Tolerable Good Anchorage: A Capsule History of St John's, Newfoundland

Les Harding is the author of The Voyages of Lesser Men: Thumbnail
Sketches in Canadian Exploration and The Journeys of Remarkable Women:
Their Travels on the Canadian Frontier.

The author of this slim book worked as the marketing and research
co-ordinator of a company providing schooner tours of St. John’s
harbour. As part of her job she was required to prepare a fact sheet to
answer passengers’ questions about the history and landmarks of the
city they were visiting. The book grew from the fact sheet.

An adequate job has been done of living up to the book’s subtitle.
The author provides a capsule history of Newfoundland, St. John’s, the
fishery, landmarks, forts, and historic sites, ending with a short
section of Newfoundland trivia. Did you know that Captain William Bligh,
of Bounty fame, was a visitor to St. John’s harbour? The book is
illustrated with a number of black-and-white photographs and a few maps.


The title came from a description of St. John’s harbour in the 1786
logbook of the H.M.S. Pegasus—“The entrance to St. John’s Harbour
forms a long and extremely narrow strait, but not very difficult access.
There are about twelve fathoms of water in the middle of the channel,
with tolerable good anchorage ground.”