Newfoundland Stories by Eldon Drodge Read Free Book Online

been before. He revelled in every minute of his new experience.
    For two days the Raven plodded on toward her destination, doing a steady eight knots. It wasn’t until they passed Cape Freels, the headland that separates Bonavista Bay and Notre Dame Bay, that they began to encounter random patches of broken ice, the first they had seen since leaving St. John’s. Having come more than three hundred miles without obstruction, they now had to proceed more cautiously. The ice, however, was not yet dense enough to seriously impede their progress.
    Steering almost due north from that point, Captain Dickie told the sealers that they would probably have to steam another two hundred miles or more before they reached the large ice-fields which, at that time of the year, crept slowly southward from the polar cap, hopefully bringing with them the thousands of whitecoats whelped only days earlier. Another day saw them in thicker ice and a few seals were spotted but not enough to warrant stopping. Finally, on the fifth day, the lookouts reported a large seal herd to the starboard and Captain Dickie announced, “B’ys, it’s time to go to work. We’re in the fat.”
    The seal hunt had begun. For the next fourteen days, with the exception of Sundays, the sealers, organized in watches of a dozen men or more, were dispatched to various locations on the ice to harvest as many seals as possible before the Raven came back to collect them before dark. At first light each morning, the men, armed with sealing gaffs and hauling ropes and having been fed a good breakfast, slipped over the side of the vessel onto the ice to begin their day’s work. Pius watched them leave and wished that he was going with them.
    When they returned at dusk, the bloodied sealers were ravenously hungry and the mountains of salted pork, figgy duffs, and gallons of hot tea that Pius had helped prepare invariably disappeared in short order. As busy as he was, this was Pius’ favourite time of the day. He loved to listen to the sealers talking as they ate, and to hear them boast about their exploits out on the ice. Day after day, he was enraptured by the yarns they told and the ridiculous lengths they went to in striving to outdo each other. Pius resolved that before the voyage was over he would go out onto the ice with them.
    By the fifteenth day, the hold of the Raven was almost filled, and Captain Dickie announced, “Another good day or two, b’ys, and we’ll be heading for home.”
    Pius knew he didn’t have much time left. Tomorrow, he determined, would be his day.
    He was up well before the sealers the next morning to help get breakfast ready before they went to work. Afterward, he observed the watches as they left the ship one by one until only one remained. When that group dropped over the side and proceeded outward in single file, Pius, unobserved, went with them. He carried with him a gaff and a rope he had hidden away the previous night. Keeping to the rear to avoid detection, he was on his way to realizing his dream.
    Pius had walked almost a half mile before he was discovered. Abram Bussey, the watch leader, was livid and ordered him to return to the steamer. Pius’ assertion that Captain Dickie had given him permission to come, a blatant lie, held no sway with Bussey – at least not at first. The boy’s persistence, however, eventually created a niggling doubt in the watch leader’s mind, and with the threat, “If I find out you’ve lied to me I’ll skin you alive when we get back,” Pius was grudgingly permitted to tag along.
    The weather, although overcast and cold, was calm and the air was still, perhaps eerily so. Pius felt no discomfort despite the scanty clothing he wore. The effort of keeping up with the others, in fact, had left him sweating slightly, and the feel of the sweat on his body felt good. He was looking forward to killing his share of whitecoats.
    Within the