A straightforward and not too revealing journal of Hudson Bay whaling at the beginning of the 20th century, just as Amundsen was coming through on his NW Passage. Comer was commanding the American whaler Era at the end of the whaling era. Has a few interesting book notes:
p. 69-71, Oct 1903 when Era is wintering with the much larger Canadian steamer ship Neptune:. [Neptune] intends to print a small paper occasionally and ask to have us contribute to its pages.
Oct. 23: On board the steamer they have printed a small paper (3 sheets of typewriting paper), its first edition coming out today. It is called the Northern__________. Footnote 7: The name finally adopted for the newspaper was the Neptune Satellite (see journal entry 16 November 1903). No surviving copies are known to the editor but conceivably some exist in family collections. [Another issue appeared on Oct. 31. Also on Nov. 16. Comer contributed a letter on Nov. 21.]
p. 84, Christmas entertainment.
p. 148, Oct. 23, 1904, during second winter: This evening I spent the evening on the steamer Arctic with Captain Bernier. I was quite well pleased with him. He had sent me over during the day a card and pamphlet entitled The Canadian Polar Expedition which Captain Bernier is trying to get up for himself to take charge. [Bernier’s plan was to replicate Nansen and the Fram by floating icefloe to the Pole, but from 300 miles farther east. Bernier’s ship also produced a weekly newspaper (see p. 155) and also featured Bernier’s lantern-slide lectures on polar exploration. Comer wrote a piece for it (p. 169).]