In the wake of Louise Arner Boyd

Voyage 1, Bergen - Kirkenes - Bergen, February 2014

In February 2014 I left on an 11day research voyage in the wake of the American Explorer Louise Arner Boyd, aboard the Norwegian postal ship MS Kong Harald from Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen. I used the word ‘wake’ a metaphor, symbolising the transient presence of women’s maritime histories; like the wake of the passing ship, these women’s lives have been withdrawn from libraries, museums, archives and, consequently from memory. This was the first voyage that I had made without my husband Chris Wainwright and it was therefore deeply significant.

The intention of this voyage was to find out whether Boyd’s presence as an arctic explorer would be evident in the Polar Museum in Tromsø alongside the figures of Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen especially as Boyd played such an active role in the search for Amundsen after his disappearance in1928.

For this voyage I utilised the interior spaces of my cabin to make ship drawings and videoed and photographed from the interior to the outside of the ship through my cabin window. I wore a go-pro camera as a means of recording myself exploring the boundaries of the ship - I become the camera, the camera becomes me. I also used a Ships Log as a method of organising my writings chronologically i.e. date, location, state of the weather, longitude and latitude, as a means of connecting me with the writings of other women from my maritime research in particular Mary Brewster’s Journals – in She Was a Sister Sailor, A Voyage to the Arctic, June 1851. Her Journal provides me with a sense of connection to her voyages of the past (over 100 years) and in particular acts as a set of reference points for recording my own voyages into Arctic waters.

Day 1: Tuesday, 18 February, Bergen

I listened to the sound of the engines starting up and looked over the side to watch the gangway disappearing back into the belly of the ship. A blast on the horn announced our imminent departure. The significance of the blasts was to become a crucial part of the ritual of departure and arrival, of beginnings and farewells.  

All was ready. Now was time for the umbilical connection of ropes to be broken. A man on shore side makes loose the ropes, all that holds the ship to the dockside, and then mechanically winched up by a female engineer who has a remote control that operates the huge spindles to wind the ropes, (similar to the windlass that winds and unwinds the anchor), or lines, on board - we are at last heterotopic.

I watched the space between the ship and the dock slowly widen.

I am no longer the woman waiting for the tide to turn; I am the woman staring back to landfall from the deck of a ship.

Day 2: Wednesday, 19 February, Ålesund

Set up a tripod and camera in the window of my cabin. I prefer the Canon stills camera, the colour balance seems better. I was surprised to notice how quickly the salt on the window had formed a veil - a natural palimpsest.

I set up two drawing stations in my cabin: one on a small round table at the foot of my bed with a pen suspended from the roof, the other on my window ledge with a pen suspended from the top of the window frame. Instead of drawing paper I used postcards and maps and replaced them to respond to our present location. These maps were taken from one of two volumes I had purchased from a second Second hand bookstore in London entitled B.R.501 Geographical Handbook Series, NORWAY Volume I, January 1942, Navy Intelligence Division. Inside the front cover it says “This book is for the use of persons in H.M. Service only and must not be shown or made available to the Press or to any member of the public. This book forms part of my library of WITHDRAWN books. 

I got off the ship at Ålesund at midday. This was my first point of research as I knew from her writings that Louise Arner Boyd had docked in Ålesund with her ship Veslekari on more than one occasion. She wrote:

“We sailed from Aalesund, Norway, on June 28 and journeyed northward 550 miles along the Norwegian coast to the Lofoten - Vesteraalen islands. Some thirty miles to the west of here tests were made on July 2 of our sonic depth finder.” (Boyd:1935:5)

“On September 16 the Veslekari docked at Aalesund, and the expedition terminated its voyage of eight days, of which some sixty were spent in East Greenland” (Boyd:41:35)

I searched for evidence of Louise Arner Boyd’s presence and enquired where I might find her. There was no sign of her anywhere. I wondered why?

Whilst wandering through the port I discovered a modelled bronze cast of a woman gutting fish, her back to the sea - she was on a plinth that hardly raised her from ground level. At least she was a woman of agency (albeit of toil) unlike most of the sculptures in the port towns of women waiting for their men to return that I had been recording. I was reminded of the ‘herring lassies’ from Hull, UK in the exhibition ‘Following the herring’.

The statue was adjacent to an imposing bronze statue of a fisherman looking out to sea raised on a high so you had to look up to him. I photographed both statues and I asked some of the passengers if they had seen either of the statues. Why was I surprised that they had seen the fisherman but had completely missed seeing the woman; it was as though she was invisible.

Day 3: Thursday, 20 Febuary, Folda (Open Sea)

Again on waking I videoed from my starboard cabin window. Today I spoke to a woman who told me she had done over thirty cruises with her husband. We spoke about how the ship is full of people with different stories to tell. She says that what she loves about being on a ship is meeting and talking to people and the anonymity of being able to tell people things about yourself and that you will probably never see those people again. She told me she enjoyed the possibility of adopting a new identity just for the voyage. Who would know she asked?  Now I knew, I wondered who she really was?

Day 4: Friday, 21 February , Bodø

I disembarked at Bodø and went into the town. I recorded a bronze statue of a naked woman with her two small children. Her nakedness was not untypical l had recorded other statues of women and children who were also unclothed. I wondered why it was deemed appropriate to represent women waiting this way?

I heard the blasts on the ships horn that reminded me of our imminent departure and headed back to embark. On the quayside I noticed a statue of a woman holding ship. I wondered who she was and why she was there? All the text was in Norwegian so it was impossible for me to translate except I could work out that it was some kind of memorial as there were dates on the bottom of the plinth. I wish I had made this work it so perfectly encapsulates A ship of ones own.

Once back on board ship I asked whether any one else had seen her. I was again amazed that no one else had noticed this beautiful, poignant memorial of the woman holding a ship, even though they had actually walked past it on their way back to the ship- another invisible woman.

I asked one of the crew if she knew what the statue was a memorial for and she said it was a Hurtigruten ship, that there had been a fire on board and that virtually all the passengers had died.

Day 5: Saturday, 22 February, Tromsø

The main (sole) purpose of my voyage was related to Tromsø. I knew that Louise Arner Boyd had regularly docked here on the way to the Arctic. I was sure that I would find evidence of her explorations at the Polar Museum - the key Artic research centre for polar exploration.

I explained to the young woman at the desk in the Polar Museum that I was looking for evidence of the presence of Louise Arner Boyd, the American Arctic explorer, who had visited and sailed from Tromsø on her many Arctic voyages?  She replied that she had never heard of her and that to her knowledge there was no evidence of her expeditions, photographic or otherwise, in the museum.  However, she explained there was a small display of objects and information about the female trapper named Wanny Wolstad in the museum.

I left Tromsø feeling bitterly disappointed not just by the absence of any evidence of Boyd’s voyages but in having to recognise more generally how women’s voices are continuously silenced – not lost from our histories but never included in the first place.

DAY 6: Sunday, 23 February, Nordkapp

I met the woman I had videoed on the foredeck on the first day and asked whether she minded if I continued to record her working. I found out that her name was Rebekah Dahl and that she was an engineer and a trainee Ships Pilot. She asked me 'Why are you here?' I told her about my research and my search for Louise Arner Boyd. I told her of Boyd's amazing voyages to Greenland, how she was the first woman to fly over the North Pole and that there is no grave and or plaques to commemorate her. Boyd’s dying wish had been to have her ashes spread from a plane over the North Pole. Sadly her wish was not carried out and it is alleged that instead her ashes were spread somewhere in Arctic waters and how my being in her wake had become an act of mourning.

She invited me up onto the bridge and we talked for over an hour. I was allowed to film and photograph her. We talked of women's power to make changes and how it was important not just to talk about it, do it. We have arranged to meet again.

DAY 10: Thursday, 27 February, Sandnessjøen

This morning we crossed the Arctic Circle at approx. 9.45am.

It is windy and rainy. I took a photo of the globe marker and recorded the sound of the blasts of the ships horn and videoed and photographed the wake as we passed by. It intrigues me how we demarcate the invisible boundaries and borders in the water. Who decided where crossing into or out of the Arctic Circle should be?

I feel sad at leaving it behind, sad at leaving her behind I said farewell to Louise Arner Boyd.

DAY 10: Thursday, 27 February, Bergen

I want to go home now.

The last day. I packed my belongings including my cameras, computer and drawing paraphernalia and noticed the ink blots that had accumulated during the past 11 days on my cabin window ledge as a residue of my presence - a permanent mark left on board the ship as a trace of my voyage. 

I awaited on deck with the other passengers as we approached Bergen.

Marion Amy Wyllie wrote: “Bergen must be approached by water to be seen as it should be, and to be appreciated as one of the most beautiful little cities in Europe.” (Wyllie:1909:102)

However beautiful, I did not linger in Bergen. I left for the airport to fly home to my awaiting ship to continue my research and prepare for my next voyage to search in the wake of Louise Arner Boyd.