Doctor Grenfell's mission was to aid and assist these deep sea
fishermen. In those days there was no doctor with the fleet and none
on the whole coast, and any one taken seriously ill or badly injured
usually died for lack of medical or surgical care. Of course, Grenfell
was also to help the people who lived on the coast, that is, the
native inhabitants, who needed him. This service he was giving free.
At this season there is more fog than sunshine in those northern
latitudes. It settles in a dense pall over the sea, adding to the
dangers of navigation. Now the fog was so thick that they could
scarcely see the length of the vessel. On the fourth day out the fog
lifted for a brief time, and Cape Bauld the northeasterly point of
Newfoundland Island, showed his grim old head, as if to bid them
goodbye and to wish them good luck "down on The Labrador." Then they
were again swallowed by the fog and plunged into the rough seas where
the Straits of Belle Isle meet the wide ocean.
No more land was seen, as they ploughed northward through the fog,
until August 4th. This was a Thursday.
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