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too close together. III Warnell also had to deal with disputes over stolcn goods and
breaches ofthe game laws and hold inquiries into such matters as wrecked boats:
ass::lults: accidental deaths and epidemics.III
Alcohol also provided the medium for a source ofconflict. For example. the Inuit
\\ere not allowoo by law to purchase liquor in the early years ofthis century nor were
the) 3110\\00 to recei\e a gift ofliquor. lu Doctor Grenfell had recognized the dangers of
drinking among the Inuit and fishermen. In 1907, he started raids against shebeens (illicit
liquor saloons) He also confiscated any supply of liquor he found. As magistrate he
refused to gi\'e out any liquor licenses. It was his beliefthat more fishermen had been lost
to drink than to Arctic storms. at all victims were fishermen:
I buried in a lonely grave on a projecting promontory. far down the coast
of Labrador, a young girl ofeighteen. She was someone's daughter and
someonc's sister. I had taken her aboard our little hospital ship for thc last
week of her life. She should havc been alivc today, but she had no desirc
to livc. All that could possibly make her life worth living for her was
robbed from her through the means ofalcohol. and she could not face the
homc-going again. 1M
Igl Ibid, August 20,1919.
1112 While Warnell was travelling up and down the Labrador cmlst hearing court cases, the
SS Wren was providing the residents of Labrador with some other valuable services.
Freight. mail, and passengers were dropped oIT or collected up and down the coast.
Weights were checked by a sergeant on board the Wren. Siek people wcre either treated
all board or transfcrred to the SS Sagona or one of Grcnfell's hospitals. A record was
being kept of the location ofvessels, the amount of fish they had and where they had
obtained it. and fishermen came aboard to hear this news. No mcntion is made of the
sergeant having dealings with the foreign vessels. I-Iowever. an informant who served as
custom officer on the SS Sagona from 1920 to 1929 had to "clear foreign going vessels
with loads ofdry fish for foreign markets:' Most of his work was preventing the
smuggling of liquor and other goods from Canada [1 FLA, ms, 75-257. p. 22·23].
II) Jamcs Johnston, Grenfell on 'he Labrador (London: S. W. !)3I1ridge. n.d.). p. I·H.
Il,! Johnston. p. 146.
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