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"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.
Wavescan N584, May 3, 2020
The Greenland Story: The Good Ship Morrissey and its Arctic Voyages
The longest continuous series of expeditions to the Arctic was conducted aboard the fishing schooner that was registered under the name of a girl who was born in Canada in the year 1877. This small though quite famous ship was in use for a total of 20 annual expeditions into Arctica beginning in 1926; it is now a registered National Historic Landmark in the United States; and it is the official State Ship for the American state of Massachusetts. We go back to the beginning.
William Edward Morrissey was born in Lower East Pubnico in Nova Scotia, Canada on August 17, 1845. In 1867, the 22 year old Edward Morrissey married the 16 year old Caroline Larkin, and in the course of time, they gave birth to five children, three boys and two girls. The second youngest child was a girl, and she was named Effie Maude Morrissey.
On February 1, 1894, a two-masted Gaff-rigged 150 ft. long fishing schooner was launched at the ship-building yards of James and Tarr at Essex in Massachusetts. This new fishing vessel was locally designed and constructed for the Wonson Fish Company, with William Edward Morrissey as its first captain. He named this new ship as the Effie M. Morrissey, in honor of his pretty 17 year old daughter, Effie Maude Morrissey. In its first fishing season, the fishing ship Effie M. Morrissey brought in nearly 40 tons of fish, which handsomely paid for its construction.
Captain William E. Morrissey died in 1913 at the age of 67, and during the following year (1914) the ship was sold to new owners in Newfoundland. Give thirteen more years (1926), and with the installation of a new diesel engine, Robert Bartlett was ready to take the ship up north, in its first annual exploration tour of Arctic areas.
On this historic first expedition, the Effie M. Morrissey was taken up north through Baffin Bay and along the west coast of Greenland as far as Etah on the northwest tip of the island. At one stage, Etah, just 20 miles across the frozen waters from the Canadian island of Ellesmere, was the most northerly inhabited location in the world.
This first northerly expedition was financed and led by author and publisher George Putnam, who subsequently married the well-known though tragic aviatrix Amelia Earhart five years later. This northern expedition into Greenland was made on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in Michigan. There were two major purposes for this expedition; collecting specimens of Arctic sea life, and establishing plans for subsequent expeditions to the same areas.
During the 20 years that the Effie M. Morrissey conveyed annual expeditions to Arctica, more than a dozen of these voyages were specifically to various areas of Greenland itself. All of these expeditions were funded by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and by similar institutions associated with geography, exploration, museum collections and natural sciences.
During the 1933 expedition to northwest Greenland, the Morrissey ship was temporarily impounded by the British while it was traversing Canadian waters without proper papers. This legal infringement was corrected when the ship returned to the waters of New York City at the end of that summer voyage.
On half a dozen other occasions, the Morrissey ship voyaged into northern Canadian territories, along the northern seacoast of Labrador, and in particular to the two large islands called Baffin and Ellesmere. During the latter part of World War II, the Morrissey was taken over by the American authorities and it was used under charter to convey needed supplies to American forces on duty at Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island, and at nearby Ungava on the Canadian mainland.
Upon every occasion during its 20 years of service into Arctica, radio was in use aboard the Effie M. Morrissey; for operational communications, for the transmission of news to supporting newspapers in the United States, for the relay of live broadcasts to the mediumwave networks in the United States, and for amateur radio QSO communications worldwide. Due to international radio regulations, two operators were aboard the Morrissey on each expedition.
The first radio operator was Edward B. Manley, who operated the equipment aboard the Morrissey for ten years, from the very first northern expedition in 1926 up until during the year 1935. During the 1926 Summer Expedition, Manley sent regular dispatches to the New York Times under the ship's original callsign VOQ. Then, during the following year, Radio Broadcast magazine in October 1927 printed a picture showing their shortwave radio equipment.
Six years later, a 1933 QSL card shows the use of a modified callsign, now VOQH. The main transmitter was a 250 watt Morse Code unit, and the receiver was a Hammarlund Comet Pro from New York. Three years later again, in August 1936, a QSL card shows the official callsign aboard the Morrissey in north east Greenland as W10XDA, and the equipment was a 100 watt Radiophone transmitter, together with a new Hammarlund receiver, the Crystal Pro.
In 1941, the Morrissey was in use for another northern expedition, this time on behalf of NBS, the National Bureau of Standards. NBS operates the international standard chronohertz station WWV, and at that time a new shortwave station was under construction at Belltsville, Maryland, out from Washington, D.C.
On this expedition, three personnel represented NBS, including the rather well-known northern explorer Louise Boyd. The radio operator, Mr. T. A. Carol, was seconded from the United States Coastguard.
This voyage took the Morrissey north through Baffin Bay, the expansive waters that separate Greenland and its western islands from several of Canada's eastern islands. During this voyage, local magnetic levels were noted, together with associated shortwave monitoring observations. While located along the northern coast of Baffin Island, a very large black sunspot was noted, and this resultant emanation from the sun caused a sensational manifestation of the Aurora Borealis Northern Lights, and also a total radio blackout that lasted for two weeks.