Outrageous Seas : Shipwreck and Survival in the Waters Off Newfoundland, 1583-1893

There was a time in history when the sea was as important as the land for defining a country's social and cultural identity. Outrageous Seas is about that time, and about the harrowing, almost mythic, experience of shipwreck, near-shipwreck, and survival in waters off Newfoundland. Travellers from many walks of life - explorers and missionaries, traders, fishers and mariners, Native Peoples, aristocrats and immigrants - have left rare and fascinating first-hand accounts of such disasters. Their narratives span four centuries and touch many historical sub-themes such as the appeal of religion in times of crisis, gender roles, and the ocean-as-workplace. Apart from its obvious scholarly appeal, this collection evokes psychic responses to calamity and brushes with death, perhaps the most universal experience of all. Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements 1. The Casting Away of the Delight (1583) 2. The Shipwreck of Father Charles Lalemant, Philibert Noyrot, and others, off Cape Breton (1629) 3. Shipwreck and Distress Suffer'd Near the Coast of Newfoundland: The Anne (1704) 4. Account of A Wonderful Escape From the Effects of a Storm in a Journey Over the Frozen Sea in North America (1782) 5. Vessels in the Service of the Moravian Mission on the Coast of Labrador, and Some Shipwrecks (1770-1877) 6. Loss of His Majesty's Packet, the Lady Hobart (1803) 7. Extreme Personal Sufferings: The Rebecca (1816) 8. The H.M.S. Drake (1822) 9.Two Wrecks on the Petit Nord: The Belle-Julie and the Nathlie (1826) 10. Shipwreck and Sufferings of the Crew and Passengers of the Brig Neptune (1830) 11. A Newfoundland Missionary's Journal: The Despatch and Others (1835) 12. The Loss of the Barque Marshal M'Donald, off Newfoundland (1835) 13. The Passage of the Pique Across the Atlantic (1835) 14. Awful Shipwreck: The Frank Spaight (1836) 15. Destruction of the Ocean Steamer Arctic, by Collision with the Vesta (1854) 16. That Terrible Day (1892): The Reason 17. My First Shipwreck: The Corisande (1893) Appendix Bibliography Index "There was a time in history when the sea was as important as the land for defining a nation's social and cultural identity. Outrageous Seas is about that time, and about the harrowing, almost mythic, experience of shipwreck, near-shipwreck, and survival in waters off Newfoundland."--Résumé de l'éditeur "There was a time in history when the sea was as important as the land for defining a nation's social and cultural identity. Outrageous Seas is about that time, and about the harrowing, almost mythic, experience of shipwreck, near-shipwreck, and survival in waters off Newfoundland."--Jacket