Shipwrecks of Newfoundland and Labrador, Vol. 5

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta. He is co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities:
British Views of Canada, 1880–1914, author of The Salvation Army and
the Public, and editor of “Improved by Cult

In their attempt to chronicle almost every major shipwreck along the
coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, these authors have now reached
Volume 5. In this volume, 20 more shipwrecks are described, the best
known being that of the Ocean Ranger, with the tragic loss of 84 lives
in 1982. One might think that only morbid curiosity would draw readers
to recountings of so much tragedy and so many drownings. Yet there is a
great deal of courage revealed in these pages, on the part of both
shipboard people and outport rescuers, much human interest in how the
captains and crew handled their fates, and even a few ghost stories
thrown into the mix.

In “A Strange Tale of the Sea,” for example, which describes the
wreck of the schooner Antelope off the coast of Labrador in 1867, the
authors state that 18 of the passengers and crew decided to row ashore
and perished in a blizzard. Next morning the captain “ordered one of
the crew to row him into the place where the skiff had crashed on the
rocks. When they were touching the rocks, Captain Spracklin called out
in a loud voice, ‘Is there anyone who wants to go home?’ The sailor
who was rowing was astonished. Then the skipper called a second time,
‘Is there anyone here who wants to go home?’ Then the hair on the
young sailor’s head stood upright, for suddenly the boat tipped as if
someone was getting aboard. ... Captain Spracklin made no comment, but
the young sailor was certain eighteen spirits were going home with
them.” Such is the essence of Newfoundland sea lore, and of this book:
a happy blend of fact and fiction.