Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-11

were laid UP at st. Johns save when hired
by an Arctic expedition or for a cruise
to Hudson bay.
The new ship Adventure is a powerful,
strongly built steel freighter. costing nearly
$4,000, its lines being somewhat like those
OF the Canadian ice breakers From the
very outset II was a success. The method
Of conducting the seal hunt is that the
steamers, which are not allowed by law
to leave port until the morning Of March
10. so that the young seals may have time
TO attain a fair growth. make their way
through the ice to where they suppose the
seal herds are.
Locating and killing.
This is by no means an easy task, for
the whole ocean Is strewn with mighty
masses of crystal and every wind sweeps
them to and fro, so that 1t calls for the
keenest judgment TO locate ttr main
patch" This is the chief bog n' seals,
and when It is found tie = e is
men out over the Ice to kE' rs
pinnipeds. This is done Ly ~,
a long iron tipped pole or al
Is then cut open and tc ed
from the carcass, the latter d, on
the ice. When a man sets ~ FOUR
pelts he makes them into. a tow .ir.gs
them back to the ship h. { .!l Of a
long rope he carries for the purpose. II
1t is too far away the men, who go in
gangs or watches. make piles of them on
a convenient pan or flat mass of ice
setting a pole with the ships flag on 1t
over them to stablish ownership. The
men go from eight to ten miles from the
ship in their daily hunt. and when bliz-
cards break on them direful tragedies oc-
cur. The worst Of these was in 1898. when
the steamship Greenland had forty-eight
men frozen to death and sixty-three ser
iously frostbitten out of a total Of $50.
Daily, except on Sundays, the work is
kept up until the ship has got it's load,
then It makes for home. 50 strong is
the feeling for Sabbath day observance
In the colony that seal killing is forbidden
then. A few years ago a sealing shippers
log of an unusually interesting voyage
was published on his return to st. Johns
when this naive confession was exposed:
Sunday. March 2S.-This being the Lords
day no seals were taken. Crew busy hoist
ing seals aboard and shifting coal in the
bunkers
One Of the peculiarities of the industry
Is the fact that so many thousands of seals
being killed every day and left on pans
until the ship can reach them there is an
irresistible temptation to appropriate these
under cover of night. and in Newfoundland
there are two current phrases to which
the popularity has given rise.
"Men, Ye SwOre Noble"
The Sealing liar is the gossip who gets
busy shortly after the fleet sails with
stories of steamers being reported. and
the sealing sweerer." supplies glib but
unconvlncing testimony in the cross suits
which follow every seasons fishery. Some
years ago a victorious skipper, in one of
these actions, apostrophized his gallant
ships company thus: II thank We, men;
we swore noble!'
1t is scarcely an exaggeration to say
that very little reliance is given by New
foundland juries to the testimony adduced
In sealing cases, and in one of the most
recent actions, wherein some thousands
of seals were sued for, the verdict was
for two pelts. valued at IS, as they alone
could be positively and ~indisputably in
IDENTIFIED.
The industry is one where men walk
In daily and hourly danger of death.
Within the last two years five ships were
lost. the Leopard was driven ashore and
100 men narrowly escaped DEATH; the
Greenland broke it's shaft and was carried
seward, its crew being rescued in the
last extremity; the Grand Lake was
crushed and went down. It's crew being
thirty-six hours on the floe before rescue
came; the Panther and the Walrus had
a similar experience. Every ship that
returned last year was more or less seri-
ously wrecked, some of them so badly
that they could scarcely limp into port.
The loss of so many of the old style boats
enables the owners to replace them with
ships of the modern type, and this year
sees four of them in commission-the
Bonaventure, the Bellaventure, the Boo
thic and the Florizel. The first three are
designed to serve as ordinary freighters
during the year. The Florizel is a still
more ambitious departure; it is a ship
of 1000 tons, with passenger
lions for 100 saloon and as many steerage
passengers, and intended to be run as a
tourist craft between st. Johns, Halifax.
and New York, when not employed in the
seal fishery. 1t is fitted with wireless
telegraphy. and for the first time on re-
cord the Observation-Disclosures hope to be
appraised this year of the daily movements
OF the sealing fleet.