Christian Theodore Pedersen (1877-1969) was a Norwegian-American seaman, whaling captain and fur trader active in Alaska, Canada, and the northern Pacific from the 1890s to the 1930s. He was called "one of the canniest old skippers in the western arctic" by a contemporary. [1] [2]
Pedersen was born in Norway and left on his first whaling voyage at age 17. By 1908 he was captain of the schooner Challenge. Pedersen was associated with the early stages of the Canadian Arctic Expedition under Vilhjalmur Stefansson and helped select the steam brigantine Karluk for the expedition. He resigned before the ship was outfitted and was replaced by Robert Bartlett. [3] [4] [5]
Pedersen then Captained the schooner Elvira for whaling and trading in the arctic in 1912 and 1913. The Elvira was frozen in and damaged by ice near Icy Reef west of Demarcation Point on Alaska's arctic coast in August 1913 and further damaged by a storm to the point that Pedersen and her crew were forced to abandon her and seek refuge aboard the Belvedere. Pedersen and Olaf Swenson of the Belvedere traveled overland by foot and dogsled to Fairbanks to carry news and arrange relief supplies for the crews on the Belvedere. Sources differ on whether Pederson was owner as well as captain of the Elvira.[6] [7] [8] [9]
Pedersen then signed on as captain of the whaling and trading ship Herman for the H. Liebes Company of San Francisco. The 1914 voyage of the Herman was the subject of a motion picture by Dr. L. Lawrence, a videotape copy of which is held by the University of Alaska. In the course of this voyage, the Herman picked up Captain Bartlett at Emma Harbor, Siberia and transported him to St Michael's, Alaska where Bartlett transmitted to Ottawa the news that the Karluk had been crushed in the ice and the survivors were marooned on Wrangel Island off the northern coast of Siberia. [10] [11] [12]
Pedersen resigned from H. Liebes Company in 1923 and went into business on his own account with the motor schooner Nanuk, forming the Northern Whaling and Trading Company. A Canadian subsidiary, the Canalaska Trading Company operated two small trading schooners with the goods transferred at Herschel Island. The company established trading posts throughout the Kitikmeot region of Canada. In 1925 the Nanuk was replaced by the larger Patterson. Besides establishing fixed trading posts, Pederson developed a strategy of offering small schooners for trappers. These were built to order in California and carried to the arctic on the Patterson. The last of these schooners, North Star of Herschel Island, delivered in 1936, is now in private hands in Victoria, BC. Canalaska was sold to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1936. Pedersen’s trading voyage in 1935 was filmed by his son Ted and videotapes derived from that film are in the collection of the University of Alaska. This archive also has a substantial collection of Pederson's business records.[13] [14] [15]
Consortium Library, Archives and Special Collections Department, University of Alaska, Anchorage / Alaska Pacific University; (a)"Christian T. Pedersen collection description" http://consortiumlibrary.org/archives/CollectionsList/CollectionDescriptions/hmc-0197cd.html Accessed April 27, 2009; (b)"Theodore Pedersen collection description" http://consortiumlibrary.org/archives/CollectionsList/CollectionDescriptions/hmc-0524cd.html accessed April 26, 2009
Downes, P. "Prentice Downs eastern arctic journal 1936, edited and introduced by R.H. Cockburn." Arctic 36 (3) 232-250 1983. Downes is quoting an old arctic hand he terms the "Mad Major". http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic36-3-232.pdf accessed April 27, 2009.
Jenness, Stuart Edward. The Making of an Explorer: George Hubert Wilkins and the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1916. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 2004. http://books.google.com/books?id=CTCPh_u4rKgC&printsec=frontcover&client=firefox-a#PPA6,M1 accessed April 26, 2009.
Kitikmeot Heritage Society. "C. T. Pedersen and Canalaska" http://www.kitikmeotheritage.ca/Angulalk/ctpeders/ctpeders.htm accessed April 26, 2009.
Macdonald, Sheila and Bruce Macdonald. "A brief history Of North Star of Herschel Island." http://www.northstarofherschelisland.com/history accessed April 27, 2009
Minerals Management Service, U.S. Department of Interior. "Shipwrecks off Alaska's coast." http://www.mms.gov/alaska/ref/ships/shipwr/shiplist.asp accessed April 26, 2009 query Elvira.
Swenson, Olaf. Northwest of the World. Dodd Mead, NY, 1944, pp 103-119.
Tacoma Public Library, "Ships and Shipping Database"; http://search.tpl.lib.wa.us/ships/ accessed April 28, 2009 query Elvira. This source quotes Gordon Newell, "Maritime Events of 1913," H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, p.230.
