swatching vbl n [phonetics unavailable]. OED ~ vbl sb 'a method of taking seals' (Nfld: 1883, 1901). Shooting seals as they appear in the 'swatches' or areas of open water in an ice-field (1895 J A Folklore viii, 39).
1895 GRENFELL 161-2 Once alongside the floe, the men jump off on to the ice, and at once the work begins. Sometimes they work in pairs, one man shooting the seals, and his chum, who is called 'the dog,' following up, cutting off the tail from the dead seal to 'mark it,' and then gathering them in heaps, and putting up a pole with a flag or a piece of liver as a claim. These are then said to be 'panned.' This is technically called 'swatching.' [c1900] 1978 RLS 8, p. 23 ~ Shooting seals in swatch holes. 1916 GRENFELL 164 'There be plenty of good herrin' for the dogs, and you and me can have a day's swatchin"—which means trying to shoot old seals in the holes of water among the pack ice. 1933 GREENE 166 And everything of all sorts must be made ready for any one of the emergencies that may arise at the Ice—not only for 'swilin' in the Patch, or 'swatching' in the lanes of the Floe—but for the offchance of the ship being nipped, or of some other bad accident or jamming. T 141/67-652 An' then in the spring, winter time, when the seals would come along again, there'd be another period of swatchin', we called it. Ice was on the land, you go out if there was a'r hole o' water made where th' ice would pan around an' leave a hole o' water, you'd put in hours an' days upon days waitin' for a seal to come up. 1978 Decks Awash vii (1), p. 52 On another day my friend and his uncles were out swatching... This time there was one large lake, several miles long. Men were scattered here and there along the edge on both sides, waiting for a seal to show.
