A Camera on the Banks: Frederick William Wallace and the Fishermen of Nova Scotia

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

In 1911, Frederick William Wallace was a Montreal journalist looking for
adventure to write about. He responded to an opportunity to report on a
schooner race out of Digby, Nova Scotia, and was initiated into the
world of sail-powered fishing vessels. He caught the lure of the sea
from 1911 to 1916, making seven voyages during this period on
longliners. The trips were to the fishing banks off Nova Scotia, usually
in the harsh winter months when the north Atlantic threw rough seas,
high winds, snow, and ice at the ships and men trawling from two-man
open dories. Wallace’s trips were from 8 to 35 days in duration. He
boarded as a journalist but soon became a working member of the crew,
experiencing all aspects of life on board, including the very real
dangers of this way of life.

As a journalist, Wallace took along a box camera to capture images of
the ships and fishermen. As marine engines were being introduced to the
fishing world about that time, he was in the right place at the right
time to capture the end of the era of unassisted sail.

The book contains approximately 100 of Wallace’s incredible photos,
supported by a text that describes the details of the vessel design,
rigging, and equipment, fishing processes, life on board a longliner,
and the ever-present hard work and dangers. It is visually powerful with
a text that immerses the reader in the language and challenges of
seafaring fishermen. The floppy format makes the book awkward to read, a
drawback that can be forgiven because it provides a large page size to
showcase some of the most dramatic photos.