The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-03-11
LIVES OF SEAL. HUNTERS
Their Occupation Is Fraught
With PeriIs and Hardships.
lOF LONG EXlSTANCE

Brings Such Hazards-Daily Dur
ing the Sealing Season Hundreds
Of Men Risk tine Dangerous Ice
Flows.
There is a seal fishery which has
had a far longer existence than the
fur-seal fishery Of the Pacihc. and en-
ioys greater vitality, and Inat IS the
hair-seal fishery of Newfoundland and
Labrador. NO marine industry Ill
these d.ys t;ngs SIC! hazards to.
crews aid SHIPS as this one. DAY
during the sealing season hundreds OF
men risk their lives on the foes, and
the vessels face arctic "nips" which
often crush them. When the hunt op-
ems. stout steamers, built for this
fishery and carrying 5000 men, sail
from various ports in quest OF mighty
foes swept south from Greenland.
Somewhere amid these the herds Will
be found, the mothers having mounted
the ice to drop their young, which
are Graded there, the parents fsnlns
in the adjacent waters for their sub
sistence. The seal-ships must ven
ture amid the foes for their quarry,
and the seal-men must hunt these
"pinnlpeds." as scientists call them
across the frozen wastes, subjected 10
all ths perils of such a pursuit, with
out tents or other shelter, fire, or
the means OF making any, and no
chance Of retreat to their ships II
blizzard besets them when they are
far from the vessels, and often they
20 six or eight miles across the crys-
til wastes in the excitement OF the
hunt.
The crews always start off at day
break and remain out till night. They
are clad ir flannel underwear and can
vas outer garb, but carry no over
coats, that they may travel tue easier,
and take along only little food, Tor
the same reason. Hence, when bllz-
azrds assail, they are i'll provided TO
defy them, and ii the storm is pro-
longed, they cannot withstand the RI
gors Of a night on the foe, with It's
benumbirg cold and gnawing hunger.
Never year passes but some seal
ship will shelter ten or twelve nun
dred men for a night or two, the
whole assemblage on the foes making
for the nearest steamer when storm
or fog threatens, lest they lose their
way In trying to reach their own and
fall victims to the perils with which
they are engirt.
One of the most serious tragedies IN
the annals of this industry befell the
crew Of the steamer Greenland on
March 90, 1898. Up off Labrador at
this time winter has by no means
spent its fury, and on this eventful
day, while her two hundred men were
scattered over the foes, q biindlns
srowstorm began, with a startling
drop in the temperature, the vessel
was driven heiDlessly SEWARD, ana
the hapless crew were leIl TO their
fate, no other ship being near and
they being far from land. When tAe
tempest ended, after two days ar6
nights, It was found that forty-seven
had perished and sixty-three were Sc
verely frostbitten, some so severely
as to be MANNED for life. The story
OF the sufferiDgs of the wretched par
ty was appalling. A few years ago
the steamer Huntsnlan was penned
in a foe off Labrador and driven
against rocky islet. where she went
to pieces, forty-two men perishing
within an hour amid the contending
ice, reefs, and fragments Of the YES
sci. The rest Of the crew crossed the
foes 20 the land; but one man, named
French, had been left behind, uncon-
scious. AS the ship struck, he was
flung against the rocks. having his
shoulder, two fingers and two ribs
broken and his head badly gashed.
But he was wedged in a crevice. and
when consciousness returned he
crawled, with the aid Of his uninjured
hand, to the top of the rock, where
he lay for forty-two hours drenched
by the spray and battereu by chunks
OF ice, lacking drink and food, ans"
agonized from the pain of his wounds,
tn the ice closed in solid and enabled
ham to make his way to the coast,
which he did safely and ultimately
recovered That same man, aged 70,
was seal-Aunting this year, it being
his 54th consecutive season.
Record For Good Cows.