Category: Sailing • The Miramichi Reader

Wayfarer: A Memoir by James S. Rockefeller Jr.

March 7, 2019February 26, 2019

Living vicariously through books like Wayfarer is what makes reading so fun. While it is a personal memoir, it is also a time capsule from an era when the world held great mysteries, and one had to see them for themselves; there was no Google Earth to rely on.

Bounty: The Greatest Sea Story of Them All by Geoff D’Eon

December 7, 2018December 7, 2018

Spanning four centuries, this is a story of romance, risk, exotic travel, cruelty, lust, loyalty, jealousy, misadventure, hubris, heroism and death. Fully illustrated with paintings, photographs and artifacts, this book tells one of the greatest sea stories of them all.

Canadian Confederate Cruiser: The Story of the Steamer Queen Victoria by John G. Langley

December 20, 2018November 21, 2018

Canadian Confederate Cruiser tells the story of an elegant but unpretentious steamer that bore witness to the birth of a nation.

Sea Change: A Man, A Boat, A Journey Home by Maxwell Taylor Kennedy

July 21, 2018July 15, 2018

I am a landlubber, but I love all things maritime whether it is naval ships, submarines, or the days of wood and sail. It started with Joseph Conrad’s sea stories and carried on through those of James Fenimore Cooper and C.S. Forster. Then there were the classic true-life sailing experiences of Richard Dana Jr. in Two Years Before the Mast and Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World through which I lived a vicarious life on the sea.… Continue reading

Arrow’s Flight by Joel Scott

April 1, 2018February 23, 2018

I can't say enough good things about Arrow's Flight; it's not merely a good guys/bad guys action/adventure set on the water, but also a lesson in the fact that every action has consequences, and responsibility must be taken for the choices one has made.

The Trawlermen by Clarence Vautier

July 11, 2017

Clarence Vautier was born in 1972 in La Poile, Newfoundland. He moved away to attend high school, and after high school, he fished with his father, Clarence Sr., and his brother Raymond for a short time. He later went to work as a deck officer on the Great Lakes, first for P & H Shipping, then for Algoma Central Marine, where he remains today. Clarence Vautier currently resides in St.… Continue reading

Adventures of a Grenfell Nurse by Rosalie M. Lombard

July 10, 2017February 25, 2017

here is a meme floating around the Internet that states: “Don’t live the same year 75 times over and call it a life”. For at least two years of her substantial life (born in 1927, she is still alive as of this writing), Rosalie Lombard could not be accused of any sort of repetition as she served as a nurse for the Grenfell Mission in St.… Continue reading

Left to Die by Gary Collins

July 13, 2017May 18, 2016

The story of the SS Newfoundland sealing disaster of 1914, in which 78 of 132 men died on the ice, is told in arresting fashion by Newfoundland author Gary Collins in Left to Die (2014, Flanker Press). Known as “The Story Man” in his native Newfoundland, Mr. Collins has written a book that will appeal to those who enjoy reading actual survival accounts from history.

Disaster Brewing

Having personally known two of the last remaining survivors of that tragedy, Mr.… Continue reading