The Gordon Gill Story — Lost Chapters — Taking the Ferry to Arctic Red River

Normally, highway ferries cross rivers. In the 1980s, Gordon piloted the Peel River ferry *down* river, on the Mackenzie, from Fort Simpson, NWT to near Inuvik.

This unusual journey resulted from a re-fit job Northern Arc Shipbuilders secured from the Government of the NWT (GNWT). They were to replace the engine, ramp, shaft, propeller and wheel house and add a coffee room to the "McQueston", a small, single entry ferry. The work was to be done at Fort Simpson, where the Liard and Mackenzie Rivers join, and the vessel moved down river to Fort MacPherson, on the Peel River.

The journey of probably 770 miles (575 miles by air) was under the command of a Captain Marsh, the English-born GNWT Marine Superintendent, who had marine captain papers. However, Marsh had never been on the river. Gordon had been many, many times and knew it well; thus it was Gordon who ended up as the pilot and de facto captain.  Malcom McPhail was along as general deckhand and helper. 

Gordon remembers steering through the San Sault Rapids, and the narrow Ramparts. At the San Sault, Gordon would be particularly careful. This was after all the dangerous rapids which claimed Dredge 251, shortly after Gordon's near death experience aboard the Dredge's tugboat at age 16. Of piloting the small ferry through there, not exactly the thoroughbred of manoeuvrability, Gordon recalled: "The thing to remember at San Sault Rapid was to do the 'big swing', to stay well outside of the rocks and boiling [roiling] water. It was a mess in there. That's where Dredge 251 sank. Lots of canoes have tried to get closer to the shore there and capsized."

Their destination was Arctic Red River where another ferry connected the community to Inuvik. From there, Gordon went on to Fort MacPherson to ready the landing site where the McQueston would cross the Peel River. The crossing of the Peel is part of the Dempster Highway from Dawson City, Yukon, to Inuvik, and now Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean.

 A GNWT ferry operator would bring the vessel over a little later. Being a single entry ferry, and small, it had room for one truck, or trailer, or 2 cars, but they would have to either drive on and back off or the reverse.  Perhaps that is why the ferry only remained in service at Fort MacPherson for a short time before being moved to Yellowknife. It also had no rooms or accommodation, save for a 2 person coffee area. Thus the four people on board - McPhail, Gordon, Marsh and his wife - set up tents on deck and that is where they slept.

Marsh arranged that the local priest from Arctic Red and the Press from Inuvik would meet the ferry on arrival. As Gordon approached the landing spot, Captain Marsh - "he was from England", Gordon said - stepped out of the large tent he and his wife shared "all-decked out in braid and colour". No doubt resplendent, he looked out to see the old priest not so resplendent "dressed in an old coat, muddy covered hightop gumboots and ratty pants". 

No member of the press was in sight.

Growing up in the northern Alberta bush, Gordon likely didn't appreciate the potential pomp and ceremony of such a voyage.