Travel

Planning a Return Trip

In preparation for the Bowdoin’s 2024 venture to Greenland, the first since 2008, Captain Andy Chase ’79 visited the country to reconnect

Next summer Master Alex Peacock and a crew of MMA students will sail the Bowdoin to Greenland with stops at several towns. It will be the Bowdoin’s first return to Greenland since Capt. Rick Miller’s trip with students in 2008. Elliot Rappaport sailed with students to Greenland in 1994 as did Captain Andy Chase in 1991.

In preparation for next summer’s trip, Chase began reaching out to Greenland towns, museums, and other places Bowdoin had visited on its earlier trips. Despite repeated emails, he heard little back. It was decided that Chase should go to Greenland and start knocking on doors.

Nuuk, capital of Greenland. With 17,000 residents, it is Greenland’s most populous city.
PHOTO BY ANDY CHASE

Arriving in Nuuk, Greenland’s largest town, Chase started with the Greenland Maritime School. It trains students primarily for working aboard fishing and coastal cargo vessels. He met Director Bent Oleson who was immediately enthusiastic about the Bowdoin trip. “For the next two days,” said Chase, “Oleson was my personal guide, introducing me to everybody I needed to find. Everywhere I went, I emphasized that MMA was not coming as a bunch of tourists—we wanted cultural exchange.”

Nuuk is also where the offices of the U.S. Consul and the Public Diplomacy Office from the U.S. Consulate are located. Since Greenland is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, it’s no surprise there are strong ties between them. But the U.S. Consulate staff works to build ties between Greenland and the U.S. Chase met with them and they, too, are eager to help MMA build connections in Greenland.

After several days in Nuuk, Chase flew to Sisimiut, just above the Arctic Circle, and one of Donald Baxter MacMillan’s regular stops with the Bowdoin on his trips in the 1920s. There, Chase met Dorthe Katrine Olsen, director of the Sisimiut Museum, and the only female and only Inuit museum director in Greenland. She did not know about MMA’s past trips to Greenland with the Bowdoin and was excited to learn about its return in 2024. Chase had brought National Geographic magazines with stories about MacMillan’s early trips to the Arctic. He showed the photographs to her and a high school student working as a museum summer intern. The intern immediately pulled out her phone, and in a moment said, “Hey, look, here’s a picture of the Bowdoin in 1925 in Sisimiut.”

Chase also met an old acquaintance. In 1991 Inger Eriksen, then at the Tourist Bureau, had been the Bowdoin crew’s host. She is now the director of the Taseralik Culture Center in Sisimiut, as well as the chairman of the board of the largest retailer in Greenland, KNI (also called Greenland Trade). “She was tickled to death,” said Chase. “She was friendly and welcoming. We had a really wonderful day. She had been super helpful to us in ’91 but had forgotten about it over the years. She was pleased that I remembered her.”

Chase flew next to Ilulissat where he met Andreas Hoffmann, director of the art and history museums. He was the most enthusiastic and helpful person Chase encountered. After their meeting, Chase walked down to the Icefjord and was awestruck. “The view of the freshly calved icebergs, some the size of a city block, defies description,” said Chase. “No member of next summer’s voyage should be allowed to miss this. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but even that doesn’t begin to capture its magnitude and majesty.”

Capt. Andy Chase with Inger Eriksen, his host when he was in Greenland in 1991.

Chase received warm and enthusiastic welcomes everywhere he went. He collected the names of businesses, people, schools, and cultural organizations. He collected practical information Capt. Peacock will need about berthing, fuel, food, supplies, laundries, and all the things ships need from ports. Hoffmann confirmed what Chase had learned the hard way: in Greenland communication is face to face. “You didn’t succeed by email because that’s just not the way it works here,” he said.

After two busy weeks, Chase headed back to Maine with pages of notes about people and places that will help the Bowdoin’s captain and crew plan next summer’s trip.

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