Captain Abram Kean is the most famous ship's captain ever to command a Newfoundland vessel. His career spanned more than 60 years, during which time he was the object of praise and ridicule, fame and controversy. Captain Kean was a sealing Captain and a  a fishing Captain. Captain Kean was also Newfoundland and Labrador's first ever Minister of Marine and Fisheries

Abram Kean was born on July 8, 1855, on Flower’s Island, Bonavista Bay, the son of Jean and Joseph Kean. He received four years of schooling at nearby Poole’s Island and Greenspond, before convincing his father to let him begin fishing at age 13.

Within 10 years he was in command of a fishing schooner. During the next 50 years he was to command vessels engaged in the Labrador, coastal, mail and passenger services, but his exploits at the seal hunt helped him become a household name in Newfoundland.

The seal hunt off the northeast coast of Newfoundland took place in the months of March and April. After several seasons at the front as master watch, second hand, and bridgemaster, Kean finally took command of his own ship, the Wolf, in 1889. In a voyage lasting only 11 days, he brought in a record load of 26,912 seal pelts.

His accomplishments at the front continued as he brought in bumper loads year after year. He took command of Bowring’s coastal boat service in 1903, as master, in turn, of the Portia, Prospero, Florizel and Stephano, all legendary ships in Newfoundland mercantile lore.

In addition to their primary functions as passenger and freight vessels, these ships participated in the seal hunt each spring, as their owners were amply compensated for the month they were out of the coastal service by the profits realized from the hunt.

While skipper of the Florizel in 1910, Kean set a record which was to last for 23 years, when brought in a load of 49,069 seal pelts. In 1934 he reached the million-pelt mark for his career and receiving accolades from Bowring’s, the St. John’s Board of Trade and the governor, including the Order of the British Empire, for his achievement.
 

Captain Abram Kean was at fault in many people's eyes, for the Newfoundland disaster of 1914.  The Evening Telegram questioned his responsibility for this great loss of life, the paper referred to it as, a possible "error of judgment"  by Captain Kean who sent the Newfoundland's men away from his ship to join their own some miles away during a brewing storm.
Even if the error in judgment did not occur in terms of weather, one half hour after those men left the Stephano the storm was getting worse and he neglected to go search for the Newfoundland's  men.

One might say that there were many determining factors that caused the disaster such as the lack of a wireless radio on the Newfoundland Vessel.  If there was any way to communicate to the Newfoundland then Abram Kean would have realized that the men had not made it to their ship and Wes Kean, the Newfoundland's captain, would have realized that his men were not aboard the Stephano. As well if Wes Kean had kept his whistle blowing all night the men could have found their way to the ship. Determining weather is another factor that could be attributed to the Newfoundland disaster.  The judgment of coming bad weather is difficult to interpret.  Captain Kean reported that he did not suspect the coming weather and therefore had no problems with sending the Newfoundland's men off his ship.

Captain Abram Kean was not found legally responsible for the loss and death of 78 of the Newfoundland's men, but he lost a lot of respect and loyalty of  both the public and the sealers.  Abram Kean showed absolutely no remorse for the death and suffering of the lost sealers, in fact he stayed out on the seal hunt while the dead and injured were brought home.
 
 

This picture is of the Bellaventure's crew bringing in the dead on stretchers and in their arms. From a stretcher a frozen arm points to the sky.  This is just one of many images available in Cassie Brown's, "Death on the Ice".
 
 
 
 

This a a photo of the migration patterns of seals off the coast of Newfoundland.

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,                          "Swilers" scrape fat from seal carcasses. St. John's, Nf
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.

 by Michael Crummy

Hard Light. London, Ont.: Brick Books, 1998

This page was completed as partial requirement of Memorial University's Education 4142, English Methods course.
This course focus' on teaching methods and evaluation of English at the high school level.  Click Here to get the Curriculum Outcomes for English/Language Arts for Newfoundland and Labrador.  This project is meant to enhance our understanding of Media Literacy, Click Here for a great example of media literacy in one of St. John's most innovative schools.