186 THE ASIATIC FUE-SEAL ISLANDS. 



EAIDING- OF COMMANDEK ISLANDS ROOKERIES, 



The rookeries of Bering and Copper islands have always been a sore temptation 

 to marauding schooners, especially those of the latter island, where, in addition to the 

 fur-seals, there was a fair chance of obtaining a number of the costly sea otters, a 

 few of which would go a long way to pay for the expenses and risks of such an 

 expedition. The material is not at hand for an exhaustive list of all the attempted 

 and accomplished raids on the Commander Islands rookeries, but I shall give a 

 sufficiently detailed account to show that considerable damage has been done by the 

 pirates. 



Leaving out of consideration the possible raids during the flourishing times of 

 the whale fishery in the forties, and coming down to recent days, we find that at first 

 the raiders were attracted to Coi)per Island by their knowledge of the plentiful 

 occurrence of the sea otter on that island, a knowledge gained by many of them 

 during their visits to the islands during the " interregnum." We thus find the 

 American schooner Three Sisters, Captain Herendeeu, caught on July 23, 1879, at 

 anchor off the I^Torthwest Cape of Copper Island, the mate and sailors camping ashore 

 near the sea otter rookery. Twenty-nine skins of grown sea otters and 16 sea otter 

 pups were taken from'her, but also 123 fur-seals, which it was claimed, however, were 

 taken at sea. Instead of seizing the vessel, the authorities let her go with a warning. 

 The seal skins found on her proved that sea otter was not the only game looked for 

 and in the same year, on August 10, an unknown schooner, off Glinka, attempted to 

 land three boats, but the natives frightened them off. 



The year 1880 saw an increased activity on the part of the poachers, who were 

 much emboldened by their successes in the Okhotsk Sea. As early as July 7 the 

 Three Sisters, of San Francisco, Captain Beckwith, was seen at anchor off Glinka 

 rookeries, killing seals; the crew was driven off by the natives shooting at them. 

 Mr. E. P. Miner (Brit. Counter Case, App., p. 113; Pur Seal Arb., viii, p. 700) gives 

 the following graphic account of this raid: 



She was chartered by H. Liebes & Co., and was supposed to be going out on a sea-otter and fur- 

 seal hunting expedition, but as a matter of fact all of us who sliipped as hunters knew that the vessel 

 had been fitted out for a raid on the rookeries on tlie Commander Islands. Early iu July we started 

 from the Alaskan Coast for the Commander Islands, and about the middle of the month landed on the 

 west side of Copper Island. We landed in the daytime iu a fog. There were three boats. We had 

 killed about 800 seals before we were seen, but had taken none of them on board the vessel. A 

 baidarka with natives in it came along then, and we knew that warning would be given to the people 

 on the island, and we began skinning the seals. In about an hour what appeared to be fifty men 

 came across the island to where we were, and began firing at us with blank cartridges. We started 

 ofi' at once, bnt when some distance from land began killing seals in the kelp. Then they fired on us 

 with bullets, and we went on the schooner. All the skins we got of the seals we killed was 153. 

 Before we made the raid on the seal rookery we had anchored at the north end of Copper Island, 

 where sea otters were plentiful, and while there a baidarka full of natives came out to us and served 

 a warning on the captain, telling him that he must not bunt within 5 miles of the islands— the miles 

 were, I suppose, meant for Russian miles. We went from Copper Island to the Kuril Islands to look 

 for sea otter, and after getting one sailed on the 4th August for San Francisco. 



On July 13, 1880, a schooner was reported at anchor close to the beach of North 

 Eookery, Bering Island, and being discovered had probably but poor success. Not so, 

 however, with the schooner tliat raided the Glinka rookeries about two weeks later 

 killing " a number of seals, say about 400." This can hardly have been the Otsego, 

 Captain Isaackson, flying the Dutch flag, which was boarded on August 6 by the 



