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Approximately eighteen aircraft and one helicopter were used to bring the pelts from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, where the seal herds were located about thirty miles off the north shore. (34) The Eastern graphic reported on the first day of April 1964:

St. Peters is a busy spot these days with small planes landing and taking off every from the ice every few minutes. The village is being used as a centre of operations for about 100 seal hunters who fly out daily to the seal herds off the north shore. (35)

Most of the sealers were from Quebec. Anna Rattray recalled that one sealer boarded at their residence in Greenwich, while her mother—in—law, Marjorie Rattray, had five sealers board at their house:

As I remember, St. Peters was the only community to be used as a sealing base, because they had the Bay to land and take ofl from They lined the pelts up on the Ice on the Bay and here was a building up back of the Co—op or up back of Jay’s where the pelts were stored. We had one pilot board at our house. Marjorie had five, whom she packed lunches for everyday. (36)

Freeman Leslie’s diary entry for March 28th, 1962 states, "The Magdalene sealers are parked in the Holy Name Hall. They have a cook there." (37)

IRISH MOSS

During World War II, the United States imported a Japanese extract called “Agar,” but following Japan’s entry into the war, a substitute was r€quired. The substitute discovered was “Carageenin,” obtained from Irish Moss. The importance of Irish Moss is that, after processing, it is used in many foods and in such items as toothpaste and cosmetics. (38)

The harvesting of Irish Moss had a slow growth on PEI but, by the 1950s,

the industry had gained importance. PEI eventually became the largest

SOurce of moss in Canada and one of the largest in the world.

The moss gathering traditionally began in the beginning of April, and Continued all though the summer up until the snow arrived in NOVember or December. Theresa Wilson of Goose River gathered Irish MOSS With her husband Frank on the North Shore for twenty-eight years:

We’d get up around daylight, take the little one with us, and drive along the shore anywhere from Naufrage to Cable Head. There were not many people at it in those days. We had baskets with a long handle on them, and you just waded in a little. We couldn’t use horses here because it’s much rockier at this end of the Island. You couldn’t drag for moss because you'd be hooking onto the rocks. We put it into something like a little sleigh with sides on it, filled the box

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