EPISODE 45 - BOATS AND BEARS ON ICE

In this final episode of  the "Down to Sally's Cove" podcast, Ella Manuel comments on some of the odd phrases and strange words she came across in her travels around Newfoundland.  Most, but not all, are now clearly explained in the magisterial Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

In this episode Ella Manuel recalls ice-boating on Burnt Bay off Lewisporte in the 1920s, and how her friend Nancy met a "bear" while crossing the Bay on  the winter ice.

Ella Manuel tells a story about a young sleeveen from Baker's Brook who was forever causing trouble in the  woods camp where he worked.

Many are the stories  told around Newfoundland and Labrador about goats and rams possessed of  special powers and inclined to mad antics.  Here is one that Aunt Jenny, who lived in Bloomfield many years ago, told Ella Manuel about a hymn-singing goat.

Uncle John tells the young Ella Manuel a spooky story from the Bay of Exploits.

In this first episode of the final season  (“Ghosts and Dirty Tricks") ,Ella Manuel recalls a memorable Guy Fawkes night when she was a young girl in Lewisporte in the 1920 s.  

Here Ella Manuel recalls a visit to Newfoundland  170 years ago of an American ship loaded with dignitaries come to see what  should  have been the laying of the first  telegraph cable to Nova Scotia. 

Here Ella recalls an old salt named Will Barnes. Though she never met him in life, his memoir of wild exploits at sea delighted her. 

During the long history of Arctic exploration, of expeditions that disappeared and of the many attempts to find them, one in particular stands out for its connection with Captain Isaac Bartlett of Brigus. Here is Ella Manuel's re-telling of the rescue of shipwreck survivors from  southward-drifting Greenland ice floes.

This story was first told by Neil Dewar himself, and has been repeated in several recent books. Dewar's experiences remind us of the terrible conditions that faced those who two centuries ago survived shipwreck on the empty coast of northern Newfoundland. It is a tale of horror, suffering and courage, of compassion and survival.