The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1910-02-24
LIVES OT SEAL -HUN|thS
II # Occupation Is Fraught
With PerilS and HardShipS.
OF LONG EXlSTANCE

No Marine Industry in These Days
Brings Such Hazards-Daily Dur
ing the Sealing Season Hundreds
of Men Riok the Dangerous Ice
Flows.
There is a seal fishery which has
had far longer existence than TIE
fur-seal fishery Of the Pacific, and en-
joys greater vitality. ard tGat is the
hair-seal fishery Of Newfoundland and
Labrador. No marine industry in
these days brings such hazards to
crews and ships as this one. Daily
during the sealing season hundreds of
men risk their lives on the foes, and
III vessels face arctic "n.ps' which
often crush them When the hunt op-
els, stout steamers, built for this
fishery and carrying 5000 men, sail
from various ports in quest Of mighty
noes swept south from Greenland.
Somewhere amid these tho herds will
be found, the mothers having mount d
:
are Graded there, the parents fishing
in the adjacent waters for their SUD-
slstencc. The seal-ships must ven-
ture amid the foes fer their quarry,
and the ssal-mcH rIust hunt these
"pinDipeds as scientists call them
across the frczcn wastes, subjected 10
all the perils OF such q pursuit, with
out tents or other shelter, fire, or
the means Of making any, and no
chance of retreat to their ships IL
blizzard hesets them when they are
far from the vessels, and often they
60 six or eight miles across the crys-
tai wastes in the excitement of the
hunt.
The crews always start off at day
break and remain out till night They
are clad in flannel underwear and cam
vas outer garb, but carry no over
coats. that they may travel tue easier,
and take along only a little food, for
ahe same reason. Hence. when bliz-
azrds assail, they are i'll provided to
defy them, and If the storm is pro-
longed, they cannot withstand the RI
gors of a night On the foe, with its
benumblng cold and gnawing hunger.
Never a year passes but some seal
ship will shelter ten or twelve hun
dred men for night or two, the
whole assemblage OH 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 20, 1898. Up off Labrador at
this time winter has by no means
spent its fury. and on this eventfui
day, while her two hundred men were
scattered over the foes, binding
snowstorm began, with startling
drop In the temperature. the vessel
the hapless crew were lett to their
fate, no other ship being near and
they being far from land. When tne
tempest ended, after two days and
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 sufferings of the wretched par
ty was appalling. A few years ago
the steamer Huntsman 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 ves-
sci. The rest of the crew crossed the
foes to 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 crevice, and
when consciousness returned he
orawled. 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 battered by chunks
OF ice, lacking drink and food, and
agonized from the pain of his wounds,
till<the ice closed in solid and enabled
him to make his way to the coast,
which he did safely and ultimately
recovered. That same man, aged &c,
was seal-Luntng this year, 1t being
his Bath consecutive season.