Whaling schooner Era frozen in ice, Hudson Bay, Canada

• Main Author: Comer, George (Creator)
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: Ownership Statement: Mystic Seaport 1902
• Subjects: Whaling ships; Schooners; Sailing ships; Ships; Era (Schooner); Arctic; Bedford; Canada; Hudson; Hudson Bay; Monroe; New Bedford; Repulse Bay; The Schooner
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/70002:5380

Starboard view of the whaling schooner Era frozen in ice before "coming up," Repulse Bay, Hudson Bay, Canada, 1902. Environment Infrastructure Title supplied by cataloger. Information from original envelope identifies this as photo 166, # 92. The number "92" is etched into the plate. Original caption is as follows: "Showing the vessel before she came up after the banking had been removed." The weight of winter snow and ice would cause the vessel to settle lower in the water than normal. It would remain frozen in this position until it eventually "came up" in the spring. 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.