No Ordinary Risks: Epic Historic Journeys from Hudson Bay to the Arctic Sea

The first chapter of this book is taken from a rough manuscript that describes the journeys made by the author, young HBC clerk Augustus Richard Peers. He writes colourfully of his sailing voyage from the Thames to Hudson Bay, and describes his first winter at York Factory. He spends the rest of his life working for the HBC in the extreme North, but the most interesting part of his journey is his travel from Norway House, on Playgreen Lake, to Portage La Loche itself, in the historic and famous Portage La Loche Brigades under Alexis L’Esperance.

Augustus Richard Peers’s journeys bring us from London to the Peel’s River post, in the estuary of the Mackenzie River. Peers brilliantly describes the landmarks on the rivers along his way, and the difficulties of travelling when the river ice is melting in the spring, and the problems and beauties of living in the far North. He is certainly not the most likeable of the three men whose stories I will tell but his descriptions are fabulous. It is enough.

Begin his journey here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/augustus-peers-journal/

 To this day, Chief Trader Robert Campbell is beloved in the Yukon, and his story is told in the second chapter of No Ordinary Risks. Here you will see some of the dangers that these men faced as they broken open new territory for the Hudson’s Bay Company. In Campbell’s case, there were many risks to be overcome, and he almost didn’t survive the last one when his post of Fort Selkirk, on the junction of the Yukon River with the Pelly, was overtaken by the Chilkat traders from the coast. 

Begin Robert Campbell’s journey here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/london-ships/

The third chapter tells the story of Chief Trader James Anderson’s long journey down the Great Fish River to the shores of the Arctic Sea in summer 1855, in search of Sir John Franklin’s lost men. The risks were enormous, and every man on the expedition knew that if an early winter came on they might not survive their return journey home. It was James Anderson’s job to bring his fourteen paddlers down the eighty-four rapids of Great Fish River to the Arctic Sea, and to bring them home safely again. He managed that, but one of his men found more than he wanted to find, and he kept the find secret.

To read James Anderson’s story, begin here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/james-andersons-journey/

The book, No Ordinary Risks, will be published in January 2027.