Maritime Firsts: Historic Events, Inventions and Achievements

Olaf Uwe Janzen is an associate professor of history at Memorial
University and reviews editor of The Northern Mariner.

This well-researched and entertaining book consists of historical
vignettes describing inventions, achievements, and accomplishments that
appeared first in Canada’s Maritime provinces. The book is sensibly
organized into a number of themes (“Historical Achievements,”
“Communication,” “Arts,” “Transportation,” “Business,”
“Food & Drink,” “Energy & Mining,” “Politics,”
“Education,” “Sports,” “Religion,” “Social Rights,” and
“Military”) that are packed with a couple of hundred fairly detailed
vignettes. The “firsts” include both the familiar (Joshua Slocum’s
solo voyage around the world, the flight of the Silver Dart, the
invention of kerosene) and the unfamiliar (such as the fact that the
original “Fuller Brush Man” was a Maritimer).

One can argue with a few of the “firsts” (Fort William in St.
John’s received a garrison in 1697, well before Annapolis Royal;
shipwrecks were recorded in Newfoundland before Gilbert’s expedition
lost a vessel on Sable Island in 1583; ordained SPG missionaries were
serving in Newfoundland before they appeared in Nova Scotia; and purists
will never accept that Scotch is dis-tilled anywhere but in Scotland!).
These, however, are too few to detract from a book that should appeal to
readers throughout Canada, not just those in the region it describes.