"The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around;
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound."
_March 10th_. At five A. M. all was life on board the _Aurora_. On
awaking, I had coffee, which was in the cabin, and, muffling up well, I
went on deck, as it was bitterly cold. The night was cloudy and dark but
the ship was illuminated with torches, and on each side of the gangway
stood the mate and ice-master, calling the roll. The Newfoundland men
came on board as their names were called, about three hundred in all,
including the quartermasters, who lived down in the quarter-hatch. The
men all wore boots made of untanned seal skin, from which the hair had
been removed. They were very light and serviceable and came up to the
knee. Spikes were driven into the soles to prevent slipping on the ice,
and the decks were preserved from these by rough plank sheathing.
There was great wrangling and disputing, as many of the men had been
celebrating the occasion.
At six A. M. we cast loose and by degrees broke our way from the wharf.
The scene, when the sun arose, was intensely interesting; all the
sealing ships were out, trying to crush their way towards the narrows,
and, as the harbor was entirely frozen over, this was hard work. Two
ships, the _Resolute_ and the _Polynia_, were behind us, and these last
sent two or three hundred to assist our Newfoundland crew in pulling on
a hawser over our bows, while our Scotch crew on board ran backwards
and forwards across the deck to make the ship roll. This rolling often
helped greatly when the ship put her bows in a crack. Our method was
to go full speed astern for a few yards, and then full speed ahead, the
eight or nine hundred men on the ice pulling for all they were worth at
the same time, and the _Aurora's_ men on board running across the deck
to keep up the roll. As there were thousands of men similarly employed
on and about the other ships, and as they were all singing, the scene
may be imagined.
The _Nimrod_ and _Neptune_ were moving on, well ahead of us, and when we
got into their wake, the _Aurora_ moved along faster. It was eight
bells by the time we passed through the narrows; there the ice was much
looser, so we all pushed off in our various directions to look for the
breeding haunts of seals. Captain Fairweather kept a little nearer shore
than the others, and by evening there were only a few ships in sight.
I retired early, as I had been up for many hours, and even the bumping
and thumping of the ship, as she went full speed ahead and full speed
astern every few minutes all night, did not keep me awake.
_March 11th_. When I went on deck, a wonderful Arctic scene presented
itself. A snow storm was raging and the ship looked as though she had
been fast there for years. She was literally buried in snow, and the
weather was so cold that the snow had frozen on her yards and rigging.
The morning was dark and one could not see very far. Under the starboard
bow the ice was heavy, causing the ship to lie over to port. The wind
was from the southeast and had driven the ice in on us. There was a
great deal of creaking and crunching from moving floes and the wind made
a lot of noise in the rigging. By noon the weather had moderated and the
snow ceased; by night the wind was coming from the northeast and the
ice slackened, the ship being upon an even keel. Of course, snow was not
allowed to remain very long on deck, as our big crew had nothing to do
but shovel it off.
I looked into the 'tween-decks and saw a horrible mess. The bunks were
full of men, many playing cards, as each bunk held four. They must have
been stifled. For light, lamps burning seal oil were used, and the reek
coming from the main hatch would almost have suggested fire.
During the night, the ship got under way, and her bumping awoke me
several times.
_March 12th_. In the morning, we were again beset. Hearing a noise on
deck, I went up. On the poop a lot of duffs were lying about like 64
lb. shot. A crowd of angry men could be seen on the main deck and facing
them was the Captain. A big Newfoundland man came up the steps and,
breaking a duff in two, held it up and asked the Captain to look at
it. It was an awkward moment and called for immediate action. But the
Captain was a man of action, so he planted a blow between the man's
eyes and asked him to look at that; the man dropped back dazed and the
trouble came to an end at once.
The Captain told a story at breakfast about a steward once saying
that more tea would not be required for the next voyage as he had been
boiling the leaves from the cabin and giving it to the crew. An order
was at once issued to serve out good tea of the proper strength instead.
Next morning all hands came aft to complain about the black stuff the
cook was serving out, and demanding that proper tea, such as they had
been having, should be served.
The weather was now fine, and the world very white, the only visible
black being a pond of open water half a mile to the east of us. The wind
was again from the east and the cold intense; in fact, one could hardly
face it on account of small particles of ice driven by it.
After breakfast I took my rifle and went to the lee side of the open
water. It was perhaps a fourth of a mile long and a hundred and fifty
yards wide. Every little while a few seals would bob up at one end of
the hole and then, giving a few plunges, disappear. I crouched behind a
pinnacle for shelter and, watching past the side of it, soon had a shot.
I fancied I heard the bullet strike, but the seal disappeared;
presently another came. This time I was sure that I saw the water
around bloodstained, but there was a ripple and it was difficult to see
anything lying low on it. I spent several hours at this work and was
perfectly certain I had hit many seals. On one occasion, I saw the side
of one I had shot, with the water breaking over it, but presently it
disappeared. I knew that at this season the animals would float, and as
I was on the lee side, why did they not drift down to me? Cold at last
drove me back to the _Aurora_, and, on relating my experiences, the
ice-master told me that I would find the dead animals at the weather
side of the hole, as the ice, drifting before the wind, would travel
faster than the dead and almost completely submerged seals. So taking
a man with me, I had the satisfaction of seeing seven big male harps
pulled out, the first I had ever killed and the first secured by the
ship.
During the afternoon the ice eased off and the ship again proceeded. She
was getting along pretty well at bedtime, but not making any particular
course.
March 13th. It was about five A. M. when the steward came to my room
and lit the lamp. He said we were among the "white coats" and he seemed
greatly pleased. I dressed and, going up, found bright moonlight. The
ship was hard and fast. In every direction I could hear sounds like the
crying of children. I could also see gangs of men on the ice and some
coming on board. The men had been taking advantage of the moonlight to
begin their work, and all were in splendid spirits, as a full ship meant
much to them.
About six the whistle sounded for all hands to come on board for
breakfast, and after that they were organized into companies, commanded
by their own quartermasters, and proceeded about the slaughter in a well
regulated manner. Each man carried a spruce pole, on the end of which
was a sort of boat hook called a "gaff," and each also had a tow rope.
The method of proceeding was as follows:
A company would go in a certain direction and then scatter. A man would
kill four or five whitecoats by hitting them on the head with his gaff.
He would pull them together and sculp them, that is, with his sculping
knife he would make an incision on the under surface of the body,
its entire length, through the skin and fat. How the skin, with its
subcutaneous fat, was very loosely adherent to the rest of the body
of the young seal, so with a very few sweeps of the knife the body was
separated and thrown away. He then made a few holes along each side of
the sculp, which was oblong, and through these laced his tow rope. When
the four or five had been thus arranged, he towed them to a selected
pan, where they were piled with the others, a pole was stuck up, bearing
a flag on which was the name of the ship, and this being done, the
sealers moved on and established another pan.
While the St. John's men were busy with the sealing, the Scotch crew
remained on the ship, throwing the coal overboard. The ship, leaving
Newfoundland, took a lot of coal, as she did not know where she might
have to go or how long she might be away. In our case, we found the
seals at once, so the coal, being of no further use and of no value,
compared with the seals, was thrown overboard.
I went aloft to have a look at our surroundings. We were in Bonavista
Bay, and in the distance I saw the _Neptune_ sealing. She was a large
ship and took an enormous cargo. It seemed too bad that these should
be the only two vessels in the midst of this harvest. I saw, with the
glass, seals by the thousand; they were principally to the north of us,
and it was evident that we would fill the ship, unless a gale broke up
the ice too soon. Astern, I noticed a patch of ice on which there were
lots of old harps. Getting my rifle and going over to the place, I found
a great many seal holes in the ice. I watched. A seal would stick its
head out of one and, seeing me, would instantly go down again. This was
going on all over the area before me. Sitting down, I decided to take
the first head presenting itself. By watching any given hole, one would
probably very soon have a shot, but it was more exciting to take the
heads as they came up. It was very quick shooting and good sport. Every
time I hit a seal, I killed it, because only the head could be seen. At
this season, the animals, being in prime condition, floated; but getting
one out of its hole was very difficult. If one turned it around and
seized the hind flippers, the fore flippers caught the ice, and there
was nothing to take hold of about its head. I found, that by sticking an
empty cartridge through the nose and catching this at each side, a man
could manage to pull the seal out by throwing himself back. I amused
myself at this game until eight bells, when I went on board for dinner
and found the Captain in splendid spirits. There was every chance of
his filling his ship and being first in, and I questioned whether these
honors had ever been obtained by any Scotch master at the Newfoundland
sealing before. After dinner, I took a man with me who pulled out the
seals and sculped them, hauling them to the ship, which remained fast.
The crew got on well with the coal and soon had several tanks cleaned
out and ready for the nearest pan, and by night we had about 2,500 on
board. I went aloft again and saw our pan flags flying in great numbers,
while the men were very busy several miles away. After dark, the sealers
came on board and reported having killed probably 10,000. Many of the
men had given themselves bad cuts with their sharp sculping knives, but
all were very happy, forward and aft.
[Illustration: 0093]
_March 14th_. Every one up at dawn. The ship was alongside a pan when I
came on deck, and the winch was going all the time, while the orders
"Heave away port," "Heave away starboard," were being constantly given,
and every few minutes a bunch of sculps would be hauled on board and
thrown below by the men on deck. When this pan was cleaned up, the
officer in the barrel directed the ship's course to the next, and so it
went, all day long, a portion of the crew working coal as usual. I went
aloft and saw our men, five or six miles away, piling up our cargo. In
the afternoon, I went off: in the direction the men were and fortunately
I had a gaff: with me. I had on very thick clothes and a pilot jacket
over all. When about a mile from the ship, and while walking over a
nice, smooth piece of ice, I noticed that it was bending under me. I
turned and was getting back to the hummocks, when I went through.
Fortunately, the gaff caught on both sides and I only went in up to my
arms, so was able to climb out. The cold of the water was intense and I
had a fright. Before reaching the ship, my clothes were frozen hard. One
great comfort about the _Aurora_ was that she was a steamer, so when any
accidents of this kind occurred, it was a great thing, having the top of
the boiler to retire to. Here one had warmth at any rate. As there was
nothing much separating the top of our boiler from the stoke hole, there
was a deposit of ashes and soot, but a little thing like that did not
much trouble a man fished out of a frozen sea.
It was cold and dark when the sealers began coming on board and a fog
was settling down, so about nine P. M. we were quite uneasy over some
who bad not turned up. The whistle sounded frequently, and it was a
relief when the last appeared. Some were really very much exhausted and
were given rum.
We took on board about five thousand seals and the men had killed many
thousand more.
_March 15th_. A snow storm blowing, so the men could not go to the
sealing, and very little new work was accomplished. However, the ship
managed to reach a lot of her pans, and the Newfoundland men hauled the
sculps from others farther away, so that by night, four thousand more
were on board. Coal was worked energetically all day.
The barometer was rising at night and the snow had ceased, so the
weather looked more settled.
_March 16th_. Sealers away when I came on deck, and our own crew very
busy with the seals and coal. The ice showed a lot of leads and there
were seals in the open ponds, so I spent my time at them with the rifle
and had some good shooting.
At dinner the mate told us we had taken on board over three thousand
sculps and by night two thousand more were added to these. About sixteen
thousand five hundred were now on board.
I spent some time aloft. The glare from the ice was fearfully trying
as the sun was very bright. Owing to the open character of the ice, we
followed the sealers quite well. We found several of our pans broken
by the weight of seals on them; in every case we saw sharks in the open
water beside the broken pan. Once the ship had her engines going ahead
to keep her bows against the ice, while she took seals on board (I
was looking over the rail aft), when I saw a shark gliding up to the
propeller. It hit him on the side and cut a flap out about two feet
long. He swam about with this mass hanging from him for awhile and then
went back to the propeller, which finished him with an awful gash across
the neck. This was the only one I saw killed.
The night was clear and the men had no difficulty in getting on board.
[Illustration: 0099]
March 17th. It was blowing and the ice was rather tight; there was also
some snow, so the sealers were employed bringing sculps on board, as
pans were being broken. I saw one split in two. Half the sculps had been
lost in the water, and there were numbers of sharks around. A man stuck
his gaff into one several times, and it did not appear to mind. It was
difficult getting the seals on board as the heavy snow squalls prevented
our seeing the leads. However, twenty-five hundred more were secured
from broken pans in our immediate neighborhood. The ship was drifting
south all the time; and the _Neptune_ was still in sight when it cleared
in the afternoon.
_March 18th._ All hands up early and a good start made. Nearly all the
coal over the side. I watched the men bringing on board pinnacles in the
morning. As they had been sealing steadily for a week and had not paid
much attention to their toilets, sleeping in their clothes, etc., and
as each one had a fringe of frozen livers sticking in his belt, and
the sheathed decks were soaking in oil, the pinnacles had a chance of
acquiring a nutritious quality which must have given body to the tea
manufactured out of them. However, the men did not mind, and as our
cabin supply of water was all right, I did not mind either.
The ship picked up a lot of pans and added five thousand more to our
collection. Towards evening it became foggy and cold, and we had several
frights about men being lost. One fellow came on board and stated that
he had seen so and so two miles from the ship, unable to proceed. Some
rum was given to him and with a couple of others he started off to bring
the exhausted one in. All were on board safely by nine P. M. There was
no doubt but that often the rum served out found its way into throats
that were far from being too weak to swallow, but such dreadful
accidents have occurred that one acts on the safe side. There was no
abuse of liquor on board the _Aurora_, but the Captain did not hesitate
to supply it when absolutely necessary.
_March 19th._ A nice day for sealing, as there was no difficulty getting
about to the pans. We brought on board about two thousand, and the ship
was practically full. Now we began to clear out the 'tween-decks and to
throw the men's bunks overboard. They did not object to a few days of
supreme discomfort because they received one-third of the catch. We had
the bunkers filled with coal and a lot of sacks piled upon the poop, and
every available place was cleared out for this valuable cargo. The ship
began to look dirty, as she had scraped off her paint, and the coal dust
and oil bad been liberally applied.
[Illustration: 0103]
It began to blow in the afternoon, with snow squalls. All the men were
on board in good time.
During the day I caught a young seal. It had shed nearly all its long
white hair and the short, silvery coat underneath looked very pretty.
I amused myself plucking the balance of the original coat. The seal
appeared to enjoy it. It was killed accidentally a few days later.
_March 20th_. Blowing bard with snow squalls. A number of pans were
broken and many sculps lost, but we secured all we wanted; about one
thousand came on board and the 'tween-decks were nearly full.
March 21st. A fine day, but the ship beset, so we cleaned up and
finished off the 'tween-decks; then we put all on deck that we thought
the ship would carry. This would not have been done had the ship had to
go any distance, but all the time we were sealing we had been drifting
south, so that we were now a very short distance from St. John's. The
Captain and mate would stand on the ice and look her over and then
decide that perhaps she would carry a few more, and so on, until there
was not much of the _Aurora's_ bull above the water. The ice opened
in the afternoon and we laid our course for St. John's, steaming
half speed. The ship was decorated with flags, the men cheering and
singing--at least two hundred of them without shelter; they stood upon
the forecastle head and among the sculps on deck. The wind had died away
and it was a beautiful afternoon. There were plenty of leads and the ice
becoming more open every hour.
_March 22nd_. During the night we passed through Baccalieu Tickle and
in the morning we were close to the coast. As we steamed through the
narrows, the men climbed the rigging and cheered. We had accomplished
a wonderful thing. The ship was the first in of the year, and was also
full. Soon we were tied up at our old berth on the south side, and our
crew were busy discharging our cargo of about twenty-eight thousand
seals. Each young seal counted one in settling with the crew and each
old seal counted two; of course, an old seal took up much more room
than two young ones, and on a voyage like this, where the ship could be
filled with young, the crew were not anxious to kill old ones. On our
two trips, the _Aurora_ actually killed 28,150, but the crew were paid
for 29,300.