A Return to Sloop Cove

Sloop Cove, Churchill, Manitoba: August, 2015

Some years ago, I wrote a post that included images of some of the 18th century graffiti at Sloop Cove, which is on the west shore of the Churchill River estuary opposite Churchill. This turned out to be a topic of interest to quite a few people, and I always intended to follow up with more of the words and images that are scratched and carved into the hard Churchill quartzite at that site. In 2015 I was fortunate to have the chance to re-visit Sloop Cove, and took advantage of that opportunity to photograph almost all of the carved names, images, and dates. This post presents some of these more recent images.

A swarm of names, initials, and symbols on one of the quartzite surfaces. I’m not sure of the significance of the axe (or is it a hammer?) beside the name Smith.

To tell the story of why the Sloop Cove inscriptions exist, I don’t think I can do better than to quote my previous post:

“Then we saw what the fence was protecting: scratched into the quartzite were many signatures and other markings from the early fur trade days, not just Hearne’s! The great majority of these date from the mid 18th century, with a smattering of more recent examples (it appears that Parks Canada removes anything added nowadays, though). But why are they here?  And why did these men spend so much time laboriously carving into this famously hard and tough stone?

An overview shows names spread across the surface. The “erasures” mark places where Parks Canada has removed uninvited modern graffiti.

The answer lies in the use to which the cove was put in those early historical times. Although we like to think of land as stable and solid, the Hudson Bay Lowlands have been rising ever since the removal of a huge weight of glacial ice a few thousand years ago. Various estimates have been made for the Churchill area, but it is most likely that the river mouth has been rising about one metre per century, and as a result Sloop Cove has risen two metres plus since the 1750s (a pdf showing detailed analysis can be found here).

The mouth of Sloop Cove is now above the normal high tide level.

Back then, the bottom of the cove was probably flooded by salt water at very high tides, and in any case it was close enough to sea level that small ships (sloops) could be hauled out there. Of course this may have been done for maintenance, but most importantly this was the first really protected spot upriver from the Prince of Wales’ Fort, and it was essential to get boats out of the river in winter so that they were not subject to ice damage.

Mooring rings attached to the quartzite facilitated the hauling of small ships.

Even now the sea ice at Churchill can remain well into the time that southerners think of as “summer”, and as a result the men waiting to re-launch their little ships would have had many days of warm weather before they could set sail. What better way to pass the sunny hours than to leave your mark on the stone?  Permanently, as it turned out.”

The Royal Navy bomb ketches Furnace and Discovery spent the winter of 1741-42 at Sloop Cove during an unsuccessful search for the Northwest Passage.

The striations (lines) across the quartzite surfaces demonstrate that the bedrock at Sloop Cove was smoothed and shaped by glaciers during the Ice Age.

Samuel Hearne’s signature is the most famous and most frequently reproduced of all the inscriptions at Sloop Cove. Given the artistic quality of this work, and the auspicious date that was selected (exactly 100 years before Canada’s Confederation), I am suspicious that the date at least may be a more recent addition.

Perhaps “P” meant to come back and finish his name, but just never got around to it?

For more details, please refer to Lorraine Brandson’s excellent book:

Brandson, Lorraine E. 2011. Churchill Hudson Bay: A Guide to Natural and Cultural Heritage. Itsanitaq Museum, Churchill, MB.

Even now the sea ice at Churchill can remain well into the time that southerners think of as “summer”. This photo shows ice on Hudson Bay during our visit two weeks ago, on June 17, 2019.

© Graham Young, 2019