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.

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.”