Bonavista Bay Revisited

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta.

“O Buona Vista”—O happy sight! That was how John Cabot was
supposed to have described the bit of Newfoundland he discovered in
1497; and that is very much how John Feltham describes it in this
delightful book. Very cleverly, Feltham begins each thematic unit of his
book with the description of a modern-day visit to the Bonavista Bay
islands of his birth and upbringing; while lovingly exploring old
cemeteries, churches, gardens, beaches, and houses, he remembers the
people whose ghosts still linger—mainly his large family—vivifying
their everyday lives and some of their dreams.

Though of primary interest to the immediate family and other
Newfoundlanders, this book has many interludes of universal appeal. In
one chapter, for example, Feltham discourses in detail on bait and on
how the need for it (its scarcity or plenty) governed a fisherman’s
life. “Cast nets” to catch caplin, “jiggers” to catch squid, a
“dip-net” to harvest shellfish—all are painstakingly recalled and
described, for, as the author points out, “[t]he coves and rattles
where mussels were harvested, the beaches and gulches where caplin
spawned, the bights, tickles, and arms where squid were jigged no longer
play a role in the fishing industry and are all but forgotten.”
Except, thank God, by people like Feltham who have the wit and skill to
relive those days. The “Island Dramas,” the “Isolation,” and the
poems are still other examples of “revisitations” that will enthrall
anyone with an interest in early Newfoundland society. There is heroism
here, much like that which E.J. Pratt explores in his poetry.