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Dog on the Ice
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Dog
on the Ice
by Arthur White as published in The Collegian, St. John's
Newfoundland, 1939.
In the latter part of
the nineteenth century my grandfather was well known as the captain of
many sealing steamers including the Hector.
In the particular year in which our
story takes place, the Hector was at the seal hunt captained by my
grandfather, who took his setter dog with him for the first time.
Strict orders were given to the sealers not to allow the dog to leave
the ship. However, a few days after they reached the ice-fields, one of
the seamen let the dog out, and he ran away out of eight. The sealers
gave him up for lost and continued their hunting.
About two weeks later, the captain
heard a commotion out on the ice, and the seamen calling "Here boy!
Here boy!" Going on deck he saw some of the sealers surrounding the dog
which had become mad and
starved during his two weeks' wanderings.
Under his direction, the whole
ship's crew (about 300 men) formed a cordon and drove the dog out on a
point of ice, which was almost entirely surrounded by a lake of water,
to try and capture him alive. The captain had his gun along to shoot
the animal in case he should break through.
When the dog saw that he was
covered, he turned like a flash and, breaking through the circle,
started away at a run along the ice. My grandfather raised his gun and
fired. The bullet passed over the dog's head and, as soon as he heard
the gun, he seemed to come to his senses and immediately stopped.
This gave the captain time to catch
him and bring him back to the ship where, after a few days with
good food, he recovered.
D.O.C Grade XI
A handwritten note below notes "Seems I
wrote it for the Collegian school magazine in 1939. 'Doc' was the
nickname they had on me" - Arthur White.
Captain Edward
White Jr. (1847-1908) was the captain mentioned in this story, during a
sealing expedition off the coast of
Newfoundland. As both
Edward Jr. and Edward Sr. (1810-1886)
had served as captain of
the Hector at differing times it is assumed that Arthur White was
correct in identifying the story as being about his grandfather and not
his great grandfather.
Hector,
a 151 foot steam and sail wooden ship
would
become a family institution after Capt. Edward White Sr. supervised her
construction in 1870 
at
the shipyards
of Alexander Stephen & Sons
in Dundee, Scotland. White brought her
to the ice in 1871-72 for
Job Brothers & Co., before turning the wheel over to the capable
Capt. William C.
Knight.
Little did he know that their grandchildren would one day marry.
Hector
would soon return to White's command, in 1877. Edward White Sr.
took one trip before turning it over to his son Capt. Edward White Jr.
who
for the next ten years would navigate her through the icefields.
Refitted and renamed the Diana in 1891, she operated as a whaler, and a
mail boat in Newfoundland and
Labrador,
before she became jammed
in ice in 1922 and lost her tail shaft. She was abandoned on
March 27 that year, and sank
while burning, after 52 years service.
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