Among the Deep 5ea Fishers THE STRATH CON A — DR. GRENFELL's HOSPITAL SHIP QUEST AND CONQUEST OF LABRADOR Looking back over twenty-two years of work. By Wilfred T. Grenfell N the good sailing-ketch Albert, we set sail in 1892 from Great Yarmouth, England, for the coasts of Newfound- land and Labrador. The tonnage of our ship was the same as that in which, just four hundred years before, John Cabot, in his stout little craft, the Matthew, had essayed the same voyage. I think that in point of sailing and seaworthiness our oak boat, with its teak decks and iron hatches, undoubtedly had the advantage of his. On the way out we had the same mountainous seas, the same encounters with "ice mast-high," and much the same experiences with fog and storm; but, like his little vessel, we came out of it all. In- deed, we were still joyfully smiling when at length the first glimpse of Terra Nova broke on our vision, and the cold waters north of The Roaring Forties were resplendent with a display of crystal palaces, which looked exquisitely beautiful as they heaved lazily on the surface of the deep blue sea, scintillating like gems in the sunshine beneath an unclouded sky. The harmony of romance was well maintained by a large school of whales, which every now and again broke the stillness with their hoarse breathing or the thundering stroke of their tails on the surface of the ocean. The Quest Yes, we too were on a quest, but what for? N« new lands awaited discovery. No little dragons held captive maidens pining for rescue. No ex- QUEST AND CONQUEST OF LABRADOR pectation of material wealth obtainable lured our ship along. Some would undoubtedly say that our quest was a fool's errand, and that, as no material reward was in prospect, the enterprise was all for nothing. We think, however, that we shall have much when those who have to leave behind all they lived for are finding money and selfish acquisition leaving them with empty hands. ■ ■ a„ .. • . WITH "ICE MAST-HIGH" Twenty-four hours later, a poorly fed, half-clad youth stood among a group of other strangers on our deck. With mouths open and eyes wide these people were asking where this strangely rigged vessel had come from, and what was her quest. She carried no signs of fishing about her; there were no nets or dories to suggest it. She was not a trader, for there were no barrels of oil and no stores for sale. The cut of her masts and sails showed she came from far across the seas. She puzzled them as much as her prototype did the Skraellings when Leif Ericson first dropped anchor off these same shores. What could be her quest? 4 QUEST AND CONQUEST OF LABRADOR Some of them, keenly inquisitive, with that curi- osity which custom allows strangers to indulge in these far-off regions, had wandered aft along the deck, and were standing, arms akimbo, staring at yet another queer phenomenon, the inscription deep- ly engraved in the brass circle of our steering-gear. But the puzzle was still as great as ever, for the mystic signs meant nothing to them, as not one of them could read or write; "runes" they were merely to the men of Labrador. "Fishers of Men" Our kindly mate, however, stepped into the breach and read as follows: "Jesus said, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." The meaning was still slow to penetrate, however. How could so ma- terial a thing as a ship follow Jesus? What, any- how, could be the meaning of catching men? It all seemed too mundane to suggest "religion," too far removed from the domain of sentiment. Alas for the inheritance of ages, which has divorced the fol- lowing of the Christ from the attraction of its real appeal to our .common sense! "Thou shalt not do things" has so arrogated to itself the claim to de- scribe Christianity that it has driven "Thou shalt love" into a cubby-hole labelled "Nothing doing," and the natural man sees only an attenuated phan- tom, which he rejects and despises. The mate had mentioned in his exegesis that there was a doctor aboard. "You see," he said, "it is this way. They told us that there was no one to tend the sick out here, no one to help the poor; so that's what we came to look for. That's the way we fish." At the sallow youth's request we were pulling ashore a few minutes later. "You bes a real doc- tor?" said he more than once, as we rowed along, his eyes all the while fixed on mine, as if he ex- pected to see a new species of animal, and feared I should vanish as suddenly as I had appeared. On 5 QUEST AND CONQUEST OF LABRADOR a "liveyeres" home landing he led the way up a very steep, rocky cliff, and then over some rough marsh and moss-covered fiats, till he brought up abruptly opposite a rather larger heap of mud than usual. Stooping low, we penetrated into a dark, single room with a beach- shingle floor. The sounds of half a dozen nearly naked children playing and squalling on the ground were broken by the deep cough which came from a dark hole on one side of the shack. A miserable, slatternly looking woman was struggling in the smoky atmosphere to quiet the baby with molasses- water fed from an old cup in a spoon. The diagnosis was lobar pneumonia. The patient was the only breadwinner. The quest was surely maturing. It was the opportunity for which we were looking. Here was a world really calling for what we could give. Think of the joy of it! The 6 QUEST AND CONQUEST OF LABRADOR "Grail" we sought was "opportunity," and here loomed up a foreshadowing of the prize. Three months later, as we heaved home our anchors, the shackles of the chain glistened with young ice, and we knew that the hour had come to join the fleet of southern schooners daily winging their way south. Our quest had been crowned with success ; on all sides had been opportunities. Our records showed endless sick who had gone un- treated, arrears of surgery entirely untouched, naked and hungry untended, ignorant' and unlearned without a chance to learn, a country needing the gospel of love translated into deeds, just as Christ intended it to be preached. It seemed to us a veri- table SOS call to which we had been listening. Giving is the Real Joy of Life Once, in a gale of wind, we carried away, our forestay. It looked as if we must lose our mast, and possibly our vessel. But quick as lightning the sailor at the wheel saved the position by putting the ship right before the wind. "What made you do that" I asked. "What else could you do?" was his laconic reply. It was true ; there was no alternative. In just such a way we, too, came to taste first what is ever increasingly to us the real joie de vivre. For it is really true ; giving and not getting is the road to happiness. While talking the other day to the sailor of the Carmania who jumped in the dark into the raging cold waters of the North Atlantic in order to save a ; poor emigrant drifting from the burning Volturno, I asked, "What did he pay you?" "Nothing. He had no money," was the reply. "Would you do it again?" I asked. "Of course I would!" "Why? Why? Why?" "Well, I just couldn't help it," he said. QUEST AND CONQUEST OF LABRADOR That is the Christ spirit. It is not intellect, but something much deeper and much finer. The Conquest Now about conquest. I have a dim recollection of a picture called "Conquest," a warrior with a sword drawn and his heel on the neck of a fallen foe. Well, we have no conquests to record such as were once proudly written on the scrolls of fame of the ages which, thank God, are bygone In Labrador the passing years have seen five small hospitals grow up at points of vantage along the coast, each one a fresh effort to down the enemy called "suffering" and "sorrow," and to raise these neighbors of our adopted land; not to de- stroy life, but to save it. How many thousand poor folk have blessed these little cities of refuge dur- ing the past twenty years ! How much these places have meant in restored functions and renewed hope ! The skill of the centres of civilization has been freely given to our far-off brothers through INDIAN HARBOUR HOSPITAL FRESH AIR SHACK 8 QUEST AND CONQUEST OF LABRADOR ONE OF THE FAITHFUL HELPERS these channels, as doctors in almost every line have given us their time and talents for "nothing." "Nothing? Nothing?" Only human gratitude and love, and new visions of new lives. The old days of "truck" trading have passed away, and a cash system of dealing, which gives the poor man a fair chance to get free from debt and be thrifty, has been substituted. Nothing has helped more in that direction than our series of co-operative stores, which have grown up as the message of love to the slaves of a cruel economic system. For the long hours of enforced idleness in the winter, remunerative work as well as play has been provided, work that means power to buy more of the much-needed and all too short neces- sities of life, as we regard them — milk for babies to save them from scrofula and rickets, vegetables to prevent the once prevalent blackleg and scurvy of the spring. 9 QUEST AND CONQUEST OF LABRADOR Nor have the toys which have been distributed by thousands in a toyless land proved "unremuner- ative." A happy childhood is an asset of afterlife that we cannot afford to undervalue. All who have come to teach weaving, carving, spinning, mat-making, arts and crafts, have not really been working for "nothing." Not for noth- ing has a big orphanage grown up, a building given WEAVING AS A MEANS OF SELF-SUPPORT by a young volunteer while he was still at college, the same friend who recently married the daughter of the President of the United States. The volunteer ladies who watch over this or- phanage would feel it as a confession of incapacity to suggest that they worked for "nothing." Surely there's more real fun in mothering half a hundred children, who must suffer cruel want otherwise, and see them grow to a full manhood and womanhood, than there is in a life given up to golf, or bridge, ©r fine dresses, or any selfish satisfaction. Through the kindness of volunteers a large school k&s grown up, and many small centres have had 10 QUEST AND CONQUEST OF LABRADOR SPUN YARN AND RABBIT SKIN BLANKET (MADE BY ONE OF OUR PUPILS ) teachers during the summer months, so that a more capable and resourceful people are growing up to wrest a living from their reluctant surround- ings. College students from more fortunate climes have made it possible for some of our elder and more clever lads to get a technical education in the famous Pratt Institute in New York. These lads come back ten times as useful to us, to themselves, and to their environment as electricians, plumbers, carpenters, house-builders, etc. A productive lumber-mill is saving many from hunger and debt by a co-operative method of dis- tributing its work; and many good vessels have been built and sold to "make trade" in our idle mo- ments, designed by our lads so well that each in turn, after launching, has fetched the bounty granted by Lloyd's surveyor for a sound craft. The very publicity given to a country so little known has done much to afford it a better mail service, a more adequate coastal survey, and at least an attempt at harbor-lights and a telegraph service. A doctor who went on a pleasure-trip to the country ten years before our quest began came the TI QUEST AND CONQUEST OF LABRADOR SOME OF THE PUPILS OF ONE OF OUR SCHOOLS other day to attend an illustrated lecture. He said to me afterward, "The chief difference I notice in the appearance of the country is the increased size of the houses, and the fact that white paint has ap- peared in the settlements." Last, but far from least, there has been built and equipped in the capital, St. John's, a great seamen's home. It is named for our sailor king, who laid the foundation-stone by means of a submarine cable from Buckingham Palace on the day of his corona- tion. Best of all, the need for this institute has been amply proved by the patronage it has received from the first day it opened its doors. From the beginning it has more than paid its running ex- penses. To the swimming-bath, bowling-alleys, restaurant, and billiard-room, library and reading- room, there has been coming a continuous stream of men to whom the Home has spelled a message of love. Once men were satisfied with telling other men they "ought to be good." Now we know Christ 12 QUEST AND CONQUEST OF LABRADOR meant us to have the fun of making it easier not to go to saloons and haunts of evil by providing better places for them ourselves. Imitating the lead of a famous missionary in Alaska, reindeer have been successfully introduced, for their meat, milk, skins, and the employment which they give; while a large company with ample capital has been formed by some Americans, and has already laid the foundations for a big industry to conserve and breed fur-bearing animals. This innovation has already meant thousands of dollars to our trappers, owing to the increased price which can be given for the live animals. No. The final goal has not yet been reached ; the goal that is final is not on this earth of things visible. But surely conquests are being made, and wherever the agents of this work go, be they the captain, the cook, or the doctor, each one is con- scious of the joy of life. For each one believes in his own soul that it is not only the talker, the ex- pounder, and the prophet who is following in the footsteps of the Master, but he also who, however humbly, is trying to do in his station what the Christ would do. And that station is everywhere. A poor lad with a diseased hip-bone, who had lain in bed a year, said to me, "Doctor, how can I do anything for others?" "Why, look cheerful, and be grateful, and purr when you're pleased. Cheer the doctor, and the nurse, and the man in the next bed. That's what Christ would do. Go and do likewise." St. Anthony, Newfoundland. ■4 Ci)e #renfeli Ssijsoctatum of America FOR PROMOTING THE WORK OF WILFRED T. GRENFELL, M. D. BOARD OF DIRECTORS HAMILTON W. MABIE, LL.D. , PRESIDENT D. BRYSON DELAVAN, M.D., Vice-President EDMUND OTIS HOVEY, W lfahl O Ci L e uaEg, ' S ecretary 156 Fifth Avenue, New York CECIL S. ASHDOWN HUGH AUCHINCLOSS, M.D. STEPHEN BAKER S. EDGAR BRIGGS WILLIAM ADAMS BROWN, D.D. CLARENCE J. BLAKE, M.D. WILLIAM ADAMS DELANO WILLIAM E. S. GRI.WOLD EDMUND OTIS HOVEY, PH. D. EUGENE DELANO, TREASURER 59 Wall Street, New York CLIFFORD HUBBELL WILLIAM DeW. HYDE. D.D., LL.D. FREDERIC S. LEE. PH.D. WILLIAM MacDONALD, PH. D., LL.D. WILLIAM R. MOODY D. RAYMOND NOYES HERBERT L. SATTERLEE FRANCIS LYNDE STETSON WILLIAM R. STIRLING ALLEN WARDWELL MISS S. E. DEMAREST, Office SECRETARY 156 Fifth Avenue, New York Telephone, Gramercy 5238 This Association is a Member of THE INTERNATIONAL GRENFELL ASSOCIATION Superintendent Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell, St. Anthony, Nfld. Secretary and Business Manager A. Sheard, Seamen's Institute, St. John's, Nfld. HOW YOU CAN HELP $500 will meet the annual expenses of a hospital launch. $450 will pay the salary of a nurse for a year. $100 will care for a child in the Children' Home for one year. $6o will support a hospital cot for one year. $7 will provide a ton of coal for the steamer. $2 or over makes one a member of The Grenfell Association for one year, and includes a year's subscription to our illustrated quarterly maga- zine, entitled Among the Deep Sea Fishers. Make checks payable to Eugene Delano, Treasurer. The Grenfell Association of America, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. one of our "trusties