These poems span the gamut of life from love to death; a eulogy for a people, who for the most part, are no longer with us. Their evolution in rural Newfoundland has taken hundreds of years and there is a good possibility that we will never see their likes again. Full of knowledge, self-sufficiency, independence, pride and dignity, most of them, I think, would be deeply insulted by some of our contemporary characterizations of them. One could easily argue that this collection is a portraya...

Men and boys of Newfoundland's north East Coast always looked forward to the coming of March. It was sealing or swilin' time. Seal meat would give some reprieve to 'the long and hungry month' of March by which time the family food store was very low. At this time of the year, sealing provided the only opportunity to obtain fresh meat and the pelts brought long awaited cash.Shannon Ryan was born and bred in Riverhead, Harbor Grace, the one time home of the great sealing industry. He...

A biography that puts you on the quarterdeck with history's greatest sailorCaptain James Cook is one of the greatest maritime explorers in world history. Over three remarkable voyages of discovery into the Pacific in the latter part of the eighteenth century, Cook unravelled the oldest mystery surrounding the existence of Terra Australis Incognita - the Great South Land. He became the first explorer to circumnavigate New Zealand and establish that it was two main islands; discover ...

Each year, for generations, poor, ill-clad Newfoundland fisherman sailed out 'to the ice' to hunt seals in the hope of a few penniew in wages from the prosperous merchants of St. John's. The year 1914 witnessed the worst in the long line of tragedies that were part of their harsh way of life.For two long, freezing days and nights a party of seal hunters--one hundred thirty-two men--were left stranded on an icefield floating in the North Atlantic in winter. They were thinly dressed,...

“They didn’t die like flies, you know, like I’ve heard some reporters say over the years. Oh no, it wasn’t like that a’tall. The men who died didn’t just drop like flies. There was nothing quick or easy about it. They had frozen feet, and fingers too numb and cramped with the cold to wipe the tears from their eyes.” Cecil Mouland, the last living survivor of the SS Newfoundland sealing disaster, told his story to Gary Collins in the fall of 1971 while travelling to St. John’s, where the ol...

"A riveting adventure": the true story of a 1913 Arctic expedition that ended in disaster—and the captain's daring journey to save his surviving crew ( Booklist ).In 1913, the former whaling ship Karluk set out in search of an undiscovered continent, with the largest scientific staff ever sent into the Arctic. Soon after, as winter took hold, they were blown off course by polar storms. When the ship became impriso...

In Cook's relatively short and adventurous life (1728-79) he voyaged to the eastern and western seaboards of North America, the North and South Pacific and the Arctic and Antarctic bringing about a new comprehension of the world's geography and its people's. He was the linking figure between the grey specualtion of the early eighteenth century and the industrial age of the first half of the nineteenth century.Richard Hough's biograpahy is full of new insights and interpretations of...

The moving wartime story of friendship and heroism, set against the dramatic backdrop of the World War II Battle of DunkirkIn the marshes of Essex, one of the last wild places left in England, a disfigured artist lives alone in an abandoned lighthouse. Shunned by society, he spends his days painting scenes of the coast and the birds that migrate to the meadowlands every winter. His days are solitary until one November afternoon, a young girl from a nearby village c...

Robert C. Parsons, one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s best-known authors, will delight readers with this brand new collection of more than 50 true stories involving one of nature’s treasures: the noble Newfoundland dog. From the deck of the Titanic, to the sandbars of Sable Island, learn about the breed’s intelligence and charisma as you read tales from around the world of rescue by land and sea, heartwarming stories of undying loyalty, and accounts of the Newfoundland dog risking its own ...

The story of more than sixty years of diving adventures, through starkly contrasting locations and extraordinary advances in technology. From boyhood dreamer to master treasure hunter, Hugh Edwards documents his life through tales of shipwreck and salvage.the story of more than sixty years of diving adventures including his significant find of the Batavia, Hugh Edwards documents his life through tales of shipwreck, treasure hunting and salvage.Brought up on tales of pirates and grea...

Many people on Canada’s east coast, the maritime regions, have experienced the temperament of the North Atlantic Ocean: beautiful, moody, mysterious. The cold Atlantic has a capacity, with its tremendous force and power, to take human life seemingly at will; however, it has also spared lives and allowed miraculous escapes. Since the phenomenon of the 1997 hit movie Titanic, more people than ever have been captivated with Titanic trivia and still thirst, seemingly at an ever-increasing rate...

Robert Hichens has gone down in history as the man who was given the famous order to steer the Titanic away from the iceberg and failed. Following this, his falling out with the 'Unsinkable Molly Brown' over the actions of the lifeboats saw him branded a coward and his name indelibly tarnished. A key witness at both US and British Inquiries, Robert returned to a livelihood where fellow crewmen considered him jinxed. But Robert had a long career and was a hardworking, ambit...