Smyrna times., 1929-10-02
AVIATOR USED TO SPOT SEALS
IN NEWFOUNDLAND WATERS
PROBABLY MOST UNUSUAL,
COMMERCIAL FLYING
the Seal Hunters Who Go Out
in Fleets For Them


Toronto.-Colin S. Caldwell,
well-kn0Wn Ottawa aviator, is now
on his way to the icy waters of
Newfoundland and Labrador to en-
gage in probably the most unusu-
al commercial flying in the world.
This is his fifth season working
with the Newfoundland sealing
fleets, flying over the sealing
grounds to spot seals and inform
the different boats in the fleet of
their position.
Pilot Caldwell lived in Alabama
but in 1917 came to Ottawa to join
the Royal Flying corps. He trained
at Camp Borden but did not get
his chance to go overseas. Then
he decided on two things, that fly
ing was to be his profession and
that Canada was to be his home.
He was one of the first flyers to
go on air expeditions into the new
mining regions of northern Ontario
and Quebec. He has flown to
Alaska and visited most of the
wilds of Canada on commercial
flying ventures. He is acknOwl-
edged to be one of the best of Ca
madam birdmen.
The awe" of Newfoundland.
Caldwell and his small machine
are the "We" of Newfoundland
and Labrador. He is the only pilot
in the world who has ever engaged
in the trade which he calls spot
ting seals, and is the only airman
who has spent any length of time
flying off the coasts of Newfound-
land and Labrador in the winter
months when vast fields of ice
stretch in every direction. He op-
crates from ls bases during the
entire season.
Round the coast of Newfound-
land are dotted little telegraph
stations which keep the Indian and
Eskimo villages in touch with civ
iliZation. At each of these stations
the sealing companies during the
summer months have deposited
supplies of non-perishable food and
gasoline. Caldwell works from
them all, going from one to the
other as the season progresses.
From the station he flies out over
the frozen ocean for q hundred or
two hundred miles spOtting patches
of seals lying on the bergs and
then returning to the land base.
BY reckoning the distance from
the base to where he sighted the
seals considering the direction in
which he has flown he knows eX-
actly where the seals are located,
and he marks their position on a
chart divided into numbered and
lettered sections. On returning to
the telegraph station he wires the
locations to headquarters at st.
Johns, Newfoundland. From head
quarters the directions are wire
lessed to every ship of the seal
ing fleet. Each captain has a chart
similar to Caldwell's and they can
place the location of the seals al
most exactly.
Also Gives Ice Conditions.
Then there is wild rush, and
competition is keen. Each ship
gets the news at the same time.
Steam is got up and there is a
mad race to the position of the
seals.
1t is through Caldwell's direc-
tions that expense to the COM
panies is saved, for in the old days
the ships had to leave two or three
weeks earlier than at present, in
order to seek out the seals for
themselves. Risk is likewise less
ened because the flyer can also
give ice conditions.
For six or seven weeks the flyer
leads a lonely life. He makes
headquarters for four or five days
at each telegraph station. These
are sub-Arctic posts, bleak and
desolate. Every day, unless the
weather is too bad, he makes a
flight and perhaps two or three.
Until last season Caldwell used
a historic plane. 1t was the "Ant-
arctic Baby" a small Avron, which
was built for Shackleton for his
South pole expedition, but never
used. The machine used by the
flyer now is a small Avron-Avion
with an open cockpit, q cruising
radius of 500 miles and cruising
speed of about niTlty miles an hour.
The old Shackleton plane is now
lying at st. Johns.