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Kapitaikuluk-Henry Toke Munn (1864-1952)
The Aftermath of the Nineteen Century Whaling Industry
Henry Toke Munn (Kapitaikuluk) was a tireless adventurer for most of his intrepid life. He arrived in Canada from England at the age of 22 and headed west where he first became a farmer and a buffalo hunter. He then moved North to take advantage of the Yukon gold rush in Dawson City. Always pushing for greater adventures, particularly in areas where gold could be found, Munn volunteered to join the British troops as a cavalry Captain in South Africa during the Boer war.
While exploring northern Ontario for gold after his return to Canada in 1908, he met George Bartlett, son of the famous whaling Captain John Bartlett. Captain Bartlett had in his possession a map drawn by a cooper who was working on a whaling ship in the 1860s. This man claimed that he had found gold in the Pond Inlet area. Meanwhile, Robert Janes (Sakirmiak), who had sailed on the Joseph E. Bernier's government expedition of 1910-1911, had published in a Saint-John's newspaper a report that he had discovered gold in the Eclipse Sound area close to Pond Inlet. Munn joined himself to the Bartlett expedition to Pond Inlet with money to invest in the venture.
On June 26, 1912, Munn and George Bartlett departed for the Arctic on a ship commanded by Captain John Bartlett, the SS Algerine. At Igarjuaq in Albert Sound, Munn was able to observe and evaluate Captain Joseph Bernier's own lucrative trading and gold-seeking operation at his trading station there. Bernier had also returned to the North to look for gold on a private expedition, and had bought this trading station from the Robert Kinnes Company of Dundee.
The next year Munn founded the Arctic Gold Exploration Syndicate (AGES) with the backing of a wealthy British partner. With the intention of looking for gold and trading with the Inuit, AGES bought the famous ship the Albert, formerly commanded by James Mutch. Munn first opened a trading station at Button Point (Sannirut) on Bylot Island in 1914, and finally realised after a year that there was no gold to be found in the area. At this point his company began to focus on trading.
In 1916, the Albert took six Cumberland Sound Inuit families to Southampton Island to establish a trading station, with William Duval (Sivutiksaq) as the manager. As the station proved not to be profitable, Munn returned Duval and the Inuit families to Cumberland Sound where he then opened a new station at Usualuk.
Munn was not alone to see the economic void left by the departure of the last whalers in the Arctic. In 1919 Munn bought the Igarjuaq station from Captain Bernier with the goal of dominating trade in the Eastern Arctic. In 1922, however, confronted with the reality of a Hudson's Bay Company trading monopoly throughout the Canadian North, Henry Toke Munn sold them all his Arctic operations.