Don's Blog Fort Ross

Sailing south from Prince Leopold Island through the Prince Regent Inlet along the west coast of Somerset Island we passed Fury Beach. In August of 1825, the exploration ship HMS Fury under William Edward Parry was driven by the wind and ice onto the eastern coast of Somerset Island. It was beached and stores were unloaded when it became clear that the ship was lost. Parry's crew was taken home on the sister ship Hecla reaching England two months later. Explorer John Ross returned in 1829 to find the hulk of the Fury gone but the ships  boats, stores and anchors were still piled on the beach.  Ross's ship, the Victory was later frozen in further south and he depended on the Fury stores before being rescued after a four year heroic ordeal.  

South of Fury Beach we stopped to explore Fort Ross. This is the site of the last trading post established by the Hudson Bay Company for the fox pelt trade (1937). It was financially viable for only eleven years when ice conditions caused its closure. 

The factors residence and the store (below) remain.

Our late arrival this year diminished our chance to see fields of arctic flowers. Here at Fort Ross we found

great examples of lichen. Current thinking regarding the lichen is that it lives in a finely controlled relationship in which the fungus is parasitic on the alga. 

This is orange sea lichen (Xanthoria parietina).

 

Combination of two lichens including the black rock tripe (Umbilicaria).

Map lichen (Rhizocarpon geographical)

The  Fort Ross tundra  was also a great medium for growing mushrooms.