The headline I saw was Fuel tanker runs aground in Northwest Passage . Back when I first moved to Canada, some of my friends felt that my education needed expanding, to put it mildly. When at the end of an evening of supper and merriment our guest Judy began singing Northwest Passage, and Nola joined in, I knew I was missing something. What are you on about? I asked. Judy stared. Didn't I know? "The Northwest Passage is the whole reason Canada exists." Nola nodded. I set out to do a bit of reading, that culminated a year and half later with a new appreciation for the strange and wonderful echoes of human endeavour, and more particularly a fondness for the St Roch and her captain, Henry Larsen.
Which matters for why? Well, for why this: the Coast Guard ship detailed to deal with the errant tanker gone aground near Gjoa Haven is none other than the Henry Larsen.
