Scotty Gall

Raised near Aberdeen in Scotland, Scotty Gall applied for an apprenticeship with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC)  and made his way to Canada in 1923. Gall has the distinction of having successfully navigated the Northwest Passage in 1937 while piloting the HBC ship, Aklavik. As the trip was completed in the course of delivering goods to HBC posts, it was not publicized at the time.

Amundsen had navigated the passage some four decades earlier, but it wasn’t until 1942 – when the RCMP ship, St. Roch, set out to complete the distance – that national attention was focused on a successful trip through the Northwest Passage.  

After the World War II, Scotty Gall lived in Yellowknife, running stores for the Hudson’s Bay Company. In 1958, he was appointed to the territorial government of the day, the Northwest Territories Council,  and served until 1964.

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Click for a brief (1:03) clip of an interview with Scotty Gall originally featured on the CBC Northern Service radio program "The Days Before Yesterday". Les McLaughlin produced. Ray Stone hosted.
Gall intro(CBC/NWT Archives/N-1998-030: 0165):
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Listen to the entire interview (10:25), in which Gall describes shipping in the Arctic aboard the Maud and the Baychimo.
Gall complete (CBC/NWT Archives/N-1998-030: 0165):
Quicktime
Windows Media