Word: gaff
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Slaughter. Newfoundland swilers are old hands at blasting and nudging their craft clear into the whelping ground. There the barrel man, high in the crow's-nest, spots the whitecoats. The ship runs alongside, the men grab a gaff (a pole with a steel hook on the end) and clamber overside. They race to kill the first whitecoat and bring back its tail to dip it ceremoniously in a glass of rum as a toast to a bumper trip...
Once in the patch, the slaughter begins. A sharp blow on the nose with the gaff kills the seal, a few deft strokes of the knife and the pelt is sculped off. All day long the killing goes on; the ice runs red with blood. At night the crewmen trudge back to cramped quarters aboard ship for a meal of seals' flippers, a mug of black tea. Then a night's sleep, fully clothed, a breakfast of "fish and brewis" (boiled hardtack), and off on the ice again. In a good day a sealer can sculp 120 seals...
...know anything about that. But it was true of the people who were in dull, uninspiring work on unglamorous shore duty. A person who is liberally educated-one who has a good many resources and is able to adapt himself-is in a much stronger position to stand the gaff...
...every girl can shoulder the responsibility and stand the gaff of a war correspondent's life in these dangerous days-so this week I thought I would introduce you to one of them...
When Jimmy was called up for induction early in 1943, he did not look his age, was classified 4-F because he was "immature." Calling him up again six months later, the Army finally decided he might just about be able to stand the gaff, took...