Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, March 26, 2007

HAY RIVER - Douglas Bulleid has an amazing story of survival in the North.

However, some people doubt the tale when the 81-year-old tells it in Terrace, B.C., where he now lives.

"It's hard for them to believe," he said. "It sounds a little farfetched."

Douglas Bulleid: Has an amazing story to tell.

So Bulleid is hoping to contact anyone in Hay River who witnessed his rescue from the ice on Great Slave Lake in 1950.

"I'm wondering if anyone is still there that helped rescue me," he said.

As Bulleid tells the story, he and another man took a dog team onto the ice to set nets about 12 miles west of Hay River.

However, the ice started to break up.

"When we got out so far, we found that we were drifting," he said.

The two fishermen ended up drifting on an ice pan for two or three days. The dogs drifted off in another direction. Bullied said when they realized they were cast adrift the set the dogs loose. Most were never recovered, but a few were found alive on shore a few days later.

Bulleid said he and his fishing partner would occasionally fall into the water, and he remembers being coated in ice.

"It was like I was in a straightjacket," he said. "It's amazing I survived."

Bulleid said he was eventually rescued when he shouted out and was heard by men on the shore, about 800 yards away. They slid a canoe over the ice to reach him.

His fishing partner, who was in his 50s, died and Bulleid ended up in hospital for a week, but recovered and continued to fish in Hay River until the mid-1950s.

Along with finding witnesses for his story, Bulleid said he is also just curious if anyone remembers him.

Ron Courtoreille, who was a child in Hay River at the time and still lives in the community, said he has heard of the rescue.

"People talked about it as I grew up," Courtoreille noted.