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Diary, Peace River Crossing
    Flew to McMurray and [tried to go] on to Fitzgerald. Bucked a 50 mile gale on Slave River, ran out of gas, forced to land. Wind blew us upstream one and a half miles before we could get ashore. Found a small cabin, No. 10 Buffalo Camp, tied machine safely and stayed overnight.
    After their standard breakfast of fried bacon, bannock, tea, and half-frozen pears, Walker and Cruickshank each perched on one of the plane’s floats and, wielding paddles, attempted to paddle the twenty miles to Fitzgerald. But a strong wind whipped up waves, making any forward progress impossible. Finally, the pair decided to turn the aircraft around and they paddled it back to shore where they secured it again. They then began trekking downstream. In his diary entry for September 27, 1929, Andy wrote: “Walked down river 10 miles to Fitzgerald. Walker got stuck in quicksand. [He] was wearing waders. By using lots of driftwood I made a platform and got him out of his boots.”
    It took the strength of both men, lying on the platform, to pull Walker’s boots out of the mire, one at a time. They trudged onward, eventually finding a Native camp where they borrowed a canoe. After making their way upriver, they tied the plane to the canoe to tow the aircraft to Fitzgerald. This proved equally impossible. Once again they turned around, paddled upstream, secured the plane onshore, and spent the second night in cabin number ten.
    At daybreak Cruickshank and Walker paddled to Fitzgerald, left the canoe, bought gas, and borrowed a powerboat to take them back to ’SQ. After refuelling the plane they set off again, heading towards Fitzgerald and their rendezvous with Dickins. However, when they landed they found that Dickins had already left. Dickins had flown with MacAlpine and Pearce during the summer of 1928 to drop off prospectors and visit some of the Domex bases, so he was familiar with the area and had a personal connection to the lost party. He covered roughly 2,600 miles on flights through rain, fog, snow, and high winds but found no sign of the missing planes or the men. He then returned to his normal posting with Western Canada Airways.
    Right: Francis Roy Brown lived in Winnipeg until the outbreak of the First World War. He enlisted in the Canadian Cycle Corps and was sent to France where he served at Ypres, Vimy, and Passehendaele. Left: Bill Spence, smoking his trademark pipe, poses next to a set of caribou antlers at Bathurst Inlet. Born in 1892 in Oshawa, Ontario, Spence acted as chief pilot for Dominion Explorers.
Right: Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Canadian Air Lines Collection #1455.
Left: Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Canadian Air Lines Collection #2141.
    When they reached Fitzgerald, Cruickshank and Walker were asked to fly to the Domex camp at Stony Rapids, on the easterly shore of Lake Athabasca, where primary search planes with pilots and mechanics were waiting for further direction. Two planes were waiting for Cruickshank at Stony Rapids, and two more were standing by at Baker Lake. The roster of this search and rescue team was outstanding. Flying a Fokker Super Universal (G-CASO) with mechanic Paul Davis was Roy Brown, a First World War veteran. “Bertie” Hollick-Kenyon, a young pilot and another First World War veteran, with mechanic Bill Nadin, flew a Fokker Super Universal (G-CASL). Bill Spence of Dominion Explorers flew with mechanic E.G. Longley and Guy Blanchet, a Domex northern surveyor, aboard a Fairchild CF-ACZ. Jim D. Vance from Northern Aerial Minerals Exploration, with mechanic B.C. Blasdale assisting, also flew a Fokker Super Universal (G-CARK). Thankfully, a wireless system linked Baker Lake and Stony Rapids, which meant that critical decisions and plans could be made.
    G-CARK, the Fokker Super Universal, owned by Northern Aerial Minerals Exploration, is readied for the search. The ’RK was the first Super Universal to be made by Fokker and was purchased by