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The Era

Whale head hoisted aboard whaling schooner ERA 102 Ko Whale head hoisted aboard whaling schooner ERA

The whaling ship Era, a schooner, was built in 1847 in Boston, Massachusetts, for Thomas Luce & Co. Several important captains commanded the Era in turn on Arctic hunting expeditions, including George Tyson (one of the first American seamen to winter in Cumberland Sound in 1851), James Monroe Buddington, John O. Spicer and, last, George Comer. After Era's long years of Arctic service, F.N. Monjo, a New York fur company, bought and eventually shipwrecked her near Miquelon Island on July 27, 1906, with Captain George Comer at her helm.

In many regards, the Era remains a famous whaling ship in Canadian Arctic history.

When his ship froze into Hudson Bay ice in 1867, George Tyson had the opportunity to befriend the explorer Charles Francis Hall, who had made the voyage aboard the whaler Monticello, which was also stuck in the ice over the winter.

Several years later, Captain John O. Spicer set up a whaling station known as Spicer Harbour on Iqaqtilik Island, very close to Big Island, which is about 80 kilometres west of Lake Harbour, now called Kimmirut (Spicer named the station Akuliak in Inuktitut in his ship's journal). Many whaling ships used this station between 1877 and 1890, especially the Era and Nile. In 1879, Spicer transported two whale-hunting boat crews from Cumberland Sound to Spicer Harbour, leaving them at the station there all winter to take advantage of the spring hunt at the ice limit. John Bull, also known as Johnnibo Chimoakjo, Shi-mer-ar-chu or the Mate, a native of the island, was responsible for the station. Spring arrived, and the hunters killed three whales. Captain Spicer and the Era did not head for Iqaqtilik until the end of August. Spicer arrived when he learned that the captains of the Abbie Bradford and the George and Mary, two competing whaling ships from New Bedford, had tricked Johnnibo by telling him that the Era had already returned to New London and would not come back for the three whales. Reluctantly, Johnnibo allowed them to load the carcasses. A legal proceeding took place in New Bedford, and Johnnibo testified at Captain Spicer's request. His testimony was deemed to be credible, and Spicer eventually won the case.

Captain George Comer certainly made the Era famous. He first trained as an officer under Captain Spicer's command. Comer then became familiar with Cumberland Sound and Hudson Bay aboard the Nile and the Era. A few years later at Fullerton in Hudson Bay, the Era became a real research laboratory for Comer, who had become the captain. Besides hunting whales and interacting with the Inuit, Comer took advantage of the long winters to learn about the norms and customs of his Inuit friends and especially to learn photography. As the Scottish captain James Mutch did, George Comer worked closely with anthropologist Franz Boas, of the Museum of Natural History in New York, on Inuit ethnography.

The Era, under George Comer's command, is also part of Canadian history as the first American whaling ship to pay customs fees to the Canadian government when Major J.D. Moodie of the North West Mounted Police, aboard the steamer Neptune, ordered payment at Fullerton in 1903-1904. Moodie was part of the Canadian geological expedition commanded by Albert Peter Low. Coincidentally, commanding officer Moodie's wife, Geraldine Moodie, and Albert P. Lowe learned ethnographic photography of the Inuit, as did George Comer, during the winter months spent near the Era.

Comer left a collection of impressive photos taken aboard and near the Era that allow us to better understand which people were very important to him, especially Niviatsinaq, whom he had named Shoofly, and Ippaktuq Tasseok (or Teseuke), whom the American whalers had named Harry.

The photographs depict the whale hunt's ups and downs and the steps in flensing after the kill. They also show us scenes from social life and celebrations aboard ship and in Inuit illuit (igloos).