Snow banking being removed around whaling schooner Era or A.T. Gifford, Hudson Bay, Canada

• Main Author: Comer, George (Creator)
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: Ownership Statement: Mystic Seaport 1897
• Subjects: Whaling ships; Schooners; Sailing ships; Ships; Era (Schooner); A.T. Gifford (Schooner); Arctic; Bedford; Canada; Hudson; Hudson Bay; Monroe; New Bedford; The Schooner
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/70002:5373

Men are engaged in what appears to be the removal of snow banking around a vessel identified as either the whaling schooner Era or A.T. Gifford, Hudson Bay, Canada, ca. 1897-1912. Environment Infrastructure Livelihood Title supplied by cataloger. The number """"88"""" is etched in the plate. Information from original envelope identifies this as # 168. Snow was used to bank the vessel during the winter. It provided insulation and protection from the wind. 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. The schooner A.T. Gifford was built in 1883 at Essex, Massachusetts. George Comer was her master during one of his Arctic voyages in which he mapped areas in the Hudson Bay area. 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.