CALL NUMBER: T0987:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1967-02-16 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. M.F. "Jack" Foster begins by discussing a boat called the "Maid of Orleans". Harry Larsen, who later became a skipper of a trading supply boat he worked on in the western arctic, a story; from 1927 about Larsen joining the RCMP as a navigator, and a man named Ernest Paisley who also worked for the RCMP, the building of the ship "St. Roch", working on the "St. Roch" in arctic condition;s, more details on the ship, what life was like on the boat, Mr. Foster discusses his background, coming from Fredericton, how he was recruited in 1919 by the RCMP, and that was how he came to western; Canada, more experiences working with Paisley, his qualifications, and more on the building of the "St. Roch". TRACK 2: Mr. Foster continues with more on life up in the arctic at Herschel Island, t;he Native people up there, details about what Herschel Island was like, the whalers buried there, more on the St. Roch, including the origin of its name and trips taken, and anecdotes about life aboar;d ship in the 1920s.;

CALL NUMBER: T0987:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1967-02-16 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Foster offers an anecdote about leaving Cambridge Bay with witnesses to an Eskimo murder, more anecdotes about travels and life in the arctic, troubles of life in winter, an anecdote abo;ut a missing trapper, surviving for nine months stuck in the ice, and Christmas while frozen in the ice. TRACK 2: Mr. Foster offers more anecdotes; a story about a forty-four day trip in 1934 from ;Herschel Island past Siberia to Vancouver to get a new prop, how local knowledge of navigation can be very helpful, more details about Henry Asbjorn Larson, including what he was like when Foster met ;him, more anecdotes about trips through the northwest passage, what happened to the "St. Roch" when war was declared as the ship was ordered to get to Halifax via the northwest passage; the trip took ;twenty-eight months from 1940 to 1942 and one man was lost; why the trip was kept a secret; things that went wrong on the trip; and how 1940 was one of the worst winters ever.;

CALL NUMBER: T0987:0003 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1967-02-16 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Foster discusses the ice in the west arctic and how it can lift a vessel several feet out of the water; how the skipper is always jockeying for position to get around the ice; other issu;es of traveling in the ice; and more anecdotes about travels aboard the "St. Roch". TRACK 2: Mr. Foster discusses Father Henry who had a mission in the arctic at Pelle [?] Bay; a story about an expe;rience when Father Henry came to the St. Roch; a polar bear incident; an experience at the magnetic pole; and more anecdotes about life and travels in the Arctic.

CALL NUMBER: T0987:0004 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1967-02-16 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Foster offers more anecdotes about life at Davis Strait; more trips in the Arctic; trips down the Baffin Island and Labrador coasts; what Halifax was like at war time; his retirement in V;ancouver in 1945 after 27 years service; and the return voyage from Halifax to Vancouver, including an examination of caches left by explorers of the north in the 1800s. [TRACK 2: blank.]