Six Kenepetu (Inuit) women on deck of vessel, Canadian Arctic

• Main Author: Comer, George (Creator)
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: Ownership Statement: Mystic Seaport 1897
• Subjects: Inuit; Whaling ships; Schooners; Sailing ships; Ships; Era (Schooner); Arctic; Bedford; Chesterfield Inlet; Hudson; Hudson Bay; Monroe; New Bedford; The Schooner; inuit
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/70002:5417

Six women identified as Kenepetu (Inuit) are on the deck of the whaling schooner Era or A.T. Gifford in the Canadian Arctic, ca. 1897-1912. The wheel and rigging of the vessel are partially visible to the right. Infrastructure Lifestyle Title supplied by cataloger. Information from original envelope identifies this as photo #23, #A61. The Inuit identified as Kenepitic, Kenepetu or Kenepitu were from the Chesterfield Inlet region; the modern designation for the group is Qaernermiut. 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. ""Kenepetu"" is one of several spellings he used to identify the Qaernermiut group.