U.S. Cutter Seizes Poaching Schooners off Cape Flattery
Defying a violent storm, the U.S. revenue cutter 'Grant' hunts down two schooners accused of illegal seal hunting in forbidden waters.
The United States revenue cutter 'Grant' came into port last night, having made an important seizure of two sealing schooners off Cape Flattery during the heavy storm that prevailed last Saturday night. The schooners are the 'G.C. Perkins' and the 'Puritan,' of Neah Bay, whose crews are seen suspected to live in Seattle. These were captured with ten seals and 370 skins, with evidence enough to show violation of the sealing law. The poachers, emboldened by their supposed immunity, believed the coast was clear, but Captain Tozier was well informed. During the storm, with the wind blowing at forty miles an hour, the 'Grant' steamed quietly out the cape with lights out, searching by the aid of flashes of lightning. He came up to the two schooners with every sail reefed and 'laying to' to weather the storm. The crews were transferred, the vessels were seized and held at Neah Bay, and a court of inquiry was established.
“The hunt, though a silent hunt, was anything but quiet, for the waves and the wind were making things pretty lively for all on board.”
The protection of marine life in the North Pacific remains a high-stakes geopolitical issue, echoing the 1894 tensions over Bering Sea sealing rights. Today, we still see federal agencies navigating the complexities of maritime law, though the 'revenue cutters' have been replaced by the modern U.S. Coast Guard.
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