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. These interconnected tales of high-seas adventure illustrate the bravery and ingenuity of a lost breed of sailors, whose quick thinking often meant life or death for the whole crew. Turn the page and set sail for an exciting journey that will leave you breathless!

Among the bays, inlets, and communities of the province, author Gary Collins has earned a seat at the head of the table as Newfoundland and Labrador's favourite storyteller. Now, with six books under his belt, the "Story Man" from Hare Bay is ready to tell you a little bit about himself. The tales that make up this volume are pockets of memories taken from diary entries he recorded during the forty years he spent as a woodsman. Beginning with his childhood, Gary Collins retraces his first steps as a boy growing up in Bonavista North in the 1950s, when his father, whom he idolized, taught him the skills of an outdoorsman and how to be a leader of men. These twenty-two stories are a testimony of the hardiness of men who work amid leaf and bough, and a tribute to the call of the wild that draws these hunters, trappers, and woodcutters-family men all-back to "the ridge." A Day on the Ridge is Gary Collins's seventh book and his first purely autobiographical work.

Embedded in a rock in an obscure, pristine brook in the wilds of Newfoundland is a legendary quartz vein. The story of the vein and the wealth trapped in it is well-known, but its location has eluded six generations of Newfoundlanders. The source of the legend is Soulis (Suley) Joe, and the precious metal trapped in the vein is silver. Along the Trans-Canada Highway in Newfoundland, just west of the turnoff to Benton, is a brook called Soulis Brook, which flows out of Soulis Pond, the second major pond named after Soulis Joe, an intrepid explorer whose name is recorded for all time on old Newfoundland maps. In the summer of 2008, writer Gary Collins teamed up with Allan Keats, a great-grandson of Soulis Joe, and they set out to unearth the secret of Soulis Joe's lost silver mine. After many weeks and months spent combing the island of Newfoundland, Gary Collins figured it out. Come along for the trip and discover the location of Soulis Joe's Lost Mine. Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools 2010-2011 Selection

In July 2024, the Elite Navigator fishing boat and its crew seemed to vanish one night after fishing for turbot for several days at sea. The craft was reported missing after transmitting its final signal at around 8:30 p.m. the night before, according to the Canadian Coast Guard. The vessel had caught fire, forcing the crew to abandon the ship and wait for rescue on the life raft. In New-Wes-Valley, which is an amalgamation of three small fishing communities along Newfoundland's northeast coast, friends and family braced for the worst. But on July 19, Friday night, out on the ocean, searchers saw a light from a flare. It brought them to a life raft, where the seven fishermen-who people now call the Lucky Seven-were waiting. This is the true story of a dramatic rescue at sea that took place after all hope had been lost. Award-winning author Gary Collins recounts the heroic efforts of the men and women on land, at sea, and in the air which led to a miracle, one which grabbed national headlines in the summer of 2024.

A true story of family, heroism, and ultimate sacrifice. Born on Silver Fox Island in 1914, Eliza Gill was working "in service" before she was eight years old. By the age of eleven, she was informed by her father she would be sailing on a fishing schooner to the Labrador, where she would cook for a crew of five. For this she received no pay, but she didn't complain. Eliza liked the island way of life, but she wanted more for her family. She persuaded her husband, Jacob, to leave their island home before the Resettlement Program began. Jacob worked first as a logger and then as a butcher on Joey Smallwood's pig farm in Gander, Newfoundland, during World War II. The end of the war saw Smallwood's piggery shut down. At Eliza's insistence, the family moved to Toronto. There she met a Jewish neighbour who was a Polish survivor of the Holocaust. She told Eliza about the horrors of a war she could not even fathom. It would haunt Eliza for all of her days. When Jacob developed a sudden debilitating illness, the family was forced to move back to Newfoundland. There, Eliza endured a burdensome, subsistence way of life to raise a family on her own. This is the true account of one woman's fortitude and bravery, neither of which shone more brightly than the day of her tragic-and heroic-death. "Gary Collins. Newfoundland's son. Both builder and carrier of stories that help shape us. Bravo, Gary Collins, on another poignant story you walked inside of and are now giving to us." -Donna Morrissey, author of Rage the Night

". . . one of Canada's master storytellers." - The Miramichi Reader Redjack, the hated fish culler, awakens in the bottom of a heaving punt adrift on the Atlantic Ocean. Following the beating he took from his only son, he slinks into the inner bays. Jake, son of Redjack, is home from the failed battle for Suvla Bay in the Great War. With his family, he sails to Trinity Bay to fulfill a promise given to a friend who died in the hell of a Turkish trench. There, unbeknownst to them, they become afflicted with the Spanish flu by the mother of the soldier. On the way home, a fierce storm drives Jake deep into the bays for shelter, where he must come face to face with Redjack again. The virus they bring to their isolated island home changes forever the lives of those who remain. From the award-winning author of The Last Beothuk & What Colour is the Ocean?

In a small, isolated outport on the northeast coast of Newfoundland toward the end of the nineteenth century-where nothing of note ever seems to happen-a woman is brutally attacked, and a murder-suicide is committed. The age-old rift between young lovers of different religions becomes a challenge, one which is met head-on, and though it is overcome in a physical sense, it carries severe emotional consequences. A woman's successful manipulation leads to an untimely death and a lifetime of hatred. Read about a time long ago, when lamplight bent its glow through single panes of windows upon gravel paths-when men worked hard, and women harder. From the peaceful waters of Newfoundland, sail away with the boys to the war in Suvla Bay-and fight there with the men. Survive on food that you caught, grew, and hunted. Live in a home carried out of the forest on your shoulder and built by your own hand. And learn why, despite the toil, the loneliness, the unchanging way of life, and the many hardships, even those who sailed away from the Place never left for good.

An epic tale of war and triumph by award-winning author Gary Collins "One of Canada's master storytellers." Miramichi Reader Jake is born at the turn of the twentieth century on a small outport island on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. He is distinguished from everyone else by a full head of red hair. And to single him out further, Jake has a pronounced speech impediment. Scorned, abused physically and mentally by his father for his stuttering tongue and especially for his questionable parentage, Jake endures. Then still a boy, Jake is found alone in a punt upon an empty sea, on the fishing grounds without his father, whose fate is suspect. Jake lies about his age and secures a berth aboard the SS Stephano, captained by the famous Old Man of the seal hunt, where he witnesses the SS Newfoundland disaster of 1914. On the ice, Jake comes face to face with one of the Newfoundland`s sealers known as the Culler. He is a mirror image of Jake-complete with red hair. With the other sealers, the Culler is ordered to leave the Stephano despite the brewing storm. Jake doesn't know if he survived the ensuing disaster or was among the many victims. Returning from the seal hunt with fewer dollars than he expected, Jake learns that evidence has been hauled from the sea which could incriminate him in his father's death. Again he lies about his age, this time to earn real money by fighting overseas in the First World War. In the diseased filth and terror of a Gallipoli trench, he learns that sometimes a salary can come the hard way. Thoughts of a girl back home keep him motivated to push on through the horrors of war. On returning home, Jake learns the Culler had not only survived the Newfoundland disaster but is now living on his island, where the two are destined to meet again in a dramatic conclusion.

Inspired by True Events Long after Demasduit's skull has been stolen from her grave, and years after Shanawdithit has died, one Beothuk and his family survive. Bursting out of the pages of Newfoundland history appears Kop, the last true Beothuk. When all the other members of his tribe are exterminated by the Europeans, Kop seeks revenge against the Unwanted Ones. Hidden among the Bear Clan of the Mi'kmaq, the Beothuk strikes back. Follow Kop on his trail of defiance against the European marauders upon his Island. See what becomes of a man who has nothing to lose or live for. Stay with him on a hundred trails and sit with him across the smoke of a hundred campfires. You will not only weep for the last Beothuk-you will cheer him on as he pushes back against the Unwanted Ones.

Shipwreck. Starvation. Cannibalism. For the first time, celebrated author Gary Collins brings to life the tale of the brigantine Queen of Swansea. Bound for Newfoundland in December 1867, the vessel made her first port of call in St. John's, only to meet her doom on the rocks of Gull Island, Cape John. The following spring, Captain Mark Rowsell of Leading Tickles chanced upon the fallen ship's crew on his return voyage from the seal hunt. His discovery of the wreckage, and the fate of the men and women on board, marks a chilling and unforgettable event that has echoed worldwide in the history of seagoing vessels. Here, Gary Collins recreates the final voyage of the Queen of Swansea in a story with a gruesome turn of events that makes it unique in the annals of Atlantic shipwrecks. Desperation: The Queen of Swansea is Gary Collins's eleventh book. His book What Colour is the Ocean? won the 2010 Atlantic Book Awards Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration.

A collection of true Christmas stories by Gary Collins, Newfoundland and Labrador's favourite storyteller! Gary Collins invites us to live again the gone forever. These stories embody the soul of Christmas in outport Newfoundland, and each one carries a message that rings true every time: all roads lead to home. Christmas, with all its lights and music and gift giving, is also a time to remember days long ago. Community togetherness and the strength of family come alive in these pages, where Gary Collins, in his inimitable style, reminds us of the poverty of possession and the wealth of sharing. Stories include . . . The Christmas Rescue Mummer in the Barrel The Christmas Salmon Flowers for a Queen Concerts and Times . . . and many more!

"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. This book grew from that encounter and stands alone as the defining tale of the Bonavista Bay men who were left to die on the ice. The historic convergence of ice, seals, and men in late March 1914 marked the end of Newfoundland's innocence. Men both young and old left their homes from all over the province that year to pursue the annual seal hunt. Among the vessels that took them to the ice was the Newfoundland, a wooden-walled steamship captained by the famous Captain Westbury Kean. With no wireless aboard the ship, the stage was set for seventy-eight of the men who went over the side and their fates sealed. Left to Die is Gary Collins's most ambitious and creative work of non-fiction, a storytelling masterpiece. With new photos and new research revealed, he recalls with stunning clarity what history remembers about the sealing disaster of 1914.

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. For the very few who experience it comes a sense of belonging; of being a fragile part of the mysterious whole; of profound peace; of wanting never to leave," says Gary Collins in describing the inspiration that overtook him when he penned the final pages in this, the biography of Mattie Mitchell, a hunter, trapper, and guide of Mi'kmaq descent whose daring feats became known worldwide, but which history books somehow forgot. In researching the life and times of Mattie Mitchell, critically acclaimed author Gary Collins (author of the award-winning What Colour is the Ocean?) gleaned much insight on his subject from the diary and other personal papers of Marie Sparkes, granddaughter to the remarkable Mi'kmaq woodsman. Now, for the first time, Mattie Mitchell's legendary deeds are revealed in full, comprehensive detail. In 1998, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador recognized Mattie Mitchell's contribution to the growth and prosperity of the province by opening its Mattie Mitchell Prospectors Resource Room. In 2001, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada recognized Mattie Mitchell as a person of national historic significance. In 2005, a plaque in Mattie Mitchell's honour was placed in Gros Morne National Park.

Where Eagles Lie Fallen is celebrated master storyteller Gary Collinss solemn tribute to the American servicemen and servicewomen who lost their lives aboard Arrow Air Flight 1285 when it crashed in Gander Newfoundland on December 12 1985.

Inspired by True Events In 1934, North America lay stripped of its riches by a great depression. When the land refused to yield its bounty and the sea grew stingy, everyone in the Western World found it harder to survive, especially those in the isolated outports of Newfoundland. The Last Farewell tells the true story of a crew of logger-sailors who left their home port of Hare Bay aboard a two-masted schooner in early June of that year. Along her route to St. John's, the crew of the Ethel Collett tell each other stories of life and death on the sea. They relive some of Newfoundland's richest historical moments, from shipwrecks and sealing disasters to political strife and financial ruin. But little do they know that they are heading toward one of the most astonishing tales of them all: their own.

In the nineteenth century, the Newfoundland government, under constant pressure from fish merchants, began installing lighthouses in some of the more treacherous places around the island. In the 1950s, Cabot Island boasted a large lighthouse, with a steady, brilliant light and a bellowing foghorn to warn seafarers away from its inviting shoreline. This sentinel of the sea was manned by brothers Alex and Bertram Gill, who hailed from Newtown, a nearby community in Bonavista Bay. In November of 1954, a terrible storm darkened the skies above Cabot Island and battered its solitary lighthouse with a single-minded fury. The keepers of the Cabot Island light were no strangers to sea weather, but when tragedy struck the brothers Gill, the younger of the two was left to fend for himself amid one of the worst storms in Newfoundland's history. This is a true story of the love between two brothers, a love that perseveres in the face of death, loss, and greatest personal challenge.