Research the archive
Narrow 25,688 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1892 | 1 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 3 |
| 1895 | 4 |
| 1916 | 1 |
17 stories matching sealer
- The Makah Nation’s Fleet Challenges the Seal Hunters
With firearms banned, the Makah sealers of Neah Bay turn to traditional hunting methods, outmaneuvering white commercial competitors.
- Thirty-Six Hours Rudderless: The J.C. Ford's Last Voyage
A lime cargo catches fire, a rudder snaps, and eight sailors are rescued off Grays Harbor moments before their ship goes down.
- The Makah Sealers’ Schooner Controversy
A bureaucratic fight over whether tribal sealers can legally use schooners as refuge during dangerous Bering Sea storms.
- Makah Sealers Face Forfeiture
Federal authorities move to seize two schooners owned by Makah sealers for violating international sealing regulations off Cape Flattery.
- Ten Gales, Three Lost Schooners, and a Widow Who Wasn't
A Seattle seal hunter back from eight months in the North Pacific describes a season that swallowed whole crews — and explains why he'd rather kill seals with a spear than a gun.
- The Sealing Monopoly Judge Swan Called a ‘Monumental Humbug’
A federal report from Port Townsend shows Puget Sound sealers thriving while a Smithsonian expert blasts the Alaska Commercial Company’s grip on the Pribilof Islands.
- The Neah Bay Sealing Conflict
A local captain alleges a corrupt scheme involving a government agent and a private trader to monopolize the sealing industry at the expense of Indigenous laborers.
- The Ghostly Harvest of the North Pacific
A brutal accounting of how 19th-century pelagic sealers, operating out of Washington ports, pushed a species to the brink of extinction through industrial-scale slaughter.
- A Deadly Dispute Over Sealskins
A white sealer and an Indigenous man clash over the ownership of pelts, leading to a fatal shooting on the Ozette Reservation.
- The Great Seal Controversy: Do Pups Swim or Sink?
Local mariners and traders challenge the prevailing scientific 'fables' about seal pup habits to protest federal regulation of North Pacific sealing.
- The Sealers’ Rebellion at Neah Bay
A rebellious maritime labor dispute unfolds at the edge of the Washington Territory, where independent seal hunters stand their ground against a heavy-handed federal agent.
- Nineteen Men and a Copper Keel: The Bering Sea Vanishes Off Cape Flattery
A newly built Tacoma sealing schooner is found bottom-up off the Washington coast, with five white and fourteen Native crew aboard. The owners still hope the report is wrong.
- The Seal Pup Wars: A Local Naturalist vs. The Smithsonian’s ‘Sense-Keeper’
James G. Swan, a long-time Neah Bay resident and customs inspector, challenges Henry W. Elliott’s decades-old claim that newborn fur seal pups sink like stones, offering eyewitness testimony from Captain Elijah McAlmond that they swim.
- The Bering Sea Arbitration: A Moral Victory for the Seal
A Paris tribunal rules against American claims of exclusive jurisdiction, yet grants the U.S. the stringent conservation regulations they sought to save the fur seal from extinction.
- The High-Stakes Gamble for Fur Seals
As tensions mount in the Bering Sea, a local merchant readies his schooner with experimental steam launches, betting that international diplomacy—or flags of convenience—will secure his haul.
- The Lawmaker Gets Lawless
A state inspector responsible for monitoring traffic safety finds himself on the wrong side of local ordinances after a day of cracking down on speeders.
- Seattle's Revenue Cutter Heads to Bering Sea to Crack Down on Seal Poachers
The U.S. revenue cutter Grant sails from Seattle for Sitka and the Bering Sea, carrying orders to seize illegal sealers; two fast new launches are being built at Port Townsend.
Also about this, in other words
- The Sealing Wars: Customs vs. Navy
Tensions rise at Port Townsend as federal authorities clash over how to enforce restrictive sealing laws on local schooners.
- The Automatic Suitor-Smacker
A fed-up father builds a booby-trapped gate to drive away his daughters' persistent suitors, turning a domestic headache into a mechanical triumph.
- The Bering Sea's Brazen Seal Poachers, as Told by a Port Townsend Captain
A sealing schooner back from five months in the Bering Sea describes a coordinated scheme of lookouts, false alibis and cached skins used to outwit the revenue cutters.
- The 'Crusher' Strikes Again
The steam collier San Pedro continues its destructive streak on Puget Sound.
- Kill Every Seal? An Alaska Official's Radical Fix for the Bering Sea
Sheldon Jackson told a Seattle reporter that wiping out the Pribilof herd was cheaper than chasing Canadian poachers—and warned that England would bulldoze the boundary if the U.S. didn't fight.
- The Willard Ainsworth's Dangerous Nine-Month Cruise
A Seattle sealing schooner heads for the coast of Japan and Siberia, defying revenue cutters and maritime pressure to secure a massive catch.
- The Mayor’s Sealed Envelope: A City Holds Its Breath
Mayor Humes returns the saloon redistricting ordinance to the City Council in a sealed envelope, sparking wild speculation about whether he has vetoed the measure or simply signed it into law.
- The Day the Smelter Blew: Peter Williams and the Seattle Explosion
A carpenter’s routine repair job ends in tragedy when a blowpipe explodes at Selhy’s Smelting Works, killing him instantly.