Inuit women in costume on board whaling schooner Era, Hudson Bay, Canada

• Main Author: Comer, George (Creator)
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: Ownership Statement: Mystic Seaport 1897
• Subjects: Inuit women; Whaling ships; Schooners; Ships; Era (Schooner); Arctic; Hudson Bay; Canada; Hudson; Bedford; The Schooner; Monroe; New Bedford; inuit
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/70002:5336

A group of Inuit women pose inside the deckhouse of the whaling schooner Era, Hudson Bay, ca. 1897-1905. Women in the front row wear parkas adorned with trade beads obtained from the whalers. Infrastructure Lifestyle Title supplied by cataloger. Information from original envelope identifies this as # 47 and A44. The schooner Era was built in 1847 at Boston, Massachusetts. She was a New London whaling vessel until her last voyage out of that port in 1892; her masters included James Monroe Buddington, John O. Spicer, and George Comer. She was wrecked off Miquelon Island, July 27, 1906. 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. Comer sometimes used the caption "Belles of the Bay" for this image.