Inuit boy (Tom Luce) on board whaling schooner Era, Hudson Bay, Canadian Arctic

• Main Author: Comer, George (Creator)
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: Ownership Statement: Mystic Seaport 1897
• Subjects: Inuit children; Whaling ships; Schooners; Ships; Era (Schooner); Arctic; Bedford; Hudson; Hudson Bay; Monroe; New Bedford; The Schooner; inuit
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11134/70002:5524

An Inuit boy identified as Little Tom Luce poses on board the whaling schooner Era in Hudson Bay, Canadian Arctic, ca. 1897-1905. He appears to be standing on a box. Infrastructure Lifestyle Title supplied by cataloger. Information from original envelope identifies this as Photo 192, #107. Number 107 is etched into emulsion on lower part of plate. The boy was named after the owner of the whaling schooner Era. 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, including the Era, 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.