From a book blurb.
I hosted Joe to a meal at
my home in 1977, after the Oceans Congress committee, of which I was a
member, invited him from Canada to be a keyspeaker at the famous Melbourne
congress. I found him to be an exceptional man who had even at that time
achieved so much. My aquaintance with him made me question my own direction
in life, working as the computer manager of a Japanese car firm - not that
I entertained the idea that I could lead an exciting life like Joe for
he had (has) a drive and intelligence far exceeding my own, but I hoped
to one day cut the umbilical to the corporate desk and get a life. I did
so within two years of meeting Joe, and, in some respect, owe him thanks
for inspiring me. [ps]
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THE BREADALBANE ADVENTURE
Joe MacInnes. Introduction by Walter Cronkite. Optium Publishing Internationl, Montreal, Toronto. 1982. Hardcover, dustjacket, 172 pages,a few mono photographs, chart, further reading, no index. From the fly: In 1975, Joe Maclnnis, pioneer in the great frontier of the Arctic Ocean, discovered a new challenge. Through an old- Arctic loner and a reclusive English scholar, he learned of a sailing vessel locked for 127 years beneath the polar ice: the Breadalbane. The Breadalbane was one of many ships dispatched by the British Admiralty to find. Sir John Franklin the explorer, and the 129 crewmen aboard the Erebus and the Terror. Like many before them, the ships had sought the fabled Northwest Passage to the riches of the Orient. Neither ship nor crewmen were ever found. On its ill-fated supply run, the Breadalbane had stopped at Beechey Island and then became caught in the ice. The ice lifted the craft from the water and crushed its hull, but gave the crew time to scramble to safet-y before opening briefly to swallow its prize. Since 1853, the Breadalbane had stood upright on the ocean floor, unseen by human eyes. Joe Maclnnis spent three grueling years searching for the lost ghost ship, battling fierce Arctic winds, the lethal polar waters, and icebergs weighing up to a million tons. In The Breadalbane Adventure, Maclnnis takes us on his unique quest, right up to the electrifying moment when he. finds the ship, largely intact, in the-sub-zero waters. The book contains a:complete photographicrecord of the exciting expeditions, including amazing pictures of the- frozen ship and its contents. [ps] |
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FITZGERALD'S
STORM
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Dr. Joseph MacInnis. Published by Macmillan Canada, Toronto; 1997. Softcover, 132 pages, bibliography, a few mono photograph. She was regarded, by the author at least, as the 'Titanic' of the Great Lakes û a massive ship some two city block long, of 13,000 tons which took twenty-nine men to their death in 1975. She now lies in 530 ft, in Lake Superior. You must have heard of her especially if you lived through the seventies and heard Gordon Lightfoot's famous, and very moving, song. Many years later, in 1994 to be precise, MacInnes dived the wreck 'looking for answers'. From interviews, transcripts and his own dives, Joe (for I can call him that for I have hosted him at home), has crafted a tale that is gripping and poignant. Re-creating the ship's voyage, he describes the ship, the men, and the hurricane-force storm that killed them. He also tells a tale of what came after: the grieving, the inquest, the discovery dives and the commercial exploitation. [ps] |
