| Summary: | View of whaleboats and men on the ice, Hudson Bay, Canadian Arctic, ca. 1897-1912. Scene is described as: ""We endeavored to haul our boats over the ice to the water. We had to give up and haul them back."" Infrastructure Livelihood Title supplied by cataloger. Information from original envelope identifies this as Photo # 73. Photo would likely have been taken in May, at the beginning of the floe whaling season. During the spring the whaling schooner was still frozen into the harbor ice, so the whaleboats were hauled out to the floe edge [the edge of the land-fast ice] and launched in search of whales. The boats were also provided with covers and used for shelter. 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.
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