Book dossier

Death on the Ice

by Cassie Brown, Harold Andrew Horwood

***Each year, for generations, poor, ill-clad Newfoundland fisherman sailed out 'to the ice' to hunt seals in the hope of a few pennies in wages from the prosperous merchants of St. John's.*** The year ***1914 witnessed*** the worst in the long line of tragedies that were part of their harsh way of life. For two long, freezing days and nights a party of seal hunters--***one hundred thirty-two men--were left stranded on an ice-field floating in the North Atlantic in winter.*** ***They were thinly dressed, with almost no food, and with no hope of shelter*** on the ice against the snow or the constant, bitter winds. To survive they had to keep moving, always moving. ***Those who lay down to rest, died.*** Heroes emerged--one man froze his lips badly, biting off the icicles that were blinding his comrades. Other ***men froze in their tracks, or went mad with pain and walked off the edge of the ice-fiel***d. **All the while, ships steamed about nearby, unnoticing. And by the time help arrived, two thirds of the men were dead.** This is an incredible story of bungling and greed, of suffering and heroism. The disaster is carefully traced, step by step. ***With the aid of compelling, contemporary photographs the book paints an unforgettable portrait of the bloody trade of seal hunting among the ice-fields when ships--and men--were expendable.*--goodreads**