Eight hundred years before Columbus sailed to the New World, seafaring walrus hunters and traders from Great Britain's Northern Isles are believed to have landed in northeastern Canada, even before the Vikings arrived.
Venturing far from their homes, the adventurers sailed double-ended, open boats sheathed in walrus hides. As winter swept, a hostile, treeless land, they flipped their light, translucent vessels onto dry stone foundations and used them as snug, boat-roofed houses.
This small scale replica was inspired by archaelogist Thomas Lee's excavations in Ungava, Northern Quebec in the 1960s. It celebrates Canadian author and Port Hope Resident, Farley Mowat, who told the story of this long forgotten people in the Farfarers.