Four whaleboats towing whaling schooner Era, 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; Whaling; Whaleboats; Boats and boating; Era (Schooner); Arctic; Bedford; Canada; Hudson; Hudson Bay; Monroe; New Bedford; The Schooner
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/70002:5375

View of four whaleboats towing the whaling schooner Era through floating harbor ice, Hudson Bay, Canada, ca. 1897-1905. The schooner's bowsprit is visible in the left foreground. Infrastructure Livelihood Title supplied by cataloger. Information from original envelope identifies this as # 50. 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.