Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 3, 2007

CAMBRIDGE BAY - Their plan was to travel the Northwest Passage, following the same route as Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen.

Instead, five crew members of the Norwegian vessel Berserk II found themselves arrested and sitting in the Cambridge Bay jail last week.

The crew of Berserk II failed to report to the RCMP detachment during their first stop in a Nunavut community

"As soon as you set foot on land, you are required to report to Customs and Immigration or the nearest police force," said Chris Kealey, a spokesperson with the Canada Border Services Agency.

A Norwegian citizen and an American national were subsequently ordered deported at their hearing on Aug. 30, according to Charles Hawkins, a spokesperson for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

"They did not report for examination when they entered Canada," Hawkins said.

Three other Norwegian sailors had a hearing scheduled for Aug. 31, but the outcome was unclear as of Nunavut News/North's press deadline. A member of the Immigration Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board had been flown to the Kitikmeot community from Vancouver. He was to receive information from border service officials, local RCMP, and representatives of the men.

The original crew of Berserk II, dubbing themselves the Wild Vikings, started their journey in New York, and had made stops in Halifax and Greenland before setting sail through the Northwest Passage. They had planned to continue on to Antarctica, Asia, and Africa.

Ingunn Oudia, the administrative and consular attache with the Norwegian embassy in Ottawa, had only read of the arrests in a Norwegian newspaper last Wednesday, but thought the men were still in Halifax.

The crew's troubles had begun six weeks ago when two members were arrested in Halifax.

"Upon entering Canada- everything went horribly wrong," reads the logbook on the Wild Viking's website. By their account, 13 "heavily armed" police officers and custom's agents stormed the ship and arrested the mechanic.

Two days later, police returned to arrest the ship's cook.

The two were denied entry to Canada due to having a criminal history and were sent home to Norway, according to Kealey. One is a known member of the Norwegian Hell's Angels motorcycle club.

"He hadn't done anything wrong, he was simply a biker," Oudia said.

The Wild Vikings website says that the crew "seek adventures and exploration in the spirit of the ancient Vikings."

Last year a Romanian man was apprehended in Grise Fiord after boating to Canada from Greenland. He is not allowed back into the country.