It was in 1969 that MacInnis met Pierre Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada. Over the years, the two men would eventually make approximately 50 dives together. In 1970, Trudeau asked MacInnis to help write Canada’s first national ocean policy. That same year, Dr. MacInnis founded the James Allister MacInnis Foundation for underwater research in education in Canada. He also began a series of research expeditions to study techniques for working under the freezing waters of the Arctic Ocean. MacInnis led a team in 1972 that constructed the first manned underwater station, “Sub-Igloo,” in the Arctic Ocean. It was from “Sub-Igloo” that MacInnis spoke to the prime minister in Canada from under the Arctic Ocean. The very next year, Dr. MacInnis took part in a scientific exchange program with the Soviet Union. He visited Moscow and Leningrad, and shared with them his underwater polar research. In 1974, MacInnis became the first scientist to dive beneath the North Pole. By the mid 1970s, Dr. Joe MacInnis had been on more than 100 expeditions and/or major dives around the world. In 1975, he took H.R.H. Prince Charles on a dive at Resolute Bay, where they dove under the polar ice cap. The following year, MacInnis was presented his nation’s highest honor, the Order of Canada, for his pioneering research on undersea science and engineering projects. In 1975, Dr. MacInnis discovered a fragment of the world’s most northernmost-known shipwreck, the HMS Breadalbane, a British merchant ship that sank in 1853 under the ice of the Northwest Passage. A few years later, he headed the first expedition to find the actual wreck of the Breadalbane. After three years, it was discovered by Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker, CCGS John A. Macdonald. The MacDonald found the Breadalbane using side sonar; her hull was intact and her masts still standing. |