Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-11
DANGERS TIE SEALERS FACE
An Industry that Employs -Four
Thousand Newfoundland Men.
WORK LASTS ONLY TWO MONTHS
Modern Have Replaced the
old Wooden sailing Vessels, but
the PeriIs of the Ice
FlOe Remain.

F1Oe Remain.
ST. JOHNS, y. F.. April 1o.-on March
10 there began the annual hunt for the
hair seal off the Grand Banks OF New
1oundiand' This is an industry which
lasts only two months. but employs about
twenty-five stout steamers and 1000 men.
whose home is the rockribbed coast Of
Newfoundland This seal hunt has been
prosecuted for hundreds OF years. Il yields
a harvest Of from $4,000 to $4,000 annu-
ally, n like the cod fish in the SANE
waters, the seal has defied all attempts at
determination. This is all the more re-
markable when we find that today the
famous Boring seal fishery is now reduced
to a mere skeleton of its former import
ance.
A Newfoundlander takes no small pride
In this sealing venture, and his views with
regard to II are illustrated by the story
Of the sealing skipper. who hearing once
Of the appointment of a prominent lawyer
20 the judicial bench declared that cit
was an outrage to give such a fine Job to q
man who had never brought a trip Of seals
into the country" The seal folk for some
reason describe their prey as "swoils." and
in the same fashion, to spell" an object
means to carry II; hence we can imagine
the amusement OF the young cleric, who
on one occasion asked a burly hunter how
he spelt "swoils," and was answered.: 1--WE
don't spell 'em, we hauls EN-"
Little known of Seals.
OF the natural history Of the hair seal. or
"ice-riding plnniped," as scientists describe
II, little is known. All that is certain re-
speoting their habits and movements is that
they appear on the coast of Labrador in
the early winter and drift south on the ice
floes. where their young are whelped on the
naked crystal plains. They are born about
the end of February and are sucked there
by their mothers, the father keeping guard
daily while she dives into the sea in
search of food. The herds are absolutely
countless in lumber. On occasions as many
as 10000 have been seen In a single
patch" and yet each mother will return
at nightfall to her own infant and find
the particular hole in the ice by which
she went down, even though the floe
has shifted many miles and changed its
position entirely. Young seals are termed
white coats" being fat, downy, pallid
little masses of blubber, with voracious
appetities growing with such amazing
repidity that within a fortnight their pelt
with fat attached weight from forty to
fifty pounds. 1t is at this time the seal
hunt begins.
A century ago 1t was prosecuted IN
small boats by means of nets set along
the coast, then larger smacks were en-
ployed and went further afield among the
floes. Later stout schooners were built,
and then square rugged vessels and fifty
years g a fleet of 400 sails put out from
the uarioua norfa of Nnuyfo,nd,on1 tn az
of the greasy spoil. In 1881 as many as
$4,000 seals were brought in. while in
1864 he smallest catch on record was
caught. 121,0Oo
All steam seaIers Now.
The modern era IN the seal fishery began
in 1858, when a wooden steamer, the Blood
hound, was built in Scotland and brought
across for the express purpose of engaging
in this pursuit. The Introduction of steam
marked the downfall OF the sail, and today
there is not a sailing vessel remaining at
the work. The whole enterprise has been
monopolized by a small steam fleet sailing
from st. Johns, and only 1900 men are
taken on board these.
Until three years ago II was thought that
a steel ship was unsuitable for this work.
1t is a seeming paradox that iron should
be less strong than wood for ice naviga-
ton. However, an enterprising and far
seeing st. Johns ship owner resolved upon
the construction of a specially designed
steel steamer for the sealing business and
which should also be available as a cargo
carrier during the rest OF the year. This
was the chief drawback of the old style
sealer, which was a twin sister OF the
Arctic whaler and indeed sometimes used
for that business. When the Dundee whal-
ing business proved a failure the ships
were bought in for the Newfoundland seal
fishery, but for ten months of the year