100th Anniversary of the MacMillan Arctic Expedition

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the MacMillan Arctic expedition setting sail from Wiscasset, Maine, on the schooner "Bowdoin".  MacMillan named his vessel "Bowdoin," to honor his alma mater.  MacMillan taught school for a few years before being recruited as an assistant by Admiral Robert E. Peary to sail on a 1908 Arctic expedition.

Onboard the Bowdoin was a complete 200-meter amateur station donated by the Zenith Radio corporation and an amateur radio operator, Donald H. Mix (1TS) provided by the ARRL.

Zenith station aboard the Bowdoin. Left to right are Fred Schnell, Donald H. Mix, Kenneth Warner, M. B. West, and Donald MacMillan

As a member of the seven-man crew, Mix transmitted a weekly five hundred word message to the North American newspaper Alliance.  The expedition was in contact with home until its return in September 1924.

“No polar expedition will attempt to go north again without radio equipment,” predicted Captain MacMillan.


Good DX and 73, NJ2X

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