North Star of Herschel Island

CBC Radio Victoria Interview

bruce — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 04:22:47 +0000

CBC Radio’s Gregor Craigy aboard yesterday for a tour of the ship and to hear her amazing story and also to learn about the book. The show will be aired in the near future and I will put up a link here.

Port Townsend Wooden Boat Center on horizon!

bruce — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 04:21:32 +0000

I have been invited to put on the slide show and lecture for Wooden Boat Wednesdays at Port Townsend’s Wooden Boat Center on Wednesday March 20th, 2013 at noon. Reservations are required. See you there at one of our very favourite ports.

Sachs Harbour Youth Visit the ship

bruce — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 01:14:08 +0000

We recently gave a tour of the ship to two young men from Sachs Harbour, Kevin Gully and Kyle Anthony Donovan. They remarked on how great it was that the ship seemed virtually unchanged from when she was built. They toured the main salon which used to be the cargo hold for either the furs outbound from Banksland or the winter’s supplied inbound from the Delta and the pilot house as well as on deck.

The men had heard of North Star and one of them remembered hearing stories of Peter Sydney climbing to the top of the mast with just his trousers on just for the thrill and adventure of it all. They sadly reported that the Fox, North Star’s sistership, who has been on the beach since 1961 has been terribly vandalized and covered with graffiti. This, of course, is one of the reasons that Fred Carpenter was eager to sell the ship as he foresaw the same thing happening to North Star. They also said that Fred and Agnes’s White Fox Hotel has been vandalized by some of the local youth with graffiti and the windows all broken. Very sad but indicative of not only boredom but a lack of knowledge and respect for those that came before them and their incredible history on Banksland.

Hopefully, my book, North Star of Herschel Island, might in some small way help some of the Bankslander youth to re-connect with the past and to have more pride in their history. I know that some of them do, including our two visitors this week.

North Star on Twitter

bruce — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 04:24:50 +0000

The old ship continues to forge ahead with modern technology. Please give a follow to her @ArcticShip on Twitter!

Book now available at:

bruce — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 03:44:12 +0000

The book can be ordered directly from this site or from friesenpress.com. It is also for sale in

Victoria, B.C. - Maritime Museum of British Columbia

Munro’s Books

Vancouver, B.C. Vancouver Maritime Museum

Edmonton - Audrey’s Books

Saskatoon - McNally Robinson Books

Winnipeg - McNally Robinson Books

Thunder Bay - Thunder Bay Museum

Toronto - Nautical Mind Bookstore

Ottawa - Collected Works Bookstore

Almonte - Mill Street Books

Perth - Various Bookstores

Signed on with new book promotion site

bruce — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:11:51 +0000

I have signed on with a free service for authors - http://askdavid.com which will promote the book, North Star of Herschel Island, on their website and through their social media links. I am quite excited to see how this works. If a book sells through Amazon they will take a cut from Amazon but my royalties are not affected.

Western Canada Book Tour A Success!

bruce — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 01:08:22 +0000

Launched the book, North star of Herschel Island, in the office of Mister Dennis Bevington, MP for the Western Arctic at Capital Hill, House of Commons, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa. From there toured the book through Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Calgary and Thunder Bay. Quite a trip and many, many people now about Canada’s Arctic tall ship!

Book Launch Today House of Commons Parliament Hill!

bruce — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:09:04 +0000

Launching the book today in the office of Mister Dennis Bevington, M.P. for the Western Arctic at 1600 hours. then off to the Collected Works Bookstore in Ottawa for a 1900 slide show and talk about the ship and the book. Here we go!

Book for Sale

bruce — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 03:50:52 +0000

The book, North Star of Herschel Island: last Canadian Arctic fur trading ship, is now up for sale on-line at friesenpress.com, amazon.ca, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, chapters.indigo.com or can be purchased in any bookstore by just asking for them to order it in - and then telling them to stock it! It is available in hardcover, softcover and ebook formats.

Book Tour Funding on indiegogo.com

bruce — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 01:23:45 +0000

We have started a fund raising campaign on indiegogo.com to raise money to promote the book and the ship across much of Canada. Please check out the site and claim a reward for helping. Thank you!