Sea, Salt, and Sweat: A Story of Nova Scotia and the Vast Atlantic Fishery

Ed Barker was with the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature in Winnipeg.

This is Murray Barnard’s second book. His first, which appeared almost 20 years ago, was called Atlantic Canada, and was written for the Department of Trade and Industry, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The contents of Sea, Salt and Sweat are nicely presented, starting with the discovery by John Cabot, in 1497, of the lands that are now the Canadian Atlantic coasts. The book gives a brief history of ship development and various methods of catching different kinds of fish. It also details the politics of fishing and ends with an almost up-to-the-minute history and description of what is current in the politics and economics of the fishing industry in the 1980s.

The book is copiously illustrated throughout in crystal-clear black-and-white drawings and diagrams by L.B. Jensen. These are an absolute delight and, apart from their obvious artistic and technical merit, convey an unmistakeable love of the sea and of the ships that fish these Atlantic coasts.

The writing is good and has a subtle, salty quality about it, especially in the technical descriptions that accompany the diagrams.

The cover is tasteful and has a symbolic representation of Man and Fish as one which is from a lithograph by William Ritchie. Although the fish looks more like a brook trout than a cod, it still gets the point across and I can’t help wondering if it represents man eating fish or fish eating man.

In general, I would recommend the book for the drawings alone, but when good illustrations and well-written text come together you have Sea, Salt and Sweat.

From a researcher’s point of view, the book lacks two important features: a good index and a comprehensive bibliography. I, for one, would love to have Barnard’s sources listed for further reading.