- Paperback: 127 pages
- Publisher: Pottersfield Press (Sep 15 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1897426100
- ISBN-13: 978-1897426104
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15 x 0.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#368,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #27 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Regional Canada > Territories
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
Skipper Matthew Mitchell was born on the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland in 1917. Now a lively ninety-one-year-old retired seaman, he looks back on his lifelong relationship with the sea, from wooden dories to steel trawlers, to shore captain at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg. The author has gathered his many stories into this exuberant volume. Captain Mitchell’s keen memory spares no details of his exceptional life and his recollections vibrate with his colourful native Newfoundland vernacular. We follow him from a boy of twelve watching his native village of Port au Bras devastated by the earthquake and tidal waves of 1919 to learning the secrets of salt fishing and preserving from his fathers and uncles. Later he is recruited on numerous schooners from age fourteen onward, eventually taking command of fishing trawlers based in historic Lunenburg. He began his life at sea fishing in two-man dories, braving the rigours of the North Atlantic. Nova Scotia based schooners took him to Lunenburg during the Great Depression, where he lived in boarding houses until he married and started a family in his adopted town. He fished through World War II, facing new dangers with submarines lurking off the East Coast. He would take command of his first fishing trawler when the captain of the Cape North retired. When the sea agreed to let him go after 45 years, he was hired as shore captain at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, where he would remain for another thirty years. As shore skipper he would entertain thousands of visitors from all over the world with stories of the bygone days of sailing fishing vessels, when he and thousands of other fishermen risked their lives repeatedly to earn a modest living. Captain Matthew Mitchell’s captivating memoirs stand as a monument to the era of wooden ships and iron men.
About the Author
Frances Jewel Dickson is a native of Quebec. She has held management positions in human resources administration, written personnel policy for the Speaker of the House of Commons in Ottawa and led audit teams in evaluating the performance of government departments across Canada. Her first book, The DEW Line Years, was published in 2007 by Pottersfield Press. Frances has lived on Nova Scotia’s South Shore since 1987.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
5.0 out of 5 stars
Skipper is A True Slice of History, Mar 20 2010
By M. Shaw - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Skipper: The Sea Yarns of Captain Matthew Mitchell (Paperback)
Frances Jewel Dickson's portrayal of rugged sea captain Matthew Mitchell is superb. Whether she is chronicling Mitchell's early years learning his trade, detailing his adventures on steel trawlers or wood dories,or capturing the essence of his 45-plus years as the shore captain at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, Dickson's creative storytelling style presents a colorful character whose life is a true slice of history. For anyone who loves a good yarn, and yearns to be part of an Eastern Seaboard yesteryear unlike any before or since, Skipper is a must read.
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