Douglas daily dispatch., 1928-03-25

crushing drifts Of ice, fires, explosions,
the arctic storms-in seal hunting.
But now Hollister Noble tells us in
the New York Herald Tribune maga-
zine, "a thrill greater than all the
rest has been added to the lives of
the men who go down to the sea in
sealing Ships" says The Literary Di-
gest. Birdmen join the hunt, patrol
ling the sky and reporting the loca-
tionS of the prey to the vessels on the
trail of incipient fur coats. Regarding
the function OF the aviator in seal
hunting, we read on:
The airplane has replaced the
crows nest as the "eyes" of the seal
ing fleet. From the flagship of the
Viking Armada it makes short, quick
dashes out over the. icy wastes ever
seeking the main herd of seals When
it has found them, back it darts to
the mother ship-and then modern
methods are forgotten and the old
time seal hunt begins in earnest.
One by one these old, time-scar
steamers. cruelty crowded with wea-
ther- beaten men-and always with a
preacher" aboard to see that no seals
are slain on Sunday crunch through
the heavy harbor ice of st. Johns in
mid-March and poke their Stubby
proWs through the notch into the
open sea- On the after-deck of the
plane, fitted with special covers to
protect it from the sheet ice that is
constantly forming over the vessel.
When they have arrived, the "eyes"
of the fleet are called into play.
Observation flights in early March in
these ATTITUDES are short, desperate
dashes into bitter winds and over ice
strewn seas. They are feverish races
against fogs, quick mists, and haze
which often roll down in a few
moments, blotting out sun, ice and
ship Beware of forced landings" is
the motto of these pilots of the seal
ing fleet-for a forced landing means
certain destruction.
At least three or four of these OBJ
servation flights are necessary on a
sealing voyage, Mr.. Noble writes, con-
tinuing:
Before flight the ship is burned
down for the night" near a likely
stretch of smooth ice. In the morn
ing, men with chisel bars and hat
chefs clear runway for the plane.
Winches groan and clatter as the
tiny machine-22 feet over all, with
a wing span of 26 feet-is swung
off the ships platform to the ice.
The engine is tuned up with great
care A Sputter-then roar which
is quickly lost in the Arctic's great
Silence-and with the best seal spot
ter of the fleet behind the pilot, the
plane ruShes over the ice on its ski
runners and, in a furry of snow,
takes to the air.
According to G. S. Caldwell, of
Montreal, one of the best of the
Canadian pilots, who has seen three
years service with the sealing fleet,
the old seals, which are mottled
brown, look like pepper sprinkled
over the ice when sighted from the
cockpit of the airplane. A single
patch" of them, often containing
10000 seals, is usually easy to spot.
The young wllitecoats, however, with
the most desirable fat, are a more
difficult proposition.
When "a patch O. sWiles t'port" or
a "herd O. whitecoats to starboard'
are located the plane wheels about
and darts for the mother ship, we
learn from Mr.. Noble as he pro-
ceedS. Then:
The information is broadcast by
radio to the other vessels, and at
once bucking, crashing ,ice-smash-
ing race is begun by the sealers. Each
ship aims to be the 'high liner" OF
the year, although the three or four
owners of the fleet all bear an equal
expense in the operation of aircraft.
Another flight to locate another
herd, another dash by the sealing
fleet, another battle with the seals
and soon the season is over and the
ships are fighting their way back
to st. Johns.
That it is hard to realize that seal
ing, which has changed so little
through the decades, has suddenly
adopted that most modern air, the
airplane, is shown by an instance ir
Mr.. Mobiles account:
Not SO long ago transatlantic
liner, the President Wilson, bound fol
New York, came up with a standard
Seaplane zUU Tnl1eS OH Cne CodSG u
Newfoundland. The pilot and OBJ
server reported they were out spot
ting fish for some fishing schooner
on the Grand banks and had run ou
of gasoline Fuel was furnished anC
the plane flew off.
The passengers, who thought the!
were witnessing the rescue of anothe
trans Atlantic flyer, were incredulous
Yet spotting fish and game with air
craft has been tried with success il
several regions Recently there wa
an attempt to locate whales by air
plane in the north Pacific. 1t wa
unsuccessful Perhaps the outraget
shade of Moby Dick doomed the en-
terprise. But the spotting OF seal
over the Labrador icefloes to tn
northeast of Newfoundland has proved
successful almost from the start.
1t was back in 1921 that seals wer
of that original experiment:
first hunted from the sky. We reat
In that year an airplane dashet
out over the ice from a Newfound
land port, to track down the sea