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From bestselling author Clarence Vautier comes more stories of unsung heroes: the fishermen who made a living off the sea in Atlantic Canada. These stories are the biographies, family histories, and photograph collections of twenty-two highliners. During the twentieth century, these were the elite fishermen who consistently sailed home with the largest catches taken from the waters off Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick.

Fishing is the most dangerous occupation in the world: in Atlantic Canada, an average of one person dies every month while working at sea. The Deadly Sea by bestselling author Jim Wellman contains twenty-five stories about men and women who work in the Atlantic Canadian fishing industry, ranging from biographies of professionals to tales of tragedy at sea. In Atlantic Canada, the sea has given generously of its riches. Tens of thousands of men and women make a living from its resources.

Like other children of the 1930s, I read about the adventures of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, who worked among fishermen in a very cold, icy place way up north called Newfoundland and Labrador . . . It was many years later, during my student-nursing days at Columbia-Presbyterian, that I really learned what the Grenfell Mission was all about. I was intrigued at the thought of, someday, using my nursing skills there. After graduating in 1951, I remained at the medical centre for another year of nursing experience.

You think you’ve heard everything about Newfoundland and Labrador, but . . . Have you had a meal of padre? Have you ever seen a shalandi? Have you heard of basket soup? Would you find the term dry dough offensive? You’ve tried figgy duff, but have you eaten cod sounds? Work your tongue through conversational one-liners and much more! This book is a tribute to Newfoundland’s unique culture and way of life. It explores the province’s history and folklore, placing a particular emphasis on traditional language, speech, expressions, and dialect.

In the snowy predawn of February 18, 1942, a convoy of three American ships zigzagged up the North Atlantic toward Newfoundland, heading for one of the worst disasters in naval history. The ships were under radio silence to protect their position from the threat of German U-boats. A storm was raging, visibility was zero, and the currents had turned wildly unpredictable. With only unreliable soundings to guide them across the jagged ocean floor, all three vessels ran aground on the sheer rock coast of Newfoundland.

Many people on Canada’s east coast, the maritime regions, have experienced the temperament of the North Atlantic Ocean: beautiful, moody, mysterious. The cold Atlantic has a capacity, with its tremendous force and power, to take human life seemingly at will; however, it has also spared lives and allowed miraculous escapes. Since the phenomenon of the 1997 hit movie Titanic, more people than ever have been captivated with Titanic trivia and still thirst, seemingly at an ever-increasing rate, for facts about the great ship operated by the renowned White Star Line.

Corner Boys is Robert Hunt’s memoir of growing up on the mean streets of St. John’s in the 1950s and ’60s. Within the working-class neighbourhoods that are central to this tale, trouble seemed to lurk behind every corner, ready to be found by those who were looking for it. This dark yet humorous coming-of-age story follows a young and mischievous boy along the sidewalks and into the backyards of a turbulent—and sometimes violent—city.

Much of the appeal of rural Newfoundland lay in the freedom of being your own boss and a love of the great outdoors. You were tied to the seasons, and each one played a big role in your life. Spring and summer were the fishing season and a time when new life began. Fall was the hunting, trapping, and harvesting season. If you had livestock, you waited for the first frost—Mother Nature’s deep-freeze—and then you butchered your animals. Winter was a time for gathering firewood. You made sure you had enough to do you until the next year.

Botwood, Newfoundland and Labrador, 1958 In the midnight blackness of a cold November night mixed with rain in snow, three RCMP officers entered a restaurant by way of an upstairs window. Rumours around town had been rampant. The owner’s son had been missing for days. Father and son hated each other. He had been stabbed, or shot, and had been dumped somewhere, or he had been cut into pieces and put into a freezer to be secretly disposed of later.

The fishing industry in Atlantic Canada has gone through massive change in the last twenty years. Now, even small inshore vessels are outfitted with fishing equipment that would astound those mariners who passed on just a generation ago. But still, despite the incredible advances in technology, dozens of fishermen continue to die each year doing what they know best. Simply put, fishing is still one of the most dangerous professions in the world.