At Ocean's Edge

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

One of the “must-sees” for visitors to Newfoundland is its oldest
surviving lighthouse, located at Cape Spear—the easternmost tip of
North America and one of the most dangerous areas for ships en route to
St. John’s. Stories abound of the many shipwrecks at the Cape, of the
violent waves that washed people out to sea, of heroic rescues.

At Ocean’s Edge, the third book in a series that uses the historic
sites of Newfoundland and Labrador as settings, is based on a true story
about a shipwreck that occurred at Cape Spear in 1861. It’s the story
of Ellen Cantwell, the young daughter of the lighthouse keeper, who
lives through the terror of seeing the Salmah break apart on the rocks
just metres from her home and shares in the rescue of the ship’s crew.


Browne is a very skilled storyteller, keeping her action within the
bounds of historical truth yet investing her characters and action with
immediacy and humanity. Ellen and her family come alive through the
author’s confident blend of narration and dialogue—a technique that
intensifies the dramatic moment without undue morbidness or excessive
melodrama (though the ship indeed founders, and lives are lost).

The book, which is aimed at preteen readers, successfully re-creates a
place, an era, and an action central to the Newfoundland ethos. Highly
recommended.