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Marble Island
Marble Island (Uqsuriaq or Uqsuriarjuaq in Inuktitut) is the most southern overwintering port in the Hudson Bay whale hunting area and is part of an archipelago comprised of three other islands: Deadman's Island, Mittilik Island and Quartzite Island. That archipelago is located 40 km offshore from the current community of Rankin Inlet/Kangiqiniq.
Marble Island's configuration made it a good place for overwintering. Ross explains that a small bay accessible by going around Deadman's Island was particularly prized by captains:
The most popular harbour was on the southwest coast of Marble Island. There was easy access to the outer harbour behind Deadman's Island, where a ship could anchor in four or five fathoms, but greater security could be found in the inner harbour, which was reached by way of a narrow entrance called the gut,' less than two fathoms deep and fifty yards wide. The whalers were usually towed through the gut at high tide into an enclosed oval basin a mile long and half as wide. (Ross 1975: 47)
Marble Island was one of the most popular Hudson Bay overwintering ports between 1870-1887. It must be mentioned here that, well before the US and Scottish Hudson Bay whale hunting saga, 100 years before, in fact (between 1765 and 1777) the Hudson's Bay Company had tried without great success to hunt bowhead whales there.
That location had several advantages, such as overwintering room for several ships (up to five or six), and Marble Island became free of ice early in the spring, which allowed whalers to start hunting well before those who spent the winter in the ports of Depot Island, Cape Fullerton and Repulse Bay.
From 1870-1887, the harbour was used frequently; the main reason for its popularity was probably the early date at which ships could break out of the harbour ice in springearlier than those at Depot Island and Cape Fullerton and two months sooner than ships at Repulse Bay. (Ross 1975: 47)
Despite the advantage of the early ice melt, Marble Island was used less and less after 1887 before being totally abandoned starting in 1890 for distance and safety reasons. There were fewer and fewer whales near Marble Island, and the whalers had to hunt further north in Roes Welcome Sound, where they were more numerous. Therefore, this overwintering site became too distant to remain profitable. Furthermore, crew food security there was always a concern. The Inuit and the caribou herds were fairly far from the island, and ice conditions were often uncertain around the archipelago, which sometimes made travel between the coast and the island difficult if not impossible. Because the crews depended greatly on the Inuit to obtain fresh meat, winters on the remote island were long and hard. Several sailors died from scurvy there due to a lack of fresh meat.
Today the past presence of whalers on Marble Island is still visible. Sometimes, at low tide when the water is calm, it is possible to see the wreck of the Orray Taft, a whaling ship that sank in 1873. The graves of several sailors, four of whom were of the Orray Taft crew, can be visited on Marble Island and Deadman's Island. Archaeological vestiges remain, such as the stone foundations of a theatre that the Orray Taft crew built in 1864, under Captain George J. Parker's command.
Eber sums up the ups and downs experienced on Marble Island in a few words:
The island with its famous natural harbour had been the scene of shipwrecks, lonely funerals, starvations, possibly murder. It had also seen boisterous shipboard life, dancing on the rocks, minstrel shows, banjo concerts and theatrical productions staged in a theatre constructed out of Arctic rocks. (Eber 1989: 129)
Marble Island is still an important sacred site for the Inuit. When Inuit go there, they crawl ashore from their boats. Great misfortune may befall people who do not observe this ritual during the year after their visit. Here are the words of Sally Tatty, Rankin Inlet resident, on that subject as reported by Eber:
Oh yes, I used to have those feelings myself [being scared of the Island]! They say you must crawl ashore. If a person steps ashore without crawling, a year to the day, he dies. (Eber 130)