Committed to the Deep

Melvin Baker is an archivist and historian at Memorial University of
Newfoundland, and the co-editor of Dictionary of Newfoundland and
Labrador Biography.

Robert Parsons’s seventh book on Newfoundland marine disasters covers
some of the same material found in his previous books, but this time the
emphasis is different. In the course of his past research, he conducted
interviews with retired sailing captains, sailors, and fishers.
Committed to the Deep brings their stories to life in their own words;
it also includes one memoir that was brought to the author’s attention
through the medium of the World Wide Web. The book deals mainly with the
south coast of Newfoundland and with those involved in Newfoundland’s
ocean-going foreign trade, coast trade, and the Grand Banks fishery from
the early 20th century to the mid–1960s. Parsons is to be commended
for preserving their stories of heroism, hard work, and human compassion
for future generations of readers.