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It was a snowy, stormy night, that February 23, 1918, when the sturdy S.S. Florizelsteamed out of St. John's harbour, bound for Halifax and New York. Captain William Martin, a cautious and competent skipper, encountered thick ice and heavy winds as he headed down the treacherous Newfoundland coast. But these circumstances did not account for the ship's slow speed. Just before dawn, over nine hours after leaving port, Captain Martin ran his ship full steam onto the rocks just north of Cape Race. But that was only the beginning of a long and gruelling drama.

An adventure story from award-winning author Gary Collins: Newfoundland’s Favourite Storyteller! “There is a feeling that comes to one who goes unafraid into the wilderness.

“Hope dies hard with a sailor.” — W. B. Cullen, mate of the Roanoke, 1909 Globe and Mail bestselling author Robert C. Parsons presents more than fifty exciting stories of high-seas adventure! Set mainly along the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador in the 1800s and 1900s, these are true stories of men and women who faced the deadly Atlantic Ocean—and won.

“They didn’t die like flies, you know, like I’ve heard some reporters say over the years. Oh no, it wasn’t like that a’tall. The men who died didn’t just drop like flies. There was nothing quick or easy about it. They had frozen feet, and fingers too numb and cramped with the cold to wipe the tears from their eyes.” Cecil Mouland, the last living survivor of the SS Newfoundland sealing disaster, told his story to Gary Collins in the fall of 1971 while travelling to St. John’s, where the old ice hunter would live out his final days.

On the night of November 29, 1929, eleven schooners set sail for home from the comfort and safety of St. John’s harbour. They all headed north: directly into the teeth of a deadly hurricane. Here for the first time are the stories of the eleven schooners that were caught in the gale of 1929. Newfoundland’s favourite storyteller, Gary Collins, takes us aboard each one in turn to witness the terrifying ferocity of a storm at sea through the eyes of the schoonermen who battled it.

The waters off the east coast of Canada have seen their share of accidents and disasters during the twentieth century. In Newfoundland alone, countless lives have been swallowed up by the angry seas of the North Atlantic or have fallen victim to the devastating effects of fire, explosions, collisions, and ill fortune. In Beneath the Waves, Clarence Vautier navigates the twentieth century, demonstrating the evolution of the fishery throughout these years and detailing the human will to survive through trials of skill, courage, and most of all, luck. Stories found within include . . .

The dramatic incredible story of the South Coast Disaster of 1929.

On December 10, 1942, at the height of the Second World War, a crew of seven men boarded the bomber plane Time’s A Wastin’ and departed the American air base at Narsarsuaq, Greenland, on their way back to the United States via Goose Bay, Labrador. After crossing the Davis Strait between Greenland and Labrador, the B-26 Marauder ran into rough weather and crashed at Saglek, Labrador. All of the crew survived. As per their training, they initially stayed with the wreck to wait for rescuers—but rescue never came.

On January 4, 1914, the Karluk was stuck in ice when the ominous sound of the ship’s stern being ripped open by pack ice was heard by all on board. It sounded like the firing of a cannon. Bartlett immediately ordered supplies be unloaded on the ice. The Karluk began to break up on January 10, and all on board were ordered to abandon ship. When everyone was safely on the ice, the captain himself went back to his cabin and, all alone, put Chopin’s Funeral March on his Victrola.

Courage at Sea: Newfoundland Sailors in the Great War is a collection of more than forty World War I stories involving the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve and the Newfoundland merchant seamen who delivered goods to Europe in aid of the Allied war effort. Many foreign-going vessels carrying Newfoundlanders were apprehended en route by German U-boats and shelled, torpedoed, or boarded and bombed. Some of the crews were let go, but others were less fortunate. Some of the stories included are . . .