Ships and Memories: Merchant Seafarers in Canada's Age of Steam
Description
Contains Photos, Bibliography, Index
$29.95
ISBN 0-7748-0443-2
DDC 387.5'0971'0904
Author
Publisher
Year
Contributor
Barry M. Gough is a history professor at Wilfrid Laurier University and
author of The Northwest Coast: British Navigation, Trade, and
Discoveries to 1812.
Review
To this reviewer’s knowledge, this book can claim to be the first oral
history of Canadian merchant seafaring in the age of steam. Based on
interviews undertaken by Jim Green and by the author himself, the text
nicely intertwines story with example. The living narrative that results
is a sympathetic depiction of a world we have lost (or almost lost).
Maritime history in Canada has enjoyed a renaissance of late, as has
oral history. This book is a welcome addition, for it shows the sort of
thing that might be done for, say, Newfoundland sealers and fishers,
Inuit whalers and hunters, or British Columbia tugboat captains and
crew. The book addresses such topics as yarns, going to sea, work,
officers and masters, class, family, masculinity, hazards, war, unions,
and Canada. The richly illustrated text enhances a lively, sympathetic,
and clear narrative.