Men repairing boat after wreck of the schooner Finback, Cape Fullerton, Hudson Bay, Canada area

• Main Author: Comer, George (Creator)
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: Ownership Statement: Mystic Seaport 1919
• Subjects: Boats and boating; Scientific expeditions; Arctic; Bedford; Canada; Cape Fullerton; Chesterfield Inlet; Hudson; Hudson Bay; New Bedford; The Schooner
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/70002:5175

Men are engaged in repairing a boat following the wreck of the auxiliary schooner Finback in 1919. Typewrtten on reverse: ""From wreck of FINBACK/ preparing boat at Chesterfield Inlet"". Infrastructure Lifestyle Title supplied by cataloger. Photo would have been taken in the spring, during the season of floe whaling. During this time of year the whaling schooner was still frozen into the harbor ice, so the whaleboats were hauled out to the floe edge [the edge of the land-fast ice] and launched in search of whales. The boats were also provided with covers and used for shelter, as seen in this image. Probably taken by Captain George Comer (1858-1937), a sealer and whaling captain from East Haddam. He went to sea while still in his teens and was later master of vessels from both New London and New Bedford. Comer participated in voyages involved in polar expeditions and was noted for his studies of Arctic peoples and their environment. His 1919 voyage on the Finback, intended for exploration, study and trade, was fraught with problems. It was Comer's last Arctic journey.