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Not for glory, nor for great material
reward do those hardy seal hunters man the sealing steamers. It
is a question of livelihood, and duty; and the heroism which they
display is strikingly indicative of their courage and
fidelity.
"Iron Men", Halifax Chronicle,
quoted in the St. John's Evening Telegram, March 26,
1931
"Hunting seals is dangerous, you
know!"
Magdalen Island seal hunter on hunting seals,
August 2000
 rom 1793 to 1987, ships,
sometimes numbering in the hundreds, carried seal hunters to
offshore ice floes. Many vessels were lost, including 38 steamers
between 1871 and 1914. Hundreds, if not thousands, of men
perished.
The discomfort, hard work and danger these sealers endured were
the cost of earning a meagre cash income in an economy in which
fishing families bartered their catch for necessities of life and
were almost constantly in debt. The opportunity to have real
money to spend justified almost any sacrifice.
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Mannequin of seal hunter lost on the
ice floes (detail)
Photo: Steven Darby
(Canadian Museum of Civilization)
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Captain Abram Kean
Captain Abram Kean, Newfoundland's "Foremost Viking", on the
bridge deck of the S.S. Terra Nova, which he commanded
in the ice fields from 1906 to 1908.
(Courtesy: Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador A42-135)
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The Terra Nova was famous for its participation in both
of Robert F. Scott's Antarctic expeditions. The Scottish-built
Newfoundland "wooden wall" served in the seal hunt from 1885 to
1942.
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Date Created: May 18, 2001 | Last Updated: April 30, 2010
