Low’s Expeditions, 1903-04
  *Click the red flags on the map for more information.

map1906 Cape Herschel Beechey Island Port Leopold Chesterfield Inlet Fullerton Harbour Blacklead2714 Blacklead2890 Southhampton
Blacklead IslandBlacklead Island
Low commented in his official report on the number of dogs at Blacklead station and the filth of the ground because of the ground’s poor drainage. The ship Neptune can be seen anchored off shore.[NRCan 2714]
Blacklead IslandBlacklead Island / Uumanarjuaq
The Blacklead Island whaling station existed from the 1850s to the early 1920s. It was chosen as the site of the first missionary station in Cumberland Sound in 1894. [NRCan 2890]
SouthamtonLow and five other men joined Capt. Comer’s whaling excursion to Southhampton Island to conduct their own scientific research. Returning from Southhampton Island, June 1904.[NRCan 2891]
Fullerton Harbour, Winter 1904Fullerton Harbour
The Neptune wintered near the American schooner Era at Fullerton Harbour, Hudson Bay, from October 1903 to August 1904. Snow was banked up around the two ships for insulation. [NRCan – 199729]
ChesterfieldChesterfield Inlet
Wreck camp, On September 23, 1903, Low and five other men left the Neptune in a steam launch headed to Chesterfield Inlet where he hoped to buy caribou skins for winter clothing for his men from the people living there. On the return trip downriver, the launch capsized and the men rescued the skins and set up a rough camp on shore. They were rescued on October 6 – 12 days later. [NRCan 2700]
Port LeapoldPort Leopold, North Somerset Island
When the Neptune anchored in the bay at Port Leopold, North Somerset Island, on August 16, the men saw an overturned boat on shore with a Danish flag flying. They feared it was an encampment of the North Magnetic Pole Expedition led by Norwegian Roald Amundsen, but when the doctor went ashore he found it to be the boiler of a steam launch that had the supplies stashed for the Magnetic Pole expedition. The men went ashore on August 17, 1904, and hoisted the flag for Canada, then left a copy of the proclamation and the 1904 customs regulation in the boiler.[NRCan 2837]
Beechey IslandBeechey Island
Low’s men at the Franklin Monument on Beechey Island, August 15, 1904. Low noted that the next government expedition north should bring cement to permanently affix the tablet from the American people honouring Franklin to the monument as originally intended.[NRCan – 2829]
Cape HerschelCape Herschel
On August 12, 1903, Low and his men landed at Cape Herschel, Ellesmere Island. They built a cairn, raised a flag and had a ceremony claiming Ellesmere Island for Canada. It was the first such sovereignty exercise made in the High Eastern Arctic. [NRCan 199681]