Abram Kean (1855–1945)

Being The World's Greatest doesn't mean that you're much good.

Abram Kean was the greatest seal-hunter the world has every known. In half a century of haunting Newfoundland's seal fishery, his ships brought home over a million seals -- about half again as many as the next-best sealing captain. It even earned him the Order of the British Empire. But it sure didn't make him nice.

I don't say that because I dislike sealing. I do dislike sealing, but I also know that Newfoundland was poor, and it survived in large part by sealing; there were good men on both sides of the sealing issue, just as today there are good people on both sides of the gun debate. But I dislike Abram Kean because he was just plain mean. He played a part in the Greenland Disaster of 1898, in which several dozen men lost their lives, and a much greater part in the Newfoundland disaster of 1914, in which 78 men froze to death. His sons, Joe Kean and Westbury Kean, had consciences, and were horror-stricken; Abram just said, "Not my fault," and went on hunting seals. He never admitted fault. He never learned. He never gave a fig what anyone thought. He just hunted seals.

That, and served in the Newfoundland legislature. He was first elected because he was a Methodist teetotaler, and Newfoundland politics being what it was, that was what was called for.

This book, Kean's autobiography, says little about his sealing disasters, although it was his sealing career that made him famous. It says more about his political views -- which mostly boil down to, "You're all a bunch of cowards, and you got us into this mess (when Newfoundland went bankrupt in the 1930s and had to give up self-government), and it's not my fault."

Nothing was ever his fault. That's the story of this book.

Apart from that cheery message, it's rather a bore. It's an old man's ramblings, without much coherence but with all the pomposity you could ever wish for.

The edition I read is the re-issue edited by Shannon Ryan. This adds a little additional information, which is useful; this is the edition to get. But it's still basically Abram Kean, rich in seals, poor in ideas, destitute in humility and honesty and human kindness. If you're anything like me, you won't like him.

So why did I read it? Because the Newfoundland seal fishery was a tremendously important part of Newfoundland culture in the century and a half before World War II, and if you want to understand it, you need to know about Abram Kean. If you're interested in that, you need this book. Just... don't expect to enjoy it.… (meer)