Captains' Quarters: Voyage to the Edge of Disaster - the Story of Capt. Jack Crowell

Capt. Jack Crowell’s career spanned more than fifty years at sea, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. He experienced torpedoing in the WWI, a voyage before the mast on a square-rigged ship, shipwreck in the Canadian Artic, and exploratory voyages under sail in the North. He established three military camps in WWII in the Arctic and a research station in Antarctica.

In 1937 with a mostly green crew, Crowell joined Expedition Leader, Admiral Donald MacMillan, as Ship’s Master aboard the Gertrude L. Thebaud, a former Gloucester fishing vessel, for a “summer cruise” in the waters of Labrador and southeast Baffin Land. Traveling through Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island, Canada, on their way north, they found themselves hard aground, far from home and with only their own ingenuity to save the vessel and their lives.

Join us on November 21 as we watch historic footage of the trip through uncharted waters with inadequate navigation and sounding equipment. With an introduction by Capt. Jim Sharp, co-founder of the Sail, Power, and Steam Museum, Crowell tells his own story and that of the history of the vessel through interviews taped during his life and movie footage taken on the trip.