It’s warmed up quite considerably in Seattle over the last week, for which I am grateful. As I grow further into middle age, I have less and less tolerance for “extreme” cold, which I put in quotes because I know darn well that temps in the mid-twenties do not constitute extreme cold—I grew up in Alaska and Upper Michigan, so I know what true cold is. Or at least I thought I did, until I recently watched a video on Newfoundland seal hunters. Those guys knew what cold is—they routinely trudged out to ice floes in the North Atlantic, sometimes falling into the water and having to make their way back to their ship soaking wet in wind chills of below 30. Why was I watching a video on Newfoundland seal hunters, you ask? I couldn’t really say, except that it popped up on a YouTube channel I enjoy called Scary Interesting, which covers all manner of disasters and mysterious disappearances. This particular video covered the famous 1914 catastrophe that led to 132 men being stranded on ice floes for two nights, 77 of whom perished. It’s a fascinating and also very frustrating story, because it was a completely preventable tragedy that occurred due to the fateful decision to remove the wireless communication device from the ship because it was deemed an unnecessary expense. I can’t embed the video, but
Fantabulously eclectic writing! 😻