Arctic Voyager

An exploration of 200 miles of the Greenland coast this summer, led by Prof. David C. Nutt '41 of the Geography Department, was one of the key steps in a project to develop port facilities there for year-round trans-shipment of iron ore from the Ungava Bay deposits in northern Quebec. Nutt, commander of the schooner Blue Dolphin, headed a party of arctic experts who cruised the rugged coast, examined thirty likely harbors, and recommended that a port be developed at Rype Island.

A group o£ international financiers headed by Cyrus S. Eaton o£ Cleveland is now awaiting approval from the Danish Government for construction of the port recommended by Nutt and his party. Their plan is to begin exploitation of the vast medium-grade deposits of ore at Ungava Bay in i960, to shuttle the ore through Hudson Strait during its four unfrozen months and across Davis Strait to Rype Island where it will be stockpiled. Rype Island, near Godthaab, has a sheltered, ice-free harbor, and during the eight months of the year when the shuttle from Ungava is not running, ore will be shipped from the transit port to steel plants in Euope and the United States. Without such a base the exploitation of Ungava Bay ore deposits would not be economically feasible.

With Commander Nutt on the exploration o£ Greenland's coast were Captain P. L. Rasmussen, a Danish ice expert, and Erik Gotzsche Larsen, chief Danish engineer in Greenland. In August, Prof. Trevor Lloyd of Dartmouth's Geography Department was one of the specialists who flew to Rype Island with Cyrus Eaton Jr. to inspect the proposed port site. Professor Lloyd is former Canadian Consul in Greenland and in 1951, at the invitation of the Danish Government, visited western Greenland.

Professor Nutt, who holds the rank of Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, owns the Blue Dolphin and aboard her has led a number of oceanographic expeditions to northern wa- ters. His acquaintance with Greenland includes five trips before 1941 and a year's service during the war as Executive Officer of the USS Bowdoin on a hydrographic survey of Greenland. He joined the Dartmouth faculty in 1947 as Arctic Specialist in the Museum and is now Research Associate in Geography with the rank of assistant professor.

David C. Nutt '41