Sealing Steamers

Contributor to newspapers and magazines in Canada, Britain and United States on travel- and transportation themes.

Author: Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific's greatest ship (Erin: Boston Mills, 1992).

Reviewer for CBRA since 1993.

In recent years, few animal-rights issues have been as controversial as
the Gulf of St. Lawrence seal hunt, but for more than two centuries
sealing occurred each year without even a hint of debate about its
merits. Newfoundland was home to the principal Atlantic sealing steamers
and their crews. The annual expedition to the ice floes meant arduous
physical labor—and sometimes death—for the sealers. Payment was
based on the catch: in a good year, a sealer could make as much in a
month as a shore-bound worker could in a year; if the catch was poor,
however, he could take home less than five dollars for a season of
grueling and hazardous toil.

This book provides a brief history of the sealing business, as well as
individual chapters on 20 of the best-known steamers that were active
from 1870 to 1950. Most chapters give a year-by-year list of seals
taken, together with names of the ships’ captains. There are numerous
newspaper excerpts, particularly those dealing with steamers’
misfortunes, human tragedies, perilous weather, and record catches.

The author’s narrative links the statistical material and the
newspaper quotations, thus providing a context for the stories of
steamers and crews. The book says little about the overall effect that
sealing had on Newfoundland’s economy, and among the abundance of
press clippings there are no interviews with people who spent their
youth in the sealing business. Nevertheless, Feltham has brought to his
subject thorough research and capable writing, making this no small
achievement.