Newfoundland Sealing Disaster Analysis

Sent to the ice after white coats,

rough outfit slung on coiled rope belts,

they stooped to the slaughter: gaffed pups,

slit them free of their spotless pelts.

 

The storm came on unexpected.

Stripped clean of bearings, the watch struck

for the waiting ship and missed it.

Hovelled in darkness two nights then,

 

bent blindly to the sleet’s raw work,

bodies muffled close for shelter,

stepping in circles like blinkered mules.

The wind jerking like a halter.

 

Minds turned by the cold, lured by small

comforts their stubborn hearts rehearsed,

men walked off ice floes to the arms

of phantom children, wives; of fires

 

laid in imaginary hearths.

Some surrendered movement and fell,

moulting warmth flensed from their faces

as the night and bitter wind doled out

 

their final, pitiful wages.

 

The above, "Newfoundland Sealing Disaster," was written in 1998 to commemorate one of, if not the worst sealing disaster in Newfoundland's history, in which 254 lives were claimed in two separate incidents.  However, the author, Michael Crummey, an east coast Canadian, decided to focus on the first of the horrific incidents; where 78 sealers became trapped on the ice in a massive winter storm, while trying to catch seals.  These sealers, who belonged to the SS Newfoundland, perished soon after. "Newfoundland Sealing Disaster" uses imagery and other literary devices, such as metaphors and similes, to successfully deploy powerful themes, including extreme pain and death. This poem is much darker than the previous posts, but I felt that it was necessary to include, as not all poems can be happy or funny. 

 

The first stanza lures the reader into believing that the sealers will have a normal, successful day catching seals on the ice off coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic Ocean.  This stanza also lends an inside perspective on the emotions, or lack thereof, of the sealers.  They must be emotionally strong to kill an animal, but on the flip side, these sealers must also be rid of emotions, they must be heartless to commit murders of multiple animals.  I believe that the author needs to show these diverse sides of the sealers to create a stronger, darker reading experience.

 

 

Then, out of nowhere, the storm hits and hits hard.  The sealers are trapped,  on the freezing ice in the North Atlantic.  In the last line of the second stanza and the first of the third stanza, the author uses powerful imagery, using the line, " Hovelled in darkness two nights then, /bent blindly to the sleet’s raw work."  This lines talks about the sealers being put at Ol' Mother Nature's mercy, enduring sleet, snow, and freezing darkness for two days.  Recurring themes such as pain and suffering are easily evident in these stanzas, especially in the above quote.

 

The final three stanzas use more imagery, and some metaphors and similes to enhance the themes and the overall reading experience.  An especially powerful simile is used in the third stanza, intended to make the reader wish that this disaster had never happened.  This simile is as follows: "stepping in circles like blinkered mules."  The sealers, who are going mentally insane from the extreme winter conditions, are starting to die, either from the cold or insanity as emphasized by the following metaphor: " men walked off ice floes to the arms/of phantom children, wives; of fires/laid in imaginary hearths." Finally, the ending uses another simile to emphasize the end, the death of many of the sealers: "as the night and bitter wind doled out/their final, pitiful wages." 

 

I believe that this poem is highly dark and talks mainly about a death so horrific, that many people today would find it disturbing, however, I also think that the author needed to write this poem, as a tribute to those before him; as a tribute to Newfoundland. 

 

It could be argued that this poem is not suitable for younger children, however, many children these days are "babied" by their parents, and my counterargument is that younger children need to be exposed to darker areas of life.  The purpose of this is to teach them that life is not all "sunshine and rose," and that life is difficult, death is inevitable, and others before these children have sacrificed lots, sometimes even themselves to give us the life we have today.