Eenoolooapik

Eenoolooapik was an Inuit hunter and trader from what is now Cumberland Sound. He travelled to Aberdeen on board William Penny’s ship, Neptune (Penny had been searching for new whaling grounds and believed that Eenoolooapik, with his knowledge of the region could help convince the Royal Navy to fund another exploratory mission to the region). He arrived in Aberdeen in November 1839 and soon was giving kayaking demonstrations in the harbour and River Dee: “A great many persons were attracted to the novelty of the thing. He displayed great skill and gracefulness in propelling his queer-looking craft in the lower part of the harbour, and up the Dee, and gave a satisfactory proof of his dexterity as a sportsman, by spearing a duck, which was procured from a neighbouring “˜preserve’. He seems rather fond of such a game, for a fleet of adventurous ducks that had ventured a good way from shore narrowly escaped his seldom-erring aim”Every body seemed highly pleased with his feats, and he seemed himself much gratified with his opportunity of doing the agreeable.” Unfortunately, Eenoolooapik subsequently fell ill with pneumonia and was sick for several months. He recovered and left Aberdeen in April 1840, the Royal Navy having been unconvinced of the merits of funding Penny’s voyage. Penny remained undeterred and, with the geographical knowledge gained from Eenoolooapik, explored the Cumberland Sound region that summer. It became an important site for whaling camps in the years after Eenoolooapik’s death from consumption in 1847.

Alexander Macdonald, A Narrative of Some Passages in the History of Eenoolooapik, a young Esqu*maux” (Edinburgh: Fraser & Co., 1841). Image: Portrait of Eenoolooapik, from Alexander M’Donald (McDonald)’s biography of Eenoolooapik (1841), https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/eenoolooapik.