The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-01-29

ling ice" whereon the young are
| bedded In q mighty expanse Of fioat-
ling crystal covering the ocean TOR
| hundreds OF miles. The extent OF the
Arctic Zoe driven south each year IL
nj least three or four times as large
as New York state. On these wastes
the killing of seals Is ruthless. Thou
sands OF men rush on TO the Ice with
clubs and knives and the "whites
coats are first stunned and then dis
mboweled. So easy Is this butchery
| that the crew of one steamer. go
men, took more than $4,000 I'm a day.
and the crew OF another accounted
for $4,000. As the victims are slain
they are gathered into heaps. each on
separate pan" or islet of ice. and
the ships flag Is displayed above each
pan, and as she comes along In the
wake of her men she takes those
seals aboard. the crew falling back
to her at shutdown.
But q fog often closes over the
foes and hundreds of men from diner
ent ships are cut OF from their YES
sells and rendered incapable OF move
ment because of the dangers they may
stray into. In 1909 nearly 1000 men
were adrift for two days and nights
in a fog, scantily clad, poorly ration
ed and having to burn their clubs and
ropes to keep warm and eat seal car
casses to avoid starving. Fortunately
the weather kept mild and disaster
was avoided.
When binding snowstorms arise
while the men are away on the ice the
peril is extreme. They go lightly clad
and carry little or no food. They aim,
In leaving the ship at daylight, to re-
turn by nightfall. When danger
threatens they make for the nearest
ship, and sometimes single steamer
shelters 700 men.
Sometimes, however. disaster over
takes them. Last season saw the
worst tragedies In the annals OF the
sealing industry. The steamer New
| foundland had her whole crew over
taken by a blizzard while afar on the
| ice and lost rs men. The steamer
Southern Cross was engulfed with her
whole ships company Of 173 men
while returning from the Gulf of St.
Lawrence after successful hunt
But the most awesome previous hor-
ror in the history of the foes was that
ship was struck by a blizzard while
| $50 men were hunting for seals, They
were left helpless, while she was
driven to sea. Two nights and a day
elapsed before she reached them
again, and when she did she found
that As had persisted from hunger and
cold. Some had gone mad from their
sufferings; others had collapsed from
- n
few had been killed by fragments Of
Ice tossed about. while others had
fallen into the ocean and been drown
ed. Only 25 bodies were recovered,
the others having sunk In the sea.
Another famous icefioe borrow was
the loss of the schooner Huntsman in
1872 on Battle Harbor. Labrador. She
and the Rescue, sister ship, both
seal hunting. got gripped In the ice
In q storm and were swept south by
the current. Shortly after dark on
Sunday evening, April 3, the Hunts
man struck Bird Rock. an outlying
islet, and was flung over on her beam
ends. The waves perked out her spars
and flung q mass Of struggling men
into the surf, where the jagged
chunks of ice battered the life out OF
them Others climbed lover the
weather bulwark to the foe, only to
be caught and crushed to death.
Within an hour AZ of the 81 men she
|carried were dead. 80
The next year, 1873, the schooner
Deerhound lost "a out Of Sc. They
had been sent on In boats among the
"open,. or scattered ice. to cruise in
the watery lanes, and thus conduct a
hunt impossible on foot. A storm
arose and the boats were crushed and
the occupants sank or scrambled on
to tossing pan. For two days the
gale ragged. and at its close there was
not q vestige OF the little flotilla to
be seen. Two more days were spent
by the schooner In cruising about
Part OF one boat was sighted and two
starving and frost-bitten sealmen
were found beneath 1t. They died
soon after being rescued, the only
ones Of the whole number ever ac-
counted for.
The st. Mary's bay disaster occur.
red I'm 1875. The Ice drove In during
March and brought with IL a derelict
French schooner. the Violette. from
st. Pierre, which had become en-
meshed in the foe. Her crew had
got ashore, and the coastfolk swarmed
OF to her, to strip her OF her fittings.
An off-shore gale struck them as they
went. Many returned, but the ice
opened and cut of As from succor.
They made toward the brig as means
of shelter, but many never reached
her. Blinded by the whirling snow in
the darkness, and the cold, they toiled
on only to fall as their strength gave
out and perish by. the way. Thirty
died on the foes: some were frozen.
many smpthered, others drowned. Fiji
teen reached the ship. and drifted
about. on her for 14-days before being
rescued by vessel or the Banks.