cents for each one sold. Irving Stowe and Jim
Bohlen put up $250 for the first batch of buttons. When it became clear that the funds raised form the buttons were not
going to be enough to achieve the committee’s goals, a benefit concert was later hosted to raise the funds.
The first Greenpeace buttons were 1 ½ inches in diameter circular buttons with locking pin backings. Adding the safety
clip was too costly and so the buttons were manufactured without the safety clip. As a result of this decision, volunteers’
fingertips were often bloody from being pricked on the sharp pins when the buttons were counted at the end of the day.
"[I]t was different from a lot of buttons of that time, with their day-glo colours, big black lettering and "NO!" and "STOP!"
messages. I think the subtle colours and quiet font, choices made by a mature artist who loved the natural world, appealed
on a different level. And the word captured the zeitgeist." – Barbara Stowe
References:
Bohlen, Jim. Making Waves: The Origins and Future of Greenpeace. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 2001; Dale, Stephen. McLuhan’s Children: The
Greenpeace Message and The Media. Toronto: Between the Lines, 1996; “GREENPEACE.” Busy Beaver Button Museum. July 25, 2018; Hunter,
Robert. The Greenpeace to Amchitka: An Environmental Odyssey. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2004; Hunter, Robert. Warriors of the Rainbow:
A Chronicle of the Greenpeace Movement. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979; Ozdemir, B.P. “Social Media as a Tool for Online Advocacy
Campaigns: Greenpeace Mediterranean’s Anti Genetically Engineered Food Campaign in Turkey.” Global Media Journal, Canadian ed. Vol. 5, no.
2 (2012): 23; Prisco, Jacopo. “Three lines and a circle: a brief history of the peace symbol.” CNN, July 22, 2018. Accessed July 26, 2018; Stowe,
Barbara. (Daughter of Co-founders Irwin and Dorothy Stowe), in discussion with the author. July 2018; Stowe, Dorothy., Metcalfe, Dorothy.,
Bohlen, Jim., and Hunter, Bob. “A chat with the first Rainbow Warriors.” Interview by Michael Friedrich. Greenpeace International. 2016.
MEMBERS MAGAZINE
8
MEMBERS MAGAZINE
9

ST. ROCH 90TH ANNIVERSARY
The St. Roch Suite -
An interview with composer
Thomas Beckman
Thomas Beckman, an innovative, Vancouver-based film composer and instrumentalist, recently dropped by our
offices to talk about his career and his up and coming ‘St. Roch Suite’, a three-part symphonic suite
inspired by stories about the St. Roch.
VMM: Tell us about your early years as a budding musician?
Thomas B: Although I was born here in Vancouver I ended up spending 19 years growing up in Cape Town, South
Africa. My Dad was a musician who sang and played guitar – he was in a very popular band in the 60’s called The
Sandpipers. There was always music playing around our house and as a child I started playing the violin at the age
of 6. A pivotal moment in my musical upbringing was when my Dad would invite me to jam along with him. And so
from an early age I was exposed to the ‘freestyle improvisational’ side of music.
In 2008, I struck out on my own and came back to Vancouver to start a Masters degree at UBC’s music school. I
really wanted a change of scenery, a new adventure, and having a Canadian passport allowed me to come here and
work and study straight away.
VMM: What inspired you to write a suite of orchestral music for the St. Roch?
Thomas B: I have always loved film music and have done some film scoring here. There is something so vivid about
the St. Roch story. When you walk on the deck of the ship one’s imagination is set alight– it’s really inspiring, I love
the way the cabins have been preserved to reflect the era, and how the crew lived all those years ago. My mind is
often imagining the St. Roch’s story as a film or an epic symphony. I kept coming back and eventually decided to
write a musical piece about the ship. One can get so fired up, before you know it you’ve written a bunch of music,
and then one thing leads to another.
VMM: Tell us how you became involved with the Prince George Symphony?
Thomas B: I had a really great conversation with Theresa Saunders who is the manager of the Prince George Symphony
Orchestra. At the time I had just gone through the Jean Coulthard readings with the VSO. From that experience
I ended up with a solid recording and some extra confidence. So I used the momentum to set up a meeting
with Theresa and Michael Hall, their artistic director/conductor. I told them about my upcoming piece and how it
connected with the Vancouver Maritime Museum’s goal to express the province’s maritime history to the surrounding
communities of BC. The PGSO loved the concept and we secured some funding for the project. It was quite
fortuitous how everything fell into place and how easily people came on board.
VMM: Can you tell us more about the Suite and when they will be premiered?
Thomas B: There are three movements which cover the story arc of F.S Farrar’s book ‘Arctic Assignment.’ Each movement
is introduced by a special stanzas written and narrated by poet Jude Neil which describe the ship, the crew
and what they went through. The St. Roch Suite will premier with the PGSO in Prince George, BC on March 19, 2019.
Henry & Thomas
MEMBERS MAGAZINE
MEMBERS MAGAZINE 10
10 MEMBERS MAGAZINE 11
MEMBERS MAGAZINE 11

- A Raffle With A Cause -
For the second consecutive year we organize a Raffle. Sales started in August, and can continue
until 27 January 2019. Like last year Once Ocean Expeditions provides the Grand Prize – a trip
for two to the High Arctic on board one of their fantastic ships. Its value is close to $32,000! The
second prize is a luxury fishing experience at King Pacific Lodge (valued at close to $10,000).
Wonderful other prizes are to be gained as well.
We have promoted this Raffle in various ways, and I am sure you are familiar with the phenomenon.
So far, however, we did not elaborate on the potential impact of the revenues for the
museum’s management and organization. In other words: what Cause does this Raffle serve?
In total there are 5,600 tickets to be sold - with 2,000 tickets at 1 for $20, and 3,600
tickets at 3 for $50. This means that the museum can make $100,000 maximum.
The museum’s collections entail close to 40,000 artefacts, 14,000 books, dozens of metres of
manuscripts, thousands of ship plans, and over 100,000 photographs. We have one Curator
and one Librarian & Archivist to take care of these substantial collections. It should be small
wonder to any of you that there are back logs in collections management. These back logs have
to do with descriptions of items, with digitized photographs of artefacts and manuscripts, with
fairly poor storage facilities – to name a few fields of increased interest (concern).
With your support we will have the required funds to make a serious start in working way these
back logs. We can temporarily increase curatorial staff, create better working and storing conditions,
and add information and images to our data base. Ideally, a few years from now we
can present our collections on line and thus inform you and millions more about the importance
of this museum and its holdings.
How can we make this happen? The mathematical exercise is an easy one: we have about 460
members. If each member buys one (1) tickets and finds 11 friends to buy one (1) ticket each as
well, we will sell all 5,600 tickets (actually 5,520)! This should be feasible.
For more information or purchase, please check our website www.vanmaritime.com, call the
museum via 604.257.8300, or walk up to the front desk and buy your tickets there.
This will be so much appreciated. We cannot do this without your help.
Joost Schokkenbroek
MEMBERS MAGAZINE
12 MEMBERS MAGAZINE 13

MEMBERS MAGAZINE
14