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Operation Habakkuk
- adapted from the book "Canadian Rockies"
Winter 1942: The enemy had sunk more than 600 Allied ships. British prime minister Winston Churchill put out the
word-any idea would be considered to cut the losses, no matter how far-fetched, no matter how expensive. Geoffrey
Pyke, an inmate of an English mental hospital, put forward the idea of a monstrous aircraft carrier constructed
of ice a "bergship." It wouldn't burn if torpedoed, or melt in the chilly waters of the North Atlantic.
Desperate, the Allied Chiefs of Staff thought it over. Lord Louis Mountbatten demonstrated the merits of an ice
boat to Churchill by playing with ice cubes in the bathtub at 10 Downing Street. They commissioned Pyke to draw
up plans, and decided to build a 1000 tonne prototype somewhere cold and remote...Canada would do.
Winter, 1943: The bizarre story shifted to the shore of Patricia Lake (in Jasper National Park, Alberta). Here,
Geoffrey Pyke, out on a pass, supervised the construction of the ice boat under the code name Operation Habakkuk.
(Habakkuk was a Biblical prophet who promised "a work in your days which ye will not believe.")
Pyke invented pykecrete-- ice that contained wood chips, moss, paper and sawdust. Experimentation proved that spruce
chips gave more strength and flotation than pine chips. Still, pykecrete was not overly buoyant. The planned 650-metre
long, 20 storey high, 2 million tonne vessel would certainly bob below the surface, even without its complement
of 2000 crew members and 26 aircraft. It would also require all the commercially available wood chips in Canada.
Pyke, true to form, suggested that the ice be filled with air. No one recorded whether tax dollars were spent pursuing
this option.
The project employed Doukhobours who were conscientious objectors and avowed pacifists. When they discovered the
intent of their labours, they peacefully sat down on the job. Thus ended the first season of work.
The following winter, $75 million was budgeted for the project. The work was moved to other "cold Canadian
places" - Lake Louise (Alberta) and Newfoundland. But pykecrete was a failure. As the Allies gained the upper
hand in Europe, the idea of an ice boat melted into oblivion. Despite claims that boat that can double as a refrigerator
will revolutionize the fishing industry, the idea has never been solidified.
