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Ann Meekitjuk Hanson

I heard stories about Kimmirut as well. I used to live there. I was born outside of Kimmirut. I was talking about my ancestors helping those whalers who came up here to hunt whales.
Kimmirut was one of the first settlements when the whalers first started coming up here. We hear stories of how they wanted Inuit to help them, no wonder they knew how to hunt and knew where to go to hunt and they knew the land, rivers, lakes and everything else around them. That is why they helped the whalers to stay alive even if they would have been lost or starving or freezing if Inuit didn\'t help them.
The men were not the only ones who helped; there were women who did all the work for the dogs. The women also did sewing qamit and clothing and were brought along while the men they were hunting by boat.
At the time, when they were expecting and hoping for the whalers to come back when summer was coming. While waiting and expecting for their return people would gather around in one place to wait for a ship. They would gather on a hill and a person would be waiting and looking on top of that hill to see if a ship was arriving. People would be taking turns staying on top of the hill.
Our ancestors were able to smell a ship smoke even if they could not see the ship yet and they would know that the ship would arrive in a day or two. That was one of the stories that were told.
It used to be so interesting to hear stories when we were children from our elders because they would talk about their past and ancestors. I mentioned Ani Kimilu and Johnnibo and Kallaarjuk. Kallarjuk\'s father was a whale hunter as well who was the captain of a ship. I am not sure if Kallarjuk\'s father was with the Scottish or the Americans. But as far as I know he had a qallunaaq father and we know that our relatives and ancestors were whalers as well.
It is very interesting to hear stories about the whalers who were in Kimmirut at that time even up to today. We had a relative named Timilaaq and he used to tell funny stories about the whalers in Kimmirut and about what he was told.
There was a time when Inuit wanted to get things from the white people, things like cups, tea kettle, harpoons with steels and or blankets, anything that came from the white people, they even traded their women to those who were the captains or who ever owned a boat or even to a regular white person. When a white man wanted to use a woman at that time, he used to ask her. Timilaaq used to tell a story about trading for tobacco, blankets and things that came from the white people. When he told that story, we thought that was funny.

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Fred Calabretta

The opening of Hudson Bay to whaling in 1860 was a major event. Although there were two New Bedford ships, the captains were both New London whalers. One of them was Christopher Chapel, who had been on the McLellan (a continuation of the link to the McLellan). From 1860 until the end of the whaling era in New London, in the early 1890s, Eastern Arctic whaling accounted for half of the voyages and income. It helped to keep whaling alive locally.

Captain George Comer was born in 1858 in Quebec. Very little is known of his early years. Apparently his father was a sailor who disappeared at sea shortly after George was born. His mother was originally from England, and for reasons we don’t understand she ended up in the States. She evidently had very difficult times.

George Comer then grew up on a farm, doing farm work until he turned 17, in April of 1875. At that time, for reasons that are not clear, he left the farm, walked to New London and shipped out on an arctic whaler. This was the beginning of his whaling career and his career as a sailor, and was also his introduction to the Arctic.

Comer got his opportunity to sail as captain for the first time in 1895, on the Era, the ship on which he had so much experience. He went to Hudson Bay, and there he specialized. Voyage after voyage, he returned to Hudson Bay.

He gathered plants in Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait in the early 1890s. He began to focus on what eventually became his life’s work, which was the study and documentation of the Inuit. He started informally by collecting a few things and trading for cultural objects. 1897 was a turning point in Comer’s life. In that year, a man named Franz Boas, who was the founding father of North American anthropology, a huge figure in that field, contacted Captain Spicer, looking for information about the Inuit of the Eastern Arctic. Captain Spicer told Boas he was retired and referred him to Captain Comer.
Boas said, “Take photographs. Make sound recordings. Take plaster life masks of Inuit faces.” In this way, the documentation became comprehensive. Comer kept detailed written notes of Inuit traditions. He collected stories, oral history, information about the Franklin Expedition, drawings, maps, anything it was possible to collect. Most of what he collected went to the American Museum of Natural History. By about 1907 or 1908, they had the largest arctic collection in the world, most of it acquired by Comer and by Robert Peary. This established Comer as an anthropologist. He continued to make profitable voyages as a whaler, but he added this second career.

Dorothy H. Eber

There was a wonderful person, Leah Arnaujaq. of Repulse Bay - descendants still live there- who was on the whaling ships in her youth. She used to talk a lot about the American Captain George Comer, although she was more acquainted with the Murray brothers – the whaling captains Alexander and John. Apparently she was a daughter of Alexander Murray, but she told me she had closer contact with “Cross-eyes” - John Murray who had a cast to his eye. Comer’s Inuit name was angakkuq , shaman, because he astonished everyone with his photographs which he took on board his vessel (Comer’s photographs are a remarkable documentation of Inuit life of the time.) and she told me, “Oh, Comer, the angakkuq! He could make these photographs appear just out of a piece of paper! He was a very good man to the Inuit”. These different captains, Comer and John and Alexander Murray, each had their own people when the ships were up there, and while the Inuit were friendly with each other, because most of them were related, they didn’t get together much while whaling was going on. ‘The captains were always a little afraid that the other captains might take some of their men. Because of the competition they weren’t enemies, but they weren’t too friendly either.’