Four Degrees Celsius Read Online Free PDF Page A

“E” division, where he monitored immigration at the Port of Vancouver.
Karram Family Collection.
    The media continued daily reports about the missing Dominion Explorers. Mr. McDougall, the treasurer of Domex, gave a statement on September 23, 1929, to The Manitoba Free Press that instructions had been given for the commencement of an intensive search: “The relief planes detailed to fly into Mackenzie River territory at dawn this morning will be piloted by ‘Punch’ Dickens [ sic ] and Andy Cruickshanks [ sic ]. Both have had much experience in flying in the great northwest.”
    Cruickshank had an international reputation as one of the world’s finest pilots [2] ; not only was his flying exemplary, but his knowledge of the North was encyclopedic. He had learned to fly the hard way, in the skies over France during the First World War. After the Great War, he emigrated from England to Canada and was one of only twelve recruits chosen to join the prestigious Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 1923. [3] After his first posting in Vancouver’s “E” division he requested a transfer to Dawson, Yukon Territories, where his thirst for adventure would be fulfilled. It was in the North that he found his true home. He was later described in the Western Canada Airways Bulletin as one whom, “in the great spaces of the North had communed with Nature in all her moods, sifted the essentials, and freed his soul from the trammels of dogma.” [4] He was awestruck by its remorseless beauty and developed a high regard for and a lasting friendship with the local Aboriginal people.
    His RCMP duties ranged from recording mining claims and land titles to collecting customs duties and acting variously as a coroner, Indian agent, health officer, tax collector, magistrate, jailer, and even guard for the Dawson banks. He went on patrols with dog teams, camping for weeks at a time as he journeyed from one settlement to another, often transporting the sick for miles to the nearest hospital. In the North he learned survival skills and with them a great respect for the forces of nature.
    Cruickshank met Esmé Trevor-Bulkley while hiking in Capilano Canyon, North Vancouver. At that time, RCMP officers were not permitted to marry unless they had served with the force for five years. Cruickshank bought his release from the Mounties and married Esmé in 1927. The couple flew with Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne in 1928.
Karram Family Collection.
    Cruickshank left the RCMP in 1927 and set up the Yukon Airways and Transportation Company with James Finnegan and Clyde Wann. He lobbied the Yukon and Dominion governments for permission to fly commercial flights and airmail in the North. Once this request was granted he ordered a Ryan M-2 monoplane to carry the mail and begin commercial flying. But just prior to completion of the aircraft Cruickshank was approached by Charles Lindbergh, who asked if he could take delivery of the plane instead, since he was vying for a prize for the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. The $25,000 prize, offered in 1919 by New York hotelier Raymond Orteig, was for the first aviator to make a non-stop flight from either Paris to New York or New York to Paris. Cruickshank agreed to give up his position in line for the Ryan, and while he waited for the next plane in production, Lindbergh made his historic flight on the plane named The Spirit of St. Louis . [5] This flight proved pivotal, since it demonstrated that a stock engine could run continuously for 33.5 hours. Engines like this could withstand the rigours of the North.
    In that same year Cruickshank married Esmé Trevor-Bulkley. They set sail from Vancouver to Skagway with Cruickshank’s dismantled aircraft aboard the ship. Soon after, he began his career as a northern bush pilot flying the reassembled Queen of the Yukon .
    Cruickshank (or Chief Thunderbird as he would soon be known to the local Aboriginal