CHAPTER XV. 



FIRST EXPERIENCE IN A STEAM WHALER SEALING ON THE 



NEWFOUNDLAND COAST HOSPITALITY OF ITS PEOPLE 



BROKEN PROPELLERS WRECKS ON THE COAST SUCCESS- 

 FUL WHALING IN POND'S BAY A PLEASANT VOYAGE. 



THE following year 1862 I went chief mate of the 

 s.s. Polynia, belonging to Dundee, with Capt. Gravill, 

 senr., one of the kindest men that sailed for Davis's Straits. 

 He was also a very enterprising and strong-nerved man. 

 This voyage we were to prosecute the seal fishing on the 

 Newfoundland Coast, and afterwards proceed to the whaling 

 grounds in Davis's Straits. 



The Polynia was a full-rigged ship, and fitted with an 

 auxiliary screw capable of driving her nine knots. We 

 sailed from Dundee on the loth January, as the sealing on 

 the east coast of Newfoundland is one month earlier than at 

 Greenland, and called at Shetland to make up our comple- 

 ment of sixty-six men. A few days after leaving Shetland, 

 the measles broke out on board. The doctor judiciously 

 kept the nature of the disease a secret from the 

 crew, and in about ten days those who had been suffering 

 were able to return to their duties. 



The wind was favourable until we reached Long 42 W. 

 There we experienced a heavy gale, and lay to under bare 

 poles for fourteen hours. The ship being heavily laden, we 

 lay in the trough of the sea for some time before steam 

 could be got, on account of the seas which she shipped 

 down the funnel. Then I saw the superiority of steam, for 

 when the engines got into working order we lay much 



