Captain Bob Bartlett


That favourite son of yesteryear
Whose story in our hearts long dwells
Will live with us down through the years
And to our sons and daughters tells

Of a life as captain for forty years
With forty odd voyages in half a century at sea
Blessed with good luck when on the water
An exceptional leader of men was he

Born to a family of famous ice captains
In Brigus his craft was forged on the sea
He knew his life would take that path
For what other than that could ever it be

His life it spanned three epic periods
First with Peary reaching North Pole by sea
Then with the Karluk on Canadian Arctic Expeditions
And finally scientific voyages on his vessel Morrissey

Travelling further north than any before him
And shipwrecked twelve times in the process
Sea ice crushing his ship he survived for months
And journeyed hundreds of miles by dogsled with stress

Six years aboard merchant vessels
He spent his Winters and Fall,
And Springs and Summers at fishing and sealing
At twenty two, had visited many foreign lands in all

On gaining a master’s ticket
He worked aboard the “Windward” as mate
On his uncle’s vessel involved in
Peary’s North Pole expedition in ninety eight

From year twenty six to thirty nine
On The Effie Morrissey, a gift from a friend
He made fourteen trips north on scientific expeditions
Studying fauna & flora of the north to the end

He died of pneumonia in the Spring of forty six
A national hero and widely lamented
And his body returned to his own beloved Brigus
To rest forever amongst his own so contented.


John Cornick
Halifax, Nova Scotia

  Submitted By: John Cornick