Among the new arrivals was Yukon territorial councillor Norman Watt, who came to Dawson in 1898 and worked first in the gold commissioner’s office and then for the utility company. Back in 1905, he was a member of the Dawson Nuggets, the famed hockey team assembled by Joe Boyle that travelled east to Ottawa to challenge for the Stanley Cup. As Watt announced,
I have enlisted as a simple matter of duty. I feel that the time has come when every loyal Canadian who can get away should go… I am going with Yukoners because I believe there are no more resourceful men in the world. I would select them above all others. I hope they are kept together. No part of the world can produce men more accustomed to all-round frontier experiences and the great experience of hustling for themselves in face of emergency. Any man can be trained for ordinary soldiering, but it requires years of frontier life to get the experience the Yukoners possess in regard to getting along in face of all kinds of difficulties which try every man’s resourcefulness to the uttermost.118
The summer passed quickly, and the recruitment campaign continued. At the Discovery Day celebrations, Commissioner Black gave a speech praising the pioneers who settled Dawson City and wrenched $200 million in gold from the frozen earth. Black then turned his focus to the German conflict, accusing their enemies of barbarism. Germany has “therefore brought upon herself the odium, scorn and hatred of all decent people of whatever nation or race.”119 The Germans he painted as warmongers and fiends, whereas the British were peace loving. Black then praised the volunteers for stepping forward when duty called and stated that those physically fit men who had not yet volunteered were not doing their duty.
Although the number of available men had to be declining, the number of volunteers continued to rise. Toward the end of September, the IODE sponsored a dance at the Moose Hall in honour of the next batch of men from the Black contingent who were preparing to ship out to Victoria. George Black and many of the other volunteers attended the event; the hall was gaily festooned with flags, flowers and potted plants, and dancing to the strains of the John Dines Orchestra continued until two o’clock in the morning. The following day, Black aimed his sights at the Scandinavians, who were not stepping forward to volunteer: “Whether naturalized or not, they have the same opportunities as the native born in Canada and should have the same pride in the country… The company is not filled up and there is time enough yet for these descendants of the Vikings to show that red blood courses in their veins and that Canada may be proud of them as citizens.”120
Although Martin Larson Hale, a Norwegian, and Pete Carlson Berg, a Swede, were the only Scandinavians to join the Black contingent, there were other Scandinavians who signed up. But they did not join in the numbers of other nationalities: twenty-two Balkan-born recruits and seventeen Americans could be found in the nominal roll of those who crossed the Atlantic with the Black contingent.
In October, as the remainder of the Black contingent prepared to leave Dawson, the Dawson Daily News singled out Mrs. Black for particular recognition: “For the loyal, capable and gifted helpmeet of Captain Black the Yukon ever will cherish the highest esteem and good wishes. The hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Black at Government House and the devotion of Mrs. Black to the organization and promotion of patriotic societies in Dawson ever will be remembered in Dawson with pleasure and gratitude. Those societies and others will continue their work in Dawson mindful ever of the good that they can do for the Yukon boys at the front and the Empire in general.”121
With only a few days to go before departure, the quota of volunteers had not yet been met, as some had failed to pass their medical examinations. Still short by twenty men, George Black announced publicly that some had no good reason for not enlisting. Looking around Dawson, he could see quite enough eligible men to fill two whole companies. On October 5, the Yukon Rifle Association gave a nice farewell at Lowe’s Hall honouring their members who were headed for the front. At the function, George Black was loud in his praise for those who joined up, and, repeating a theme about Yukoners that would characterize his speeches and actions throughout the war, he said there were no men he would rather serve with than the Yukon’s loyal volunteers.122
Also on the evening of October 5, the Yukon Order of Pioneers honoured the veterans of the gold rush and their sons who were going overseas. Taking a seat of honour along with George Black were Harold Butler, A.W.H. (sometimes known as “Alphabet”) Smith, C.S.W. Barwell, C. McDonnell, Sam Miller and Pete Allan. The following night, it was the Girl Guides who entertained the volunteers as the Campfire Minstrels, after which a dance was held in the theatre in their honour. But the biggest event was the reception and banquet sponsored by the British Empire Club at the Moose Hall the evening of October 7. The volunteers marched into the packed hall and lined up in rows of twenty at the front, where the ladies presented each man with the Yukon crest in bronze, to be worn on their caps. Various people sang songs, but the real hit of the evening was when little Gordon McKeen sang his own composition, titled “The Yukon Boys Will Surely Win Where the English Channel Flows.” Various speeches were given, including one by school superintendent Bragg, who acknowledged the deaths of four of the school lads who had already enlisted. The number would grow before the end of the war.
Speeches were given by several other dignitaries, including former commissioner and past member of parliament Frederick T. Congdon, and Judge Macaulay. After applause that lasted several minutes, George Black rose and thanked the IODE for the kindness they had shown his boys on the eve of departure, and, in particular, the purse of sixty dollars received from Mr. Yamaguchi on behalf of the Japanese residents of Dawson, for the purchase of tobacco for the members of the company. He mentioned the Girl Guides, who put on entertainment the previous evening, and the George M. Dawson chapter of the IODE. He thanked the 10 percent of the male population of the territory who had enlisted so far. He said he expected 110 men to sail from Skagway. He had fully 80 men ready to go. More were joining them from Whitehorse, Atlin, the Fortymile district and the Stewart River region.
He referred to the Canadian Patriotic Fund not as a charity but as a fund to help the families of those serving overseas:
I can truthfully say to you, in endeavoring to fill the office of commissioner, I have endeavored to give every man who had business to transact with me a square deal. I may have made some mistakes. I did make some, no doubt, as all do, but whatever mistakes I did make were of the head and not of the heart.
I want to thank the people also for the kindnesses and the kind things they have said on many occasions to Mrs. Black. She has been more of a help to me in being commissioner of the Yukon than probably any of you can realize. She has tried to do her duty in this community and I am happy to say the people of Yukon give her credit therefore, and I want to thank them for it…
I hope at any rate until the strife of this Great War is past, until this struggle for existence is finally over and the battle finally won, that the people of the Yukon Territory will lay aside their local and personal strifes and pull together for the good of the territory and for the good of the Empire.123
Members of the British Empire Club served the banquet, which continued until shortly after midnight.
Final preparations were made for the departure of the men. On October 8, Commissioner Black and other members of the infantry company attended a service at St. Paul’s Anglican Church. The following day, the volunteers formed up in the rain and, in a ritual that was becoming all too familiar, marched from the courthouse with an honour guard of Pioneers and a brass band to the waiting crowd at the waterfront, where the men boarded the steamer Casca. With them was a solitary woman: Martha Black. Martha Munger Black was a force to be reckoned with, and she was determined to accompany her men overseas, at least to London, if not the battlefront. As the Casca pulled away from the dock only a few minutes behind schedule, the cheerful recruits lined the