Christopher Chapman shares tales of the Bluenose II
May 13, 2008 - 08:23 AM
BY Andrew Dalrymple
UXBRIDGE - It's not every day Uxbridge residents get to be in the presence of an Oscar winner.
Christopher Chapman was a special guest speaker at the Historical Centre's schoolhouse on May 7. He talked in great detail about his satisfying, yet terrifying, experiences involving winning an Academy Award and his voyage on the Bluenose II.
Just after 7 p.m., the 1987 recipient of the Order of Canada approached the podium carrying a black dufflebag. One could only assume it was his Oscar for 'A Place to Stand' which won Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects at the 1968 Academy Awards. The film was also nominated for Best Documentary, Short Subjects. It was created for the Ontario pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal.
He slowly unzipped the bag and low and behold, there it was, Oscar himself. A resident asked where he keeps it, and Mr. Chapman jokingly said, "I use it as a doorstop."
With great anticipation, the audience wanted to see the film that earned Mr. Chapman this tremendous accolade.
It was obvious why an Oscar was earned. In some parts of the film, 15 separate images are moving at once. This has been dubbed a 'multi-dynamic image technique' and Mr. Chapman is considered in many circles as the pioneer in this way of filming.
"When I first showed the film, it was wonderful and terrifying at the same time," said Mr. Chapman. "It was a technique that had never been done before."
Mr. Chapman recalls at the first screening, he was exhausted and unsure about the film, but as he was leaving the room the late-great Steve McQueen, who was watching the film in the back, grabbed Mr. Chapman and told him he was blown away by the film.
Later in the evening, Mr. Chapman went on to talk about his experiences on the Bluenose II.
In 1964, the ship was to set sail from Lunenburg, N.S. to the Pacific Ocean. The crew consisted of 10 men, one of them being Captain Agnus Walters.
It was the middle of January and the Bluenose was covered with ice. Large numbers of people were present to cheer the ship's departure, but the captain originally warned that a storm was coming in, so the voyage was cancelled. For whatever reason, the captain changed his mind and said, "We'll make a run for it", Mr. Chapman recalled.
The Bluenose set sail into the darkness of the cold Atlantic Ocean.
The storm was so bad, the Bluenose got lost. It was one of the worst storms to hit the area.
One of the crewmates looked at his barometer and made the comment to Mr. Chapman, "I have never seen anything like this."
"Water was pouring into my room," said Mr. Chapman. "The problem with the ship was you had to go on deck to go from the bow to the stern."
At one point, the Bluenose flashed an SOS to another ship in the distance. As they started to approach the ship, it messaged back saying, "We're a Canadian warship, we cannot leave our station."
That story in particular, was just one example that drew laughs throughout the evening.
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