seal n also sile, soil, swale, swile, swoil(e), etc [phonetics unavailable]. Cp OED ~ sb1 (c1000-), DAE n1 (1622-) for sense 1, and for var forms: OED soile 'common seal' Co (1602-; esp 1672 quot), O Sup1 swile (Nfld: 1877-), EDD soil sb3 var soile, soyle Co. See EDG 58 for added -w- developed before a back vowel (s w cties). Cp OED ~ 3 'sealskin' for sense 2. For combs. in sense 4: OED 5 ~ fish ( 1661), 4 d ~ fishery (Nf1d: 1785), DC Nf1d (1808-); NID ~ finger; DC ~ gun (1942); OED 4 d ~ hunt (1886); DC (1883-), OED 4 d ~ hunter (Nfld: 1781), DC 1, 2 (1832-; 1889-); DC ~ meadow (1819); OED 4 ~ oil (1839), DC (1829); DC ~ patch (1883); OED 4 b ~ shot (Nf1d: 1842); OED 5 ~ vat (1853).
Seal with defining word is entered alphabetically, e.g. BAY, HARBOUR, HARP, HOOD, OLD, SQUARE FLIPPER (at SQUARE a), YOUNG; the many regional designations of the mammal in its various stages of growth are also listed separately, e.g. BEDLAMER, DOTARD, RAGGED-JACKET, SADDLEBACK, TURNER, WHITE-COAT.
1 Any of the North Atlantic hair seals (family Phocidae) taken for the skin, used as leather, and the fat, rendered as oil; esp the harp seal (Phoca groenlandica) and the hooded seal (Cystophora cristata), freq in place-names.
[1549 (1915) HOWLEY 2 (tr) The country is sterile and uncultivated (but] it yields plenty of fish, and these very large; such as seals and salmon.] 1610 Willoughby Papers 12a/13 The oportunitie for fishinge For Codd Salmon Seales not Lett. 1620 WHITBOURNE 44 In processe of time, they may also settle a traffike with the Savages for their Furres of Beaver, Martons, Seale, Otters, and what else is of worth amongst them. [1663] 1963 YONGE 55 Here are also seals, an amphibious animal like a dog. I have seen them abundantly on the ice, 30 leagues off the shore. [1675] 1971 SEARY 276 Seal Cove. Freshwater B (Southwood 1675). [1712] 1976 HEAD 129 In the winter, the planters both to the northward and southward of St John's hunt for deer, beaver, otter, bear, martin, fox and seales, on whose flesh they feed for the greatest part of that season. 1745 CAREW 25-6 They that Night anchored in a fine Bay, where was a most beautiful and commodious Harbour, which was fished in neither by French nor English, that was covered with prodigious Numbers of all Sorts of Wild- Fowl, Otters and Soils. [1802] 1916 MURPHY 2 The seals upon this coast are of many species, they are classed and distinguished by names only to be found in the Newfoundland nomenclature, and only understood by the Newfoundland naturalists. [J]ars, Doaters and Gunswoils and many others brew upon the rocks, in the summer season, and may be called natives. 1837 BLUNT 24 The eastern island [and the two western ones] form the northern boundary to Swale Tickle and Newman's Sound. [cl845] 1927 DOYLE (ed) 27"The John Martin": Now when we got into the jam the swoiles were very thick, / And the skipper he came forward with a junk of a stick. 1863 HIND ii, 201 The fishermen and Indians who live on the coasts of the gulf or estuary of the St Lawrence, and on the shores of Newfoundland, watch for the coming of the seals in November and December with as much anxiety as the Swampy Crees of Hudson's Bay or the Nasquapees of Ungava listen for the first note of the Canada goose. 1866 WILSON 278 The men themselves do not call the animal ... a seal, but a swale, or a soil. 1907 MILLAIS 40 We sealers say, too, that man'll go for a swile where gold won't drag 'un. 1923 CHAFE 3 In the North Atlantic we have the hair seals, which are not nearly so valuable [as the fur seals of the Pacific], the skin being utilized wholly for leather, but the fat or blubber attached to the skin is its most valuable product. 1936 SMITH 54 My God, men, it is like picking up two-dollar bills off the ice; every half-hour you can get a tow of seals worth eight dollars, every seal weighing fifty pounds... I have 150 men as good as ever salt water wet, and I also know that I got 100 naughty boys who don't care a damn whether they get a 'swile' or not. 1964 BLONDAHL (ed) 70 "The Bird Rocks": One day these three brave men went out / As they did wont to do, / On rugged sheets of frozen ice, / To capture seals a few. / But as they lingered o'er the swile, / At length they failed to see / The wind had veered from south to east, / And drove the ice to sea. T 141/2-652 'Take thy gun,' he said, 'take thy gun an' come on; there's a swile out there on the pan, a young harp.' T 141/68-652 An' there's a thunderin' fine sile into her, boy, in the net. T 398-67 A seal is twice as good shot as what he is net. 1975 RUSSELL 69 [The teacher] told him it ought to be spelled SEAL instead of SWILE. Pete said maybe so. She was the teacher and she ought to know, but to him SEAL was an awful foolish way to spell swile. 1976 PINHORN 50-1 Seals of the western [arctic] population ... migrate southward in autumn reaching eastern Newfoundland and the Gulf of St Lawrence by late December and early January. Nearly all whelping occurs in the first 2 weeks of March.
2 The skin of a seal with the blubber attached; PELT n, SCULP n.
1866 WILSON 282 By the word pelt is meant the skin and the fat ... when, therefore, it is said that such a vessel brought home so many seals, the reader must understand, those were only seals' pelts, for the carcass, which scarcely contains a particle of fat, is left upon the ice. 1878 TOCQUE 304 What is called the seal is the skin with the fat or blubber attached, the carcase being thrown away. 1923 CHAFE 32 He stands for the greatest number of seals ever brought in by one ship, the greatest weight ever brought in one ship and the greatest value.
3 Short for 'seal oil.'
1929 BURKE [81 "When Your Old Woman": He told me to give her / A cup of old swoil / And a cupful of fly hooks / On Cod Liver Oil.
4 Attrib, comb seal bait: American smelt
(Osmerus mordax).
1977 Inuit Land Use 254 There's another kind of fish—we calls white fish. Some of us calls it seal bait—seal food. They're almost like a capelin, only they're smaller... They stay around the rocks... The seal really likes them.
seal bat: see BAT.
seal bottle: sealskin bag with wooden plug, used by men hunting on the ice-floes to carry seal
oil as a substitute for butter or lard.
T 172/3-65 They'd have their seal bottles, made out of sealskin, dried; and they'd have their old fat (old seal oil) in certain bags, and they'd have their young seal oil, what they had for mixing their bread and their flour, in [the] other.
seal cat: newly-born seal; pup; CAT3.
1860-1 Journ of Assembly: Appendix, p. 527 I think no Seals should be killed under 26 lbs, and that any Vessel bringing in over 100 Seal Cats should be subject to a penalty.
seal catcher: trapper who takes seals with nets near the shore.
[1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 47 In Furriers' Cove, we met with some of the seal-catchers, cutting firewood. 1832 MCGREGOR i, 208 The other two-thirds live constantly at Labrador, as furriers and seal-catchers, on their own account, but chiefly in the former capacity, during winter; and all are engaged in the fisheries during summer.
seal dart: see DART n.
seal dog: iron hook used with rope or chain to hoist seal pelts and carcasses aboard vessel. Cp
DOG1.
[1834] P 54-63 In the crediting entries, for goods returned to store from sealing voyage outfits, May 27, 1834, there are listed ... two seal dogs. 1924 ENGLAND 88 Lusty toilers are meantime, with 'seal-dog' hooks and ropes, hauling the round-seals up and in.
seal fat: (a) skin of harp or hooded seal with blubber attached; (b) the blubber adhering to
the skin, rendered for oil. See also FAT1.
1792 PULLING MS The seal's fat they melt down and keep in the stomach of that animal. 1896 J A Folklore ix, 35 Bangbelly, a low and coarse word denoting a boiled pudding consisting of flour, molasses, soda, etc, and not uncommonly seal-fat instead of suet. 1915 FPU (Twillingate) Minutes 9 Apr The Chairman then read circular number 11 and 12 referring to fish, shares, price of seal fats, salt, opening of stores, and other important items. 1924 ENGLAND 54 If you'm caught in a starm on de ice ... you build up a barricade o' clumpers an' make a fire... De ropes gets grasey-like [greasy], draggin' swiles, an' you make shavin's off y'r gaff sticks, an' cut strips o' swile-fat an' let 'em drip on de shavin's. Dem burns like de hobs o' hell. 1965 RUSSELL 83 Half a century before, the islanders had used large cast-metal cauldrons for boiling down seal fat and extracting oil. 1972 BROWN 57 Fog closed around them, and they lit a fire, cutting the flagpoles
into shavings with their sculping knives, then adding a little seal fat until it was blazing brightly.
seal finger: inflammation and swelling of fingers and hand caused by an infection acquired by sealers handling seal pelts and carcasses. Cp SQUID FINGER, WATER PUP.
1924 ENGLAND 39 Some of these wounds, on account (it is said) of the seal fat, develop terrific infections. 'Seal fingers' are such infections of the hands. 1957 Can Med Assoc J lxxvi, 455 Seal finger or speck finger ... is the idiomatic name for a severe type of finger infection found in seal hunters and workers in the seal fishery. T 377-67 When the men'd go out to the seal fishery in the spring o' the year, if they cut their finger or anything, an' the oil of the seal got into it, 'twould cause what they call a seal finger. C 70-11 At the seal fishery, a finger infected from blubber from the seal is known as 'swoiles finger.' 1979 Salt Water, Fresh Water 157 Your finger would get like a seal ... it would be a seal finger ... crooked, right red and glassy, swollen.
seal fish: seal.
[1872] 1878 TOCQUE 313 [list of exports] 119,539 cwt Seal-fish.
seal fisher: vessel prosecuting the seal hunt.
[1875] 1904 GRANT 227 We remained till the ice broke up, when we were taken to St John's in a seal-fisher.
seal fishery: the taking of seals in nets or from boats near the shore or on the ice-floes from vessels; co seal hunt.
[1763] 1973 Can Hist Rev liv, 252 Henley Harbour seems to be the most convenient place for curing of fish and Seal Islands for catching of seals, where there appears to have been a considerable seal fishery. [1766] 1971 BANKS 144 The Seal Fishery is Carried on all over this Countrey. [1802] 1916 MURPHY 2 On the Labrador Coast the sealfishery begins in November, and ends about Christmas, when the nets are taken up. 1819 ANSPACH 421 Soon after Candlemas-day, they begin their preparations for the seal-fishery, fixing their craft and afterwards laying in their stock of provisions. They employ ... schooners measuring from forty to seventy-five tuns, and large decked boats, from twenty-five to thirty-five tuns, strongly built. [1885] 1979 Evening Telegram 6 Apr, p. 14 The brig Mary ... lost seven punts with four men in each ... while prosecuting the seal fishery. 1891 PACKARD 184 Add to the lack of cod fish, the failure of the spring's 'swile,' 'sile,' or seal fishery, and they were doomed to fare pretty hard that winter. [1900] 1905 Nfld Law Reports 396 The plaintiff was the master of the steamer Newfoundland at the seal fishery in the month of March, 1899. [1929] 1979 Evening Telegram 10 Mar, p. 19 An address on the seal fishery was given by Hon R B Job. 1978 Decks Awash vii (1), p. 10 [They] said that Newfounidlanders didn't depend on the seal fishery because they were only at it three weeks, but all they knew about were the big boats which went to the ice for approximately a month. But ... I'm at it two months. I start about 3 o'clock in the morning and spend 16-17 hours a day at it. every day until the sealing is over. 1982 Evening Telegram 28 Jan, p. 6 [The ruling of the Supreme Court] should have considerable impact on a vital sector of the economy, the Newfoundland sealfishery.
seal fishing: see seal fishery.
1907 MILLAIS 40 Young fellers that's bin once or twice to the swoile fishin'.
seal flipper: see FLIPPER.
seal frame: an arrangement of nets forming an enclosure to catch seals; FRAME.
[1832] 1975 WHITELEY 42 I laid out my seal frames this spring in the hopes of doing the fishery. 1871 Zoologist vi, 2541-2 Large quantities are also captured in nets, which are called 'seal-frames.' Three long nets of strong seal-twine are required to construct a frame. 1909 BROWNE 56 The Labrador seal fishery is carried on along the coast; it is known as an 'inshore' fishery; and is prosecuted by means of nets, or 'seal frames.' 1967 FIRESTONE 102 Seals are also taken in seal frames which are anchored immediately off shore... The seal frame is a more elaborate affair than the net. It consists of three nets set at right angles so as to form a three sided enclosure with the shore making up the fourth side. One of the side nets is so arranged that it can be lowered to the bottom to be raised when a seal swims over it to enter the enclosure.
seal gun: long, muzzle-loading weapon used to shoot seals; SEALING GUN.
1819 ANSPACH 475 The ceremony of lighting [the Christmas log] is announced by the firing of muskets or seal guns before the door of each dwelling house. This, among them, is the prelude to a season of joy and merriment. 1966 HORWOOD 42 Unlike most of the fishermen's swile guns, which were used for all purposes, from hunting little bull-birds to celebrating elections and marriages, and which were loaded by pouring powder and shot into the barrel... 1971 BOWN 23 Loading their seal guns, which had a barrel about five feet long with a bore from 7/8 to 1 1/4 inches, they rowed silently up on them and opened fire.
seal hand: see seal finger.
C 69-23 He had what people call a seal hand. He had cut a finger while pelting a seal and had gotten it infected with the result that he lost use of the hand.
seal head: selfheal, a type of mint (Prunella vulgaris) (1895 N S Inst Sci 398).
seal-head cod: cod-fish with deformed head; SNUB1.
1826 Edin New Phil J 33 The seal-headed cod, is of the same colour and size as the shore-cod, and its head is, in like manner, covered with skin; and it is comparatively rare. C 68-17 Fishermen on Flat Island, Placentia Bay, believe that a swile-head codfish left on the stagehead for any length of time is a Joner. A swile-head (seal-head) codfish is one having a deformed head—possibly from being bitten by a larger fish.
seal hole: small area in an ice-floe kept open by a seal; breathing-hole; BLOW HOLE, BOBBING ~ .
1977 Inuit Land Use 169 There was a rule about seal holes. The first person to get to a seal hole could have the hole. He would put his white shield by the hole to show that it was his.
seal hunt: the pursuit of seals, esp from a vessel on the ice-floes; cp seal fishery.
1854 Chambers's Journ xxi, 76 Breeding-season is deemed the best time for the seal-hunt, as the animals are then in the best condition. 1897 HARVEY 180 Formerly the seal-hunt was carried on in stout schooners, but these have been, in late years, almost superseded by steamers. 1923 CHAFE iii Soon these sealers learned from experience the advantages of making an earlier start on the sealhunt in order to reach the sealherds before the young took to the water. The first of March at length became the usual time of starting 'for the ice.' 1979 Evening Telegram 28 Apr, p. 6 It is now apparent that organized mainland seal hunt protestors are writing letters to Newfoundland newspapers above nom de plume signatures.
seal hunter: (a) man who prosecutes the seal fishery from a land base near his community, or from a vessel on the ice-floes; (b) vessel; SEALER1.
1793 PENNANT ii, 278 Rough Seal. Perhaps what our Newfoundland Seal-hunters call Square Phipper. 1819 ANSPACH 416 It is during their sleep that the seal-hunters chiefly contrive to attack them with bludgeons, a very slight blow on the nose immediately destroying them. 1874 Maritime Mo iii, 544-5 And even Captain Rideout, who has been 'forty springs to the ice,' and caused the death of more seals than any other seal-hunter within a hundred miles, admits that the parson is 'a wonderful knowin' man about soils.' 1882 TALBOT 20 It was long after midnight when we came into contact with another vessel—a seal-hunter like our own—and then ensued a state of confusion ... in the efforts to separate the vessels, that was frightful to witness. 1924 ENGLAND 53 Sometimes a seal hunter, after his travelling expenses are paid, will clear only $15 or $20 for his 'spring.' 1936 SMITH 14 My father was now engaged repairing a brigantine named The Herald, 160 tons, a seal-hunter belonging to Capt Joseph Bartlett. 1978 Evening Telegram 10 Mar, p. 2 [They] released the name of the seal hunter who drowned Wednesday in Bonavista Bay.
seal hunting: the pursuit of seals.
1883 HATTON & HARVEY 305 The food of the men is none of the daintiest and no one who is at all squeamish about what he 'eats, drinks, and avoids' need attempt to go 'swile huntin'.' 1895 J A Folklore viii, 32 Seal hunting is swile hunting. 1906 LUMSDEN 110 'The seal-hunting sermon,' as it was called, was an institution, being a discourse specially adapted to the men and the hour, preached the Sabbath before sailing. 1977 RUSSELL 30 Only the night before he must've been dreamin' he and Jonas were swile hunting because he'd bawled out in his sleep, 'Jonas boy, you take this swatch. I'll take the one further to the nor'ard.' 1982 Evening Telegram 27 Jan, p. 1 The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that seal hunting can be legally carried out on Sundays.
seal killer: habitually successful captain of a sealing vessel. Cp FISH KILLER.
1869 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 8 I met ... Capt James Murphy, the noted seal killer and his wife. 1874 Maritime Mo iii, 545 The ancient seal-killer comforted himself by saying, that 'such beastesses hadn't no souls.' 1887 BOND 38 Didn't he know ... the path from his 'thrastle' to his stage? Wasn't he the greatest 'sile killer' on the shore? [1902] 1916 MURPHY 13 The gales drove them south fifty miles or more, to the outer edge of the Banks in the strain of Cape Broyle. Picco, of the Cove, was out in the True Blue. He was a great 'swoil' killer and had 5,500 that year on March 29. 1936 DEVINE 139 After him, Capt Wm Ryan, the seal-killer ... had a grocery business in this store. 1978 Haulin' Rope & Gaff 79 "The Sealer's Song": Joe Barbour sails the Iceland / A bold seal killer too.
seal meadow: ice-floe where migratory harp and hooded seals gather to give birth to and wean their young; usu pl.
1819 ANSPACH 416 [The seals] sleep principally during the day; and for that purpose fix themselves upon fields of ice, hence called seal-meadows, where they are frequently found collected in immense multitudes, either basking or sleeping in the sun. 1832 MCGREGOR i, 223 The vessels then proceed to the field ice, pushing their way through the openings, or working to windward of it, until they meet with the herds of seals that accompany the ice. Where these occur, the part on which they are, is called seal meadows. 1873 Maritime Mo i, 257 The steamer has surmounted all obstacles, and is at length approaching the 'seal-meadows.' Suddenly the welcome whimpering of the young harps is heard.
seal man: see seal hunter (a) above.
[1929] 1933 GREENLEAF (ed) 246 "The Lone Flier": Come all ye jolly seal-men and listen to my song; / I don't mean to offend you, and won't delay you long; It's all about our sealing trip from Twillingate to St John's.
seal net: large net, often joined with others to form a 'frame,' set in water near the shore to catch seals.
[1785] 1792 CARTWRIGHT iii, 91 The people having finished the seal-net, began another this morning, and worked on it till noon. 1863 HIND ii, 207-8 Seal nets are made of very strong hempen cord, although not more than the twelfth part of an inch thick. The meshes are eight inches square, and will admit the head and neck of the seal. Some nets are more than 100 fathoms long, by 10 fathoms wide; and several nets, placed together as advantageously as possible for the purpose of taking seals when they are migrating in herds in the spring or in the autumn, form what the fishermen call a set of nets. 1895 TOCQUE 195 The harborseal ... frequent the harbors of Newfoundland summer and winter. Numbers are taken during the winter and spring in seal nets. [1932] 1982 Evening Telegram 26 Jan, p. 6 One morning's haul from several fleets of seal nets in the Bight [at Twillingate] made up over 20 [seals]. T 43/4-64 An' there's another way we used to get seals—in nets, seal nets; about a twelve-inch mesh would be in that net. You put them out in the winter when the seals are goin' north, an' you'd get so many, an' then again when they're goin' south in the spring. T 141/66-652 (He's] out there puttin' out a swile net by hisself. 1967 Bk of Nfld iv, 240 Not a winter passed that there was not linnet to be knitted in our home. Some was for ourselves—the odd codnet, herring net, seal net or perhaps a caplin net. 1977 Inuit Land Use 168 Every man had his own seal net berths. Nobody would set a net at someone else's seal net berth. 1979 TIZZARD 317 There were two ways to get the seals; one was by using seal nets and the other was by shooting them with the big sealing gun.
seal oil: oil extracted from the blubber of seals, esp harp and hooded seals.
[1582 (1915) HOWLEY 11 [trl They drink seal oil, but this is at their great feasts.] [1672 JOSSELYN New-Englands Rarities 34 She annointed the Playster with Soyles Oyl, and the Sore, likewise, then she laid it on warm.] [1775] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 125 We fresh baited, and poured some seal oil about them [traps]. 1810 STEELE 100-1 The town forms one line, a mile in length, in which the smell of fish, and the stink of seal oil, is inconceivably disgusting. 1861 DE BOILIEU 156 The fat is then removed and placed in a store for the purpose of being cut up into small pieces, so as to be easily melted and converted into seal-oil. 1889 Nineteenth Century xxv, 524 In some of the outports seal oil is used to trim the lamps, and a picturesque substitute for lamp or candle is sometimes resorted to in a large scallop-shell holding a piece of blubber with a wick fastened in it. 1901 Christmas Bells 5 12,000 quintals fish, £440 worth of seal oil. 1924 ENGLAND 15 A good sculp will often have three inches of solid white fat adhering to it. Many are the uses of the seal oil derived therefrom. My Lady Dainty's costliest soaps and perfumes often contain seal oil; and by chance her purest Italian olive oil holds a good percentage that came from the frozen North. The finest illuminating and lubricating oil, too, is a seal product. T 172/3-65 They'd simply mix their flour with seal oil until it come to a batter, and they'd put that to rise.
seal pan: seal skins with blubber attached, heaped in a e on the ice and marked for later collection; PAN n.
1933 GREENE 219 There are also a few men to work the seal-pans from the ice, or to help to stow the pelts below when once they are hoisted on deck by the winch.
seal pass: habitual route of seals migrating near the shore.
[1783] 1961 FAY 23-4 He built a fishing room where he did intend to keep 2 vessels this year to pursue the cod and salmon fishery. There are 2 seal passes in the said Bay near the fishing room we occupy. One Collard ... has possession of the said passes.
seal patch: concentration of harp or hooded seals on the ice-floes; PATCH.
1873 Maritime Mo i, 257 At other times the vessel, two or three days after leaving the harbor, finds herself in the midst of a 'seal patch' sufficient to load the Great Eastern. 1897 WILLSON 112 On the third or fourth day a seal-patch is sighted. 1916 GRENFELL 57 But Ben was like the master watch who cannot find the seal-patch in March. [1979 Salt Water, Fresh Water 103 I'm going to take you back a couple of miles and put you on to a patch of seal, and when you kill the seal, you can go back to your own ship.]
seal pelt: skin of a harp or hooded seal with the blubber attached; PELT n, SCULP n.
1866 WILSON 285 When the seal-pelts are landed, the skinners scrape the fat from the skin, and put it into large vats. [1900] 1905 Nfld Law Reports 397 The crew of the Newfoundland killed a large number of seals and panned and marked the seal pelts and reduced them into possession. 1978 Evening Telegram 9 May, p. 2 There is 'no comparison' between the quality of seal pelts purchased this year and those purchased five years ago.
seal shot: lead shot of large size, used to load gun employed at the seal hunt.
1842 JUKES i, 285, 289 [The shot is) larger than buck-shot, consisting, in fact, rather of small bullets than shot, being cast, and not dropped... I went with one punt, taking my double-barrelled gun and some seal-shot.
seal skin: see SEALSKIN.
seal skinner: man employed on shore to separate skin and blubber of harp and hooded seals.
[1900 OLIVER & BURKE] 42 The seal-skinners fifty years ago were just as expert as they are now. 1937 Bk of Nfld ii, 100 An average seal-skinner would skin from 300 to 350 skins in nine or nine and a half hours. 1976 Evening Telegram 19 Mar, p. 6 The seals were 'pelted' by the sealers and skinned by the seal skinners. They were 'townies' who could skin a seal pelt with three cuts of their big knives ... separating the fat from the skin with two swipes of their knives.
seal soap: soap made with seal oil as an ingredient.
1897 WILLSON 110-11 [The fat of the seal) furnishes an oil very much in demand for illuminating and lubricating purposes, and also for the manufacture of 'seal soap.'
seal twine: strong line used to make net to catch seals, etc.
[1779] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 428 I made a beaver-net to-day of seal-twine. 1871 Zoologist vi, 2542 Three long nets of strong seal-twine are required to construct a [seal] frame. 1909 BROWNE 56 [Seal nets] are made from a large twine (commonly known as 'swile twine'), and they vary from twenty-five to forty fathoms in length, with a mesh of fourteen or sixteen inches. 1924 ENGLAND 196 The nets ... are made of very strong cord, called 'seal twine,' with a mesh of eleven to fifteen inches.
seal vat: wooden structure used to render oil from seal blubber; VAT.
1852 ARCHIBALD 5 The seal-vat consists of what are termed the crib and the pan. The crib is a strong wooden erection, from twenty to thirty feet square, and twenty to twenty-five feet in height. It is firmly secured with iron clamps, and the interstices between the upright posts are filled in with small round poles. It has a strong timber floor, capable of sustaining 300 or 400 tons. The crib stands in a strong wooden pan, three or four feet larger than the square of the crib, so as to catch all the drippings. 1865 CAMPBELL 149 Planted amongst these flakes are the seal-vats, into which blubber is tossed to melt into oil by natural chemistry. 1936 DEVINE 48 There was a seal vat in the rear of the store, near the wharf, for converting seal fat into oil. 1944 LAWTON & DEVINE 14 McBraire's and William Brown's firms each had a seal vat on the south side of the harbor where Jas Ryan Co's premises was built in later years and ran off their own seal oil for export.
