New Book Release by Frances Jewel Dickson!
Nova Scotia author launches 2nd book - SKIPPER
The Sea Yarns of Captain Matthew Mitchell
Buy SKIPPER today!
Publisher: Pottersfield Press
Distributor: NIMBUS
Autographed copies are available by contacting Frances Jewel Dickson
Testimonials for SKIPPER
-
"The author has gathered many of Matthew's stories into this exuberant book." - Atlantic Books Today
-
"Another chapter in the great fishing heritage of Atlantic Canada." - Ralph Getson, Curator, Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, Lunenburg
- "Each yarn kept me turning the pages to read more. It's a great book." - Neil Carleton, Ontario
Frances Jewel Dickson chronicles the memoirs of nonagenarian Captain Matthew Mitchell, from his boyhood days in his native Newfoundland, to five decades at sea "from dories to trawlers," to later regaling visitors to the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg with tales of the days of "wooden sailing ships and iron men." The book paints a colorful picture of life in and around the Town of Lunenburg, a lively thriving community in the middle of the 20th century, when fish was plentiful.
In this book Skipper Matthew Mitchell, still a lively 92 year old with a keen memory, spares no details of his exceptional relationship with the sea. A couple of years after his Newfoundland village was devastated by the earthquake and tsunamis of 1929, he began his life at sea, fishing in two-man dories at the whim of the North Atlantic. Nova Scotia-based schooners brought 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 WWII, facing the threat of submarines lurking off the East Coast.
When steel trawlers replaced sailing vessels, Matthew was
hired on as deck-hand. His industry and initiative drove him
through the ranks until he received his first command when the skipper of the Cape North retired. When the sea was ready
to let Captain Mitchell go at age 60, he was recruited as "shore skipper"
at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic
where he would remain for 30 years.
As shore captain he entertained visitors from all over the world with stories of bygone days of sailing fishing vessels, when he and thousands of other fishermen risked their lives repeatedly to earn a modest living. The international visitors delighted in the Skipper's remarkable memory for detailed recall and his colorful native Newfoundland expressions.