"Now, Brothers, for the icebergs of frozen Labrador
Floating spectral in the moonshine, along the low black
shore!
When the mist the rock is hiding and the sharp reef lurks
below
And the white squall smites in summer, and the autumn
tempests blow."
|The work of discharging our cargo began at once--first the sculps
on deck, then those in the 'tween-decks and then those in the tanks.
Thereafter the ship was given a rough cleaning; new berths were erected
in the 'tween-decks and quarter-hatch but not so many as before. The
bunkers and tanks were coaled and then we cast about for a crew. All the
seals taken on this second cruise would have to be shot, so we did not
expect to bring back very many; but the _Aurora_ had her own Scotch
crew under pay, and they had to be fed, so she might as well be at sea
picking up a few seals as lying in the harbor waiting for May 1st. It
was not so very easy finding a crew as they would have little to eat and
could not possibly earn much money. However, at last we were ready and
on Wednesday, April 2nd, sailed. We had heard nothing of the _Arctic_,
and very little of any of the other ships. The _Neptune_ came in after
us with about 40,000, which was a tremendous cargo, but she was a big
ship. There was much more room with our reduced Newfoundland crew, and
we steamed out of the narrows for the second time with the ship very
much more comfortable than on the first occasion.
[Illustration: 0107]
I must say the appearance of the _Aurora_ at this time was disreputable
in the extreme. The paint had been scraped off by the ice, and the
filthy sheathing covered the decks, while the fragrant bilge water
flowed from her side in a pellucid stream.
The Captain told me that he intended following the seals which were
going north towards Labrador and that he expected to fall in with great
herds of year-olds, called bedlamers. We left port after breakfast
and steamed out onto a calm sea, shaping our course north. During the
afternoon we saw patches of ice scattered about and when night came we
slowed down and kept a bright lookout.
_April 2nd_ was a blustery day with occasional snow showers. There was
no sea, however, to tumble the ship about as there was a good deal of
ice. We were easily able to avoid the fields by steaming around them.
Some were very heavy looking, having quantities of rafted ice on them.
Towards night, it became calm and thick.
_April 4th_. Steamed dead slow all night as it was thick. In the morning
the sea was calm but still foggy. This was pea-soup day. We always had
pea soup on Fridays; we also always had fish for breakfast; it was salt
cod. The salt was taken out in some way and then the fish was cut into
very small pieces and boiled with broken up sea biscuits and butter,
pepper, etc. I have never tasted anything so good since. In fact, I have
never since tasted anything so good as the food on the whaler after the
first month. There was an absurd arrangement about our meals; it was all
right at sea, but in Greenland, when we walked about during the night
perhaps as much as during the day, it was distressing. Breakfast was
at eight, dinner at noon, and tea at five; there was no regulation meal
between five P. M. and eight A. M. I modified this by having a special
meal at eleven P. M. At that time I took a pot of coffee from the galley
and retired to the pantry for a quiet half hour.
_April 5th_. The day was fine. A good deal of ice was in sight and
occasional seals could be seen. When one was seen ahead, or a few points
on either bow, the ship bore down upon it. As we came close, the seal
would first raise its head to see what was coming, then raise its body
upon its flippers and stare.
A number of men with rifles were always on the forecastle head and of
this number I was generally one. If some one did not try too long a shot
and frighten it, we always killed the seal. We had a large number of
punts on board and one was towed astern in the daytime and with it every
seal was picked up. They all counted. Some days we had very good sport
and I enjoyed it.
_April 6th. Sunday_. Huff day. We had plum pudding on Sundays and
Thursdays. The puddings were not round, but oval. The steward made
delicious sauce out of condensed milk and, of course, we had the
Spartan sauce with everything. The Captain was very consistent in his
observation of Sunday--no unnecessary work was done on that day. If
there were whales, we fished, but I never saw a man kept at work on
Sunday if it could be avoided. This day we did the usual shooting from
the forecastle head. The temptation to shoot first was dreadful. I dare
say we picked up fifteen or twenty seals. This was a sad Sunday because
of the death of our canary. I was in the cabin when Jack, the steward,
discovered the fact. He immediately took the seed box out of the cage to
the pantry, filled it and brought it back. Captain Fairweather came down
shortly after to breakfast and immediately noticed the absence of
the bird, as it was always hopping about and making a noise. Jack was
called. A look of surprise came over his face when asked about the
canary and he immediately climbed on to the seat and, looking into
the cage, said, with tears in his eyes, "Oh, Sir, the poor wee bird is
deid;" adding, as he pulled out the drawer, "Well, it is not for want
of plenty to eat." I don't think for a moment that the bird died of
starvation, but Jack wanted to simplify the post-mortem inquiry by
eliminating that possibility. Our steward was a remarkable man and
eminently qualified by nature for his position. He could produce a look
of absolute innocence or of sympathy at a moment's notice; his _suaviter
in modo_ would have fitted him for the diplomatic service; and as a
dreamer he was without a peer.
[Illustration: 0111]
There is a great knack about dreaming. To make a reputation and keep it
up even on a whaler requires the judgment of a Delphic priest.
It was the presence of Jack, the steward, that gave the atmosphere of a
home to the _Aurora's_ cabin and we all liked him.
_April 7th._ I saw a most interesting thing today. It was an old dog
hood; to call it Cystophora Cristata might give the describer some
relief; but it would convey no idea of this angry-looking creature as
he reared up and gazed at us. How we all resisted firing until he had
exhibited himself, I don't know; but when he was looking perfectly
terrible and fifty yards away, a dozen copper-nosed bullets found their
billets about his head and neck. He was 7 1/2 feet long and a tremendous
size around the shoulders. The bag on his head, when fully distended,
must have stood eight or nine inches, and extended from the muzzle to
four inches behind the eyes. The hood is only found on the male. It is
considered ornamental by the females of the same species, but horrible
looking by all other animals, I am sure. The beast added about 400
pounds to our little cargo, but the animal, skin and all, certainly
weighed seven or eight hundred. During the day we killed quite a number
of hoods, but the first was the largest. We did not make much of a run,
but dodged about and picked things up. A young hood is rather
blue-looking on the back and white underneath.
The engine slowed down at night, as usual.
_April 8th_. This was one of the most lovely days, with bright sunshine,
and there was dazzling ice in every direction. To the east of us we saw
a beautiful barque under canvas; she was playing our game, dodging about
and picking up seals. As she was not a steamer, and had a small crew,
she was consequently inexpensive to work; there was no reason why she
should not pay her owners well, especially if she got amongst the hoods,
five or six of which would yield a ton of oil. We kept out to her, and
finding she was the _Maud_ of Dundee, I was sent on board to hear the
news. I was hospitably entertained by the captain, who gave me some
old Dundee papers, but those I brought from the _Aurora_ were much
more recent. When I returned, I saw a funny thing happen. We had a
Newfoundland cook, Jack; he had a triangular face with the base up; a
tuft of hair grew from the apex and was the only decoration. With his
long shaved upper lip, he had an amusing look and he was a character.
The ship was bearing down towards ice upon which there was a young hood.
It had been injured and made no effort to escape. Thinking it dead, no
one fired and we were almost on to it when Jack, looking over the side,
saw it. He had not killed a seal that season, so, seizing a gaff, he
leaped on to the pan and we all cheered. As Jack lit on the ice, it
broke in two. The seal slid gracefully off its half, but Jack's half,
almost submerged, swung around under the ship's quarter, where the
propeller was threshing away. Jack paused for a moment between Scylla
and Charybdis, and then giving a wild leap, he disappeared in the sea
as far from the propeller as he could jump. It was most amusing to see
this big man give his wild leap; he was fished out by the punt astern. A
small matter, like a man being half drowned, always amused these simple
people so much.
I have said that the Newfoundlanders were not over-fed on this trip. We
had, for cabin use, numerous quarters of Dundee beef lashed in our
tops. They kept splendidly up there. One morning the steward reported
a quarter of our Dundee beef stolen. One of the Newfoundland cooks was
sent for at once and I heard the conversation between the angry Captain
and the astonished cook. I heard the cook report every morning how he
was on the track of a thief: "Begorra, sor, I have my eye on him;" or,
"Begorra, sor, I could put my hand on the man," and so on until we got
back without the thief having been turned over; I heard afterwards that
the cook certainly could have at any moment put his hand on the man who
took the beef.
_April 9th_. This was one of the most interesting days I spent. At
breakfast, I heard the captain and the mate discussing blinks, that
is, reflections. For instance, an ice blink at sea would mean a sort
of whitish reflection in the sky over an area of ice, or a water
blink would be a dark reflection in the sky over a dark area. We were
surrounded by ice and were approaching a dark blink. Was it water or
seals? Before breakfast was over, the report came from the crow's-nest
that the seals were ahead. I went aloft and saw an extraordinary sight.
The ice ahead of us appeared to be positively black with seals. They
covered acres and acres. We steamed right up to them and then about
twenty men, with rifles, went on to the ice and a lot of others followed
to sculp and haul the sculps to the ship. This ice was not solid but
made up of thousands of pans all detached. They were generally touching
in places, but two or three sprawls would bring any individual seal to
some sort of a hole through which it could escape; therefore, it had to
be killed instantly or it would disappear. The shooting began at once,
the men kneeling down and opening up at the nearest animals. Just as
fast as they could consume ammunition, they fired at seals close at
hand, and, as these disappeared, at those farther away. There was far
too much shooting for much result. Presently they began to get closer.
A would kneel down and fire as fast as possible so as to use as much
ammunition as he could before B would pass him. B would then rush
past and begin shooting, and so on. Now, with regard to this rushing
about,--we were travelling on pans of ice of all sizes, some a few feet
square, some as large as a table, some twenty times that size, but we
certainly had to watch where we were going. When the men scattered, they
shot better, but it was much more dangerous, as the express bullets were
singing about everywhere. I had two men who took me off to one side and
who gave me the best shooting I ever enjoyed. The seals were inclined to
bask in the sun and enjoy themselves; so, if we went about it quietly,
we could easily stalk a pan and advance to within fifty or seventy-five
yards; then, if we shot carefully and only hit heads, we would not
disturb the others. Should we wound one, it would not only go down
itself but would frighten the others on the same pan. I shot off a
number of entire pans by quietly getting close and then picking them
off.
The seal, properly hit, just drops its head, while the others hold
theirs up for you. This was warm work and the barrel of the rifle
became so hot that I had constantly to put it on the snow to cool off.
I watched some of the Newfoundland men shooting when we started and
saw several of them miss every shot. All they did was to endanger their
fellow men and wound an occasional seal; of course there were some crack
shots among them, but it would have paid well to have tested the ability
of all before serving out rifles to them. As there was not a cloud
in the sky, we were greatly sunburnt and several had a touch of
snow-blindness in spite of wearing colored glasses. We probably picked
up three or four hundred seals, and had there been about eight or
ten men who understood the use of firearms, they would have killed a
thousand easily.
The sealing cap worn by the Dundee men was very suitable. The peak was
covered with lamb's wool dyed black, so when turned down it absorbed a
great deal of the glare. Wool had to be wound around the metal work of
the colored glasses we wore on account of the cold.
_April 10th_. Nothing makes one rest like a hard day's work in the open
air. My shoulder was black and blue with firing and my ears rang with
the noise while my eyes smarted and my face burned, but I slept like a
log until seven bells.
The ship had not moved all night. We were off the coast of Labrador, but
out of sight of land. There was a great deal of ice everywhere and
by dawn we were steaming north as fast as possible in the effort to
overtake our game. By noon the seals were in sight and we went through
the same performance as the day before. I did not attempt it with
the main body, but with two good men went off in a slightly different
direction. The express was certainly a good rifle, and its trajectory
very flat, when we consider the powder. I examined a great many wounds
that day and in every case found the bullet had expanded well if it had
hit anything hard. These seals were nearly all bedlamers and we did not
kill any hoods either of these days, although we had picked up quite a
number coming up the coast. This was a shorter day, and we did not kill
so many. It was quite late when the ship took the last of her men on
board, for they had become scattered. One man had fallen in several
times and was very much exhausted. However, I was able to make him
swallow some rum and he soon revived. A sailor is very feeble and
dissolution near at hand when a little rum cannot be coaxed down with a
spoon or other suitable instrument--even then I would not advise leaving
the bottle close to him while looking for the spoon, lest, during his
unconscious struggles, he should spill it.
[Illustration: 0121]
_April 11th_. We were always on the lookout for the _Arctic_, but saw
nothing of her. Before leaving St. John's we heard that the _Thetis_ had
been sold to the American Government for the Greely relief expedition,
so she would not appear among the sealers that year. Captain
Fairweather's brother was master of her, so he was disappointed.
We kept north in our effort to overtake the seals, the barometer falling
a little towards evening, and a swell coming in from the southeast. We
were well on the outer or eastern edge of the ice, as the Captain did
not want to take any chance of being jammed among heavy floes coming
down the coast. During the evening we had a most wonderful sunset.
The sky was red not only to the west, but nearly all over, and the
reflection on the ice was magnificent. The frozen sea is fascinating
when the sun goes down and before dark; also by moonlight, or bright
starlight.
During the day the glare is too great but a moonlight night on a frozen
sea is the grandest sight possible. The weird sounds caused by the ever
restless ice are a fitting accompaniment. On this Friday night, the
sounds caused by the ever increasing sea, crunching the pack up, were
rather startling at times, but we kept pretty well out of it, so we were
safe. There was quite a little motion on board, owing to the swell, and
we steamed easy ahead all night, going full speed at daybreak, and by
noon had the satisfaction of finding our seals. We went oft, but not
quite as usual. The roll of the sea had crunched the pack up and broken
all the large sheets of ice, so we were obliged to jump from one pan
to another while they were rising and falling on the long swell of the
Atlantic. There was nothing sudden or uncertain about the motion. The
long heavy rollers lifted one up and lowered one down, and when between
them, one could not see very far. Now occurred a sort of stalking that I
have never seen described, i. e., running after a large wave and keeping
perfectly still when the following wave overtook one; then repeating
the stalk, always running in the trough between the two waves. In this
manner I did some efficient work and shot a great many seals.
Most of the time was spent watching where to put my feet; but, on
feeling the rise coming, I stood perfectly still and watched the seals.
I was regaled with accounts of men who had been injured and cut in two
by this sort of thing; but we did not meet with the slightest accident
and every one was picked up by sundown. The ship managed to follow
through the ice pretty well, picking up a few seals here and there,
as they had been sculped, so that we added several hundreds to our
collection.
[Illustration: 0125]
_April 13th. Sunday_. The day was fine and we picked up occasional seals
but did not find a herd. It was a complete day of rest for all hands.
The ice to the west of us looked very heavy and the Captain was careful
to avoid it. We lay to at night, but by daybreak on Monday morning we
were dodging north again.
_April 14th_. I had my first shot at a walrus, sea-horse, as it is
called. Shortly after breakfast the usual rifles were on the forecastle
head when the officer in the crow's-nest called down that he saw a
walrus. The ship was kept down on it, and presently we all saw the big
animal with his long white tusks. In this case, they were very long and
could be seen from a great distance. He was on a pan with open water
all around, so we steamed straight at him. As we approached, he raised
himself higher and higher on his flippers and disappeared after having
received a fearful fusillade, at less than a ship's length. I would have
liked the chance of examining his skin just to count the hits and see
the effect. We heard the thud of striking bullets, but the walrus gave a
plunge and was seen no more.
We did the usual amount of sealing from the ship, but had not any men on
the ice. Two or three times we had several punts out, but they did not
pick up very many.
_April 15th_. We dodged back and forth amongst the floating ice, keeping
a little closer to land but not seeing much of interest. There was
a very large floe which bore evidence of great rafting; between the
hummocks on it there was fresh water, regular ponds with connecting
channels. I was on this floe, as we shot a few seals on it, so tasted
the water, which was sweet and good. I have often seen quite big ponds
on floes fast to bergs, and we took water on board sometimes from these.
For the next few days we steamed south without seeing anything of
interest. The weather was cold, but fine, and the ice less as we neared
St. John's. We were careful after dark and generally steamed slow. The
crew were employed in cleaning up.
April 19th. Saturday. Arrived at St. John's in the morning and took our
usual berth. Our entire catch of seals for the two trips was 28,150,
but the crew were paid for 29,300 as there were some large old seals and
they counted more.
There was great news for us on our arrival. I have already mentioned the
sale of the _Thetis_ to the American Government. We now received orders
from Dundee to take the place of the _Thetis_ and proceed to Davis
Straits. The gear removed from this ship was being sent out to us by an
Allan boat. We were to keep our eyes open for the lost Greely, as a
reward had been offered by the United States for any whaler picking him
up.
[Illustration: 0130]
I certainly never intended going on a long trip when sailing, and the
Captain told me I could leave if I wished, but there was a fascination
about the whole thing that I enjoyed.
The _Aurora_ had been getting more comfortable all the time,--the first
awful experience of a fearful Atlantic winter passage with the ship
loaded, to the scuppers, then the crowded ship at the first sealing, and
the much pleasanter trip to Labrador.
Now I could see that the ship would be very comfortable with only her
own crew, and the deck clear of boats, as it would be on the next part
of the cruise, so I decided to go. It took a very short time to put our
seals out, and, as it was Saturday afternoon by that time, all the work
ceased until Monday morning.
[Illustration: 0134]
I heard an amusing story about a man being nearly drowned in a tank of
oil. A sealer came in and four of her tanks nearest to the boiler had
the sculps break down into oil, owing to the heat. When the crew were
discharging cargo it was the custom for a man to jump into a tank and
throw the sculps out. Coming to the first of these tanks, and looking
in, some sculps could be seen, and, never suspecting that these were a
few floating on the surface, the man jumped in and disappeared under,
but was presently fished out, every one thoroughly enjoying the incident
except, of course, the leading man.